Troubleshooting Safari 1.0: Banking Web sites; AppleScripts; Enterprise Applications; more

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 8:44 p.m. PT

3 min read

Erasing home directory We have scattered, but corroborated, reports that option-clicking a link to download a file in Safari has overwritten users' home directories in at least two confirmed cases. While we track down the cause of this issue, it should be emphasized that the issue appears to be extremely rare, with most users able to successfully download files to the location designated in Preferences.

An Apple discussion thread has some more detail.

Banking Web sites Several banking Web sites - including those from PNC Bank, Citibank and others - are as of yet incompatible with Safari. Some return the message "your browser does not support 128-bit encryption," while others simply do not accept correct login information. Brian Povlsen writes:

"I just tried to log into my Citibank account using the Safari web browser. It made a secure connection, and showed my account information. However it would not let me see the details of my accounts when I clicked on the account detail html link. It gave me a blank window and an error message saying that the Citibank Servers were having a problem, and to call their support number. [...] (The support representative) said that the official word is that Citibank only supports the Netscape and IE and that any other browser is unsupported."

AppleScripts Apple has established a page with pre-written AppleScripts for Safari. Two of the most useful:

Full Screen: This script hides the Dock and expands the front browser window to fill the screen.
Side-By-Side: This script repositions the front two browser windows to be side-by-side.

Enterprise applications Like Chimera and Mozilla, Safari is not capable of properly displaying content for some enterprise-based products - including the WebTrends traffic analysis application and others. Most of the Web applications in this class require Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 or higher or a version of Netscape greater than 4.04 but less than 6.0.

Keyboard shortcuts in "Bookmarks View" In the "Bookmarks View" of Safari (accessible via the small book icon in the upper-left corner of each browser Window), there are several keyboard commands available, including:

Delete key: Delete selected bookmarks
Return key: Start or stop editing name of selected bookmark
Tab key: When editing, move to next editable cell
Cmd-Double-click: Open selected bookmark in a new window
Option-click New Folder button: Put selected items in new folder

Localization/Language Two new shareware offerings deliver enhanced Hebrew support, and Italian localization to Safari:

Visual Hebrew:From the utility's ReadMe file: "Safari, Apple's new Web browser, has great Hebrew support when it comes to site using so-called 'logical' Hebrew (which is the standard), but sites using 'visual' Hebrew are displayed backwards. Safari also crashes a lot when trying to submit a form from a Hebrew page."
Italian Localizer: Offers drag and drop application of Italian localization to Safari.

Enhancement A new utility dubbed Safari Enhancer unlocks some hidden functionality in the application including:

The debug menu. This menu appears in the Safari menubar and has a number of useful options, such as changing what browser Safari identifies itself as, changing how Safari handles security certificates, and opening the currently loaded web page in any other browser you have on your Mac.
Minimum font sizes. Safari Enhancer will allow you to specify a minimum size for page fonts to be displayed at. Very useful for those of use with bad eyesight.
Internet Explorer bookmark importing. The first time you run Safari, it automatically imports all your Internet Explorer favorites. With Safari Enhancer, you can do this again after the first launch (convenient for the Chimera-to-IE-to-Safari trick for importing Chimera bookmarks).

Knowledge Base Apple has posted several new articles to its Knowledge Base detailing some of Safari's functionality.

[#51981] Safari Beta: How to Set How Pages Are Displayed This article explains how to set how pages are displayed.
[#51982] Safari Beta: How to Select a Text Encoding This article explains how to select a text encoding.
[#51983] Safari Beta: How to Organize the Bookmarks Menu This article explains how to organize the bookmarks menu.
[#51984] Safari Beta: How to Use Your Own Style Sheet This article explains how to use your own style sheet.
[#51985] Safari Beta: How to Control the Content Loaded By a Web Page This article explains how to control the content loaded by a web page.