How to close the tab sidebar

Question

Level 1

28 points

How to close the tab sidebar

Hi. I just upgrded to Safari 6.1. It has three sidebars (tab sidebar, bookmarks sidebar and a reading list sidebar). I can see how to close the bookmarks and reading list sidebars but not the tab sidebar. The tab sidebar is the only one that displays properly but I don't need it and I'd like to remove it because it crowds my space for reading. The other sidebars are available through the View menu but when I click show sidebar the pane doesn't open far enough to see both of them. I can see the readling list icon and half of the bookmarks icon. There is a sizing divet but it doesn't let you pull the sidebar out far enough to see the bookmarks. The tab sidebar cannot collapse any further. I searched for an extension or plug-in but couldn't find anything. Thank you! Oh, I am running Mountain Lion on an older MacBook Pro (June 2011 2.3 GHZ Intel Core i5 500GB hard drive 8 GB ram). I just upgraded to Mountain Lion and this version of Safari so I might have missed something obvious. Don't hold it against me. 🙂 Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 20, 2014 11:23 AM

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Answer 1

dominic23

Level 10

83,916 points

Mar 20, 2014 1:36 PM in response to Sandra Davis

Safari 6

Safari sidebar does show Bookmarks,Reading List and Shared Links.

Shared Links wil show if you have signed into Twitter and or other Internet Accounts.

Bookmarks

Click "Bookmarks" in the Safari menu bar and then click "Edit Bookmarks"

to view and edit bookmarks.

Best.

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Answer 2

Sandra Davis Author

Level 1

28 points

Mar 20, 2014 3:14 PM in response to dominic23

Thanks for helping out. My question is how to remove the sidebar or hide it all the way. This is how it looks when the Reading and Bookmark panels are closed. You see the sidebar is still there showing what tabs are open in the browser. You see the page title and a close button but this is not something I need.

Below is how it looks when the Reading and Bookmark panels are opened. It is so crowded that I can't even see the bookmarks in this mode.The tab slides out a bit but not large enough for both Reading and Bookmarks to be visible. Not really a problem because I don't use Reading panel and I can edit the Bookmarks via the Bookmarks menu item on the application menu bar. I am just trying to show you that the sidebar I want to hide is not the Reading panel or the Bookmark panel but the one to the far left. It is still there when I collapse the Bookmarks and the Reader panels. I am on a smaller (13 inch) laptop and that makes it hard to use Safari for work. Thank you.

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Answer 3

dominic23

Level 10

83,916 points

Mar 20, 2014 3:51 PM in response to Sandra Davis

Clicking the book icon does not close the sidebar?

Try turning off Extensions, if any.

Safari > Preferences > Extensions

Try Safari again.

You can try deleting the Safari .plist file.

You will lose your Safari preference settings.

You will not lose the bookmarks.

Delete safari .plist file.

Quit all applications. Click on an empty spot on the desktop to activate Finder.

Hold the “Option” key down and click the "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.

Select “Library” from the drop down.

Library > Preferences > com.apple.Safari.plist

Right click it and select "Move to Trash". Close Finder window.

Restart.

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Answer 4

Sandra Davis Author

Level 1

28 points

Mar 20, 2014 4:01 PM in response to Sandra Davis

Hi dominic23,

Thank you for helping me. Disabling extensions didn't work but trashing the preference file did. Whew! I am so relieved. Thanks a bunch. Best regards.🙂

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Answer 5

Apr 29, 2016 9:36 AM in response to Sandra Davis

Just found this, after months of searching. Try simply removing the sidebar icon from your toolbar. Found here: Re: How to disable Safari 9 sidebar

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