Safari: Open all “new window” links in tabs, and other tips to replace Saft

Predictably, my Leopard copy of Saft no longer works on Snow Leopard. A new version was released today but it does not support native 64-bit mode Safari under Snow Leopard. There’s currently no upgrade option for Leopard users to Snow Leopard versions of Saft, and I’m not keen on paying the full US$15 for a version that does not work with 64-bit Safari in Snow Leopard.

There are a few things I truly missed from Saft, including making those pesky links that force open in new windows to open in tabs instead. Note that this is different from the option under Safari’s Preferences > General to “Open links from applications: in a new tab in the current window”.

For example, my university’s (NTU) website has a habit of irritating the hell out of us by opening just about everything in a new window. Try it, search for something, boom, a new window appears. Click on the link to the library’s page, and boom, a new window opens.

Fortunately, this can be dealt with without paying for or installing any additional software. You just need to quit Safari totally (Cmd+Q), open up Terminal from Appplications/Utilities, and key in the following:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Launch Safari again, and no new windows shall ever bother you again. Meanwhile, I’m still missing the following features that I’ve grown to depend on from Saft:

1. autosave-last-viewed-websites-on-quit-and-restore-on-startup. To be fair, you can get around this by going to History menu > Reopen All Windows from Last Session, though you would have to do this every time you launch Safari,
2. undo when you accidentally closed a tab or page (no workaround now),
3. drag scroll a page by holding down the Control key and flicking the mouse (something I got too used to and it’s bugging me that I can’t do it now).
4. type ahead search