Links opening new windows in Safari 3.1.2 open UNDER existing windows. Why?

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Level 2

244 points

Links opening new windows in Safari 3.1.2 open UNDER existing windows. Why?

I have an iMac G4 running Safari 3.1.2 on OSX 10.4.11. It consistently has a very annoying behavior that I can't seem to change or turn off:

On every other Mac and every other version of Safari that I've ever used, if one is on a Web page, and there is a link on that page that would take the user to a new page, if one holds down the "Command" key while clicking the link, it opens the new Web page in a new window. This is standard behavior that everyone is familiar with. And when that happens, the new window containing the Web page is (obviously) ON TOP of all existing Web pages, since that's the page the user is going to want to see.

HOWEVER, with my newly installed version of Safari 3.1.2, *when I hold down the Command key and click any link on any Web page, the new window that opens is UNDER the existing windows* -- which is very frustrating and which makes no sense, since one then has to scroll back through all the open windows to get to the page one wants to see.

Why does this happen? And is there any way to change this behavior? I've searched through all the Safari "preferences" and through whatever settings I could change, but nothing seems to affect this particular glitch. I'm hoping there's some obvious setting I can change to fix this which I've so far overlooked.

Or, is this a standard built-in "feature" of Safari 3.1.2? The other Macs I'm using all have Safari 3.1.1, and they all behave properly (i.e. new windows open ON TOP of existing windows).

(And no, I don't like using "tabs" -- I prefer windows.)

Any clues or suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks.

15 PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Jul 15, 2008 11:11 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

iBod

Level 7

29,345 points

Jul 15, 2008 1:12 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

Hi,

Safari preferences > Tabs > "Select windows and tabs as they are created" - enable that.

Not the most intuitive place to have the setting I agree, but that should be the one that fixes it for you.

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Answer 2

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Jul 15, 2008 1:12 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

(And no, I don't like using "tabs" -- I prefer windows.)

You may not like tabs, but that's because you haven't given them a chance. The whole purpose is to prevent cluttering your screen with multiple windows that you then have to minimize or move to get to the one you want -- precisely what you are complaining about now.

Did you check your Preferences? Go to the Tabs section and check the box that says "Select tabs and windows as they are created". That should solve your problem. You should also enable tabs, as that would prevent this from happening in the future.

Mulder

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Answer 3

Tuffy Nicolas Author

Level 2

244 points

Jul 15, 2008 3:53 PM in response to iBod

iBod:

Thanks! That did indeed solve the problem. I knew the solution was simple, I just couldn't find the right "Preference" to adjust. It is certainly non-intuitive to have it under the "Tabs" preference panel -- I must have looked right at it and dismissed it as not relevant to my problem. I have now marked this question as "Solved."

Mulder:

I have given tabs a try -- many times. It just isn't my style. Now with this preference properly adjusted, I vastly prefer using windows-style browsing. Also, I can scroll through all the open windows in a breeze using "Command-tilde (~)", which is like riffling the pages of a magazine. Very convenient. Another problem with tabs is that all open pages have a tab visible in the top window, which means that anyone seeing the screen can see the names of all currently open Web pages. In my work environment, that is not acceptable -- I only want the top window to be visible at any given time, as it would be a security issue if random passersby walking behind my work area could see exactly which windows I have open at a particular time. In any case, I marked your answer as "Helpful" as well, since the question was already "Solved" by iBod's answer, which was posted first here chronologically.

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