[Macworld]

Post your comments for More hidden preferences for Safari 4 Beta here

[bendodson]

What's the point in doing any of the hacks listed above? Just use Safari 3 if you want it to look like Safari 3.... Alternatively, if you want the latest webkit engine (e.g. Safari 4) but want it to look like Safari 3, just download a webkit nightly from http://webkit.org/

[Morrick]

The point is -- customisation. Perhaps I like Top Sites but want to turn off Coverflow. Or I like the suggestions drop-down menu but want the old blue progress bar back. It doesn't have to be an 'all-or-nothing' process.
I personally welcome these Terminal tips. I have very mixed feelings about the Safari 4 Beta UI, not to mention that CoverFlow is barely usable on a G4 with 1.25 GB RAM and 32 MB VRAM... Now I can pick what I want disabled.
Cheers
Rick

[Philbert]

The point of the hacks is getting exactly what you want. In addition to the new engine, some people may like SOME of the new features, but not all. For instance, I like the top sites and coverflow bookmarks features, but I want tabs on the bottom and the old-style progress bar.
With the hacks, I can have my cake and eat it too. Not so with only using the latest webkit engine.
Thanks, Rob.

[igamogam]

Fantastic! Thanks!
On balance I like Safari 4 but can't don't understand why Apple changed the URL bar/reload button. A progress bar in the URL field is sheer genius. Having a silly little spinning thingy tells you nothing about how the URL is loading and you have to hunt for it and the piddling little reload button too!
The beauty of the Safary 3 style progress bar is that it takes up no wasted space and you can see it easily with periphiral vision.
I hope Apple leaves the option to use the "in-URL" progress bar.
Thanks again for the tips!

[fitz]

Try Tweaks (http://pointum.com/safari-tweaks.html). It adds a Tweaks item in your Safari menu and offers a quick and terminal-free way to change a lot of these settings.

[TVogt]

I think what Apple has done so far is to have put lipstick on what was already a brilliant little pig underneath.

[zarmanto]

bendodson said:

...if you want the latest webkit engine (e.g. Safari 4) but want it to look like Safari 3, just download a webkit nightly...

Actually, the current nightly builds of webkit are based upon the 4.x GUI as well... so you'd have to download an older build of webkit to get just the engine. (Based on the numbering, I suspect the last 3.x build was r39953 dated January 16th, but I'm not entirely certain.)

Until the 4.0 beta, I was using a slightly older 3.x webkit build as my default browser, but (odd as this might sound to anyone reading this article) I actually like most of the changes that Apple made in 4.x. I'l admit that some of them are going to take some getting used to, but by and large, I'm pretty happy with it. And I think it's very useful to be able to cherry pick the features that you like or don't like; I might have to play with these hints sometime later -- after I've given the new interface a decent chance, at least.

[Gee4orce]

I wonder why Safari doesn't have a Top Sites / Coverflow / Exposé type effect for revealing all the current tabs - it seems like a natural thing to do....

[Gee4orce]

Wow - that's either crazy talk or pure ignorance. Webkit is - right now - the best, fastest, most compliant and most beautiful rendering engine in existence. Some pig.

[zarmanto]

TVogt said:

...what was already a brilliant little pig underneath.

"at'll do pig... at'll do."

(Sorry -- I just couldn't resist. :) )

[griffman]

Note that Tweaks is distributing Apple-copyright code (a modified nib file), which is a no-no. Instead, they should be providing instructions on modifying the nib file yourself. Also (I haven't tested this), but I would think a modified version of Safari would cause problems with the signed code in 10.5 -- changing a nib file is going to look to the system as though Safari has been hacked, which could lead to issues with secure sites. I'll try to test this out later today and report back.

It's much safer -- and not much harder -- to use the Terminal hacks, or the Secrets prefs pane I linked to. Both those solutions do not modify Safari itself in any way, just its preferences.

-rob.

[pcharles]

I moved the tab bar, but might move it back, so the option is nice. I like everything else about Safari 4, particularly the speed.

[flybynight]

The tab bar just take a little getting used to, but I don't understand all the fuss. Just try it folks.
The first thing I changed was getting the blue progress bar back. Such a great feature, I'm not sure why they would drop it. Otherwise, it looks like it isn't doing anything.