Is it possible to move the "Reload this page" button in Safari for macOS?

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Level 1

12 points

Is it possible to move the "Reload this page" button in Safari for macOS?

I like to group all of my oft-used functions (i.e. buttons) into one place in the Safari toolbar. When I right-click and go to Customize Toolbar, I see all of the buttons I can add/remove and move around, such as: Home, Back (previous)<--, ...Next -->, and New Tab (+), etc.

I can also see where Safari has the "Reload this page" button, seemingly hard coded to appear on the far-right of the URL/Search bar. Is it really not possible for me to move this bottom out of its far-right "home" and put it wherever I want? If this is the case, then I honestly do not understand the design concept of Apple at all anymore. I can add/remove/relocate a button that shows/hides the bookmarks toolbar... and I can add/remove/relocate a "Privacy Report, Web inspector" and several other almost-never-used buttons... but the "Reload this page" button is frozen in place?

I am aware that I can go to Safari > Settings > Tabs... and select "Compact." And that for SOME absolutely unknown reason to me... this allows me to move the Reload button. BUT... then I have to live with the tabs being in this weird "Chrome'esque" tabs situation, where the URL bar moves around when I am physically on THAT tab. This browsing paradigm does my head in. I want the URL bar to stay put!!!, and I want the tab that I am currently using to be "highlighted" by having it visually look "active" somehow... and all the other tabs I have open to appear "inactive" in some visual way... i.e. darker... muted... grayed out... I don't care.

But... making the "Active Tab" appear "active" by making it appear as the defect URL bar...??? This is... CLEARLY some UX/UI designers attempt and being "different from the other guys" just for the sake of being different.

Posted on Apr 16, 2023 8:41 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

141,610 points

Apr 16, 2023 4:23 PM in response to Dolmetscher

My machine has 32 GB of RAM, and still FCP was running like garbage on this machine. I finally figured out how a huge source of the problem was that I was using Google Chrome. Even when I did not have Chrome open... it had installed a lot of extra "stuff" on my machine, in the form of something called "Keystone".

That is a very common affliction. Suddenly, out of the blue, without having taken any action that might explain it, a perfectly good Mac starts running poorly and draining its battery at an alarming rate. When one of the affected Macs was brought to my attention Activity Monitor readily identified the problem: that Mac was infested with Google.

Whereas Chrome is a well-known resource hog, it doesn't matter whether you are actively running it or not. Google is constantly scrubbing infected Macs for your personal information which it sells to anyone willing to pay for it. Advertisers comprise nearly all Google's revenue, but they don't care who buys it. The point is that you are being exploited — sold to anyone — in return for using Google's "free" services. It's what made Google the behemoth it has become.

Safari's customization is somewhat limited, probably due to Apple's desire to maintain a common user experience among Apple devices, so I understand your frustration in that regard. The good news is that there are alternatives to Safari that do not require infesting your Mac with Google.

For example, the Brave browser uses the same Chromium underlying code without having to install all of Google's invasive, constantly running, resource-demanding processes.

Consider it: https://brave.com/

Unlike Chrome, it's just a browser. You can use it and Safari concurrently if you wish.

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Answer 2

Dolmetscher Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 16, 2023 3:59 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks @John Galt. I have one more question that you might be able to help me with.

Are there any "Extensions" out there, that you know of that might allow me to completely chance the GUI of Safari?

The reason I ask is the following.

I recently started using Final Cut Pro for my job. I'd never used it before, but now I use it ever day. FCP (and all video editing apps) is a very resource hungry app. My machine has 32 GB of RAM, and still FCP was running like garbage on this machine. I finally figured out how a huge source of the problem was that I was using Google Chrome. Even when I did not have Chrome open... it had installed a lot of extra "stuff" on my machine, in the form of something called "Keystone". Don't ask me to explain, because I dunno.

Anyway... It was suggested to me that I use Safari as a web browser. I had no problem with this, as I did not have any kind of emotional connection to Chrome. However... now that I have been using Safari for 4-5 weeks... I can honestly say... from a GUI perspective... I have NO... IDEA... what the design team at Apple could have possibly been thinking when they made the UI for Safari.

I am not one of these "spoiled brat" users who complains because he hates the shade of blue a certain button has, and he cannot change it. I find Safari's "ultra-minimalist" UI almost unusable.

The Bookmarks bar has No icons. Cool. Fine. It's 2023, and I realize that there seems to be some kind of existential battle in society about using ONLY icons (i.e. ellipsis or three-line hamburger menu icons)... or ABSOLUTELY NO icons for things.. for example how Safari has almost NO visual distinction between a Bookmark folder that might contain 300 bookmarks... and a simple single-URL bookmark. The "Folder" has a little 4 px down arrow. That's it.

And the Tabs system is... beyond terrible. If you have enough tabs open, this very strange "tab-stacking" situation stars to happen. And I cannot even tell which tab I am even looking at half the time. Because when I click a tab... the "tab" itself converts into the URL field. Who... Who... Who... would want THIS?

Anyway... I'm fine with all the functionality of Safari... but I just... really want to re-skin it to work in a more clear and streamlined fashion. Is there such a thing as an extension for a browser that "reskins" the UI of said browser?

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

141,610 points

Apr 16, 2023 2:35 PM in response to John Galt

John Galt wrote:

Is it possible to move the "Reload this page" button in Safari for macOS?

The answer to that question is no.

... but there are Safari Extensions that can reload web pages, with buttons that can possibly be added to the Toolbar. I do not have anything in particular to recommend.

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Answer 4