Tip of the Week: Searching in Safari

If you haven’t assumed it already, I’m a bit of a nutcase when it comes to searching for stuff on my Mac. I use Spotlight every few minutes, Google like a pro, and also have little patience for locating relevant sections of websites I visit while doing research.

Some websites are designed in a way that makes skimming text difficult, and some pages are just so long that I don’t want to skim the whole thing. To find a word or chunk of text in a web page, simply press command-F and type what you’re looking for. All instances of that text will be highlighted, making for easy at-a-glance skimming. To move to the next instance of searched-for text, press command-G (Find Again), and to move to the previous instance, press command-shift-G.

This tip works in Firefox, too. I haven’t tested it in Google Chrome, Opera, or other web browsers, but it’s a good bet these browsers offer similar or identical features.

The shift key functions in this same fashion when combined with other keyboard shortcuts. For example, you can simulate the function of a Page Down key by pressing the space bar in Safari, Preview, Adobe Reader, and many other applications. Pressing shift-space is like pressing Page Up. Command-` will rotate through open windows in an application, and shift-command-` will rotate through them backwards. Same with the Application Switcher.

I love keyboard shortcuts!