brent.bourgoine.net

So, about the Safari 4 beta…

They’ve added an Opera/Chrome-alike “top sites” page, which replaces the default “home” page. I like the concept, but there’s things I’d like to be able to do – ought to be able to do.

Right now the only way to add a site to the page is to go into Edit mode (click the “Edit” button on the lower left), and keep clicking the “X” on an entry, allowing a new one to show up. Then you have to keep clicking an “X” until the one you want shows up.

I should be able to drag links onto this page – either from their tabs or from hyperlinks on another page – and have them placed.

Update: Opening Bookmarks in a separate window, then dragging from that window *does* work, however, so there’s at least that much.

In Edit mode, you can drag pages around the grid. This is good, but I should also, outside of Edit mode, be able to drag a page off the grid and have it come into a new window.

It would be nice to be able to hold Option and get the “X”/”Pin” control buttons outside of Edit mode, in a similar manner to Dashboard widgets.

As for the new “Top tabs”, I’m not sure I like it. It’s yet another diversion from UI standards. The only way to drag a tab around is by something that looks like a resize handle in the upper right – which doesn’t actually resize anything, it just gives you the same drag options you used to get anywhere on the tab itself. I understand they did this because otherwise how’d you drag the whole window about? Still, it’s annoying.

The un-removable “New Tab” button, which now occupies the upper-right hand corner of the window is another annoyance. This is the location that *should* contain the “Hide Toolbar” button. Cmd-T for new tab is ingrained in me, and very natural. I don’t need an omnipresent button for this function. Cmd-| (which hides/unhides the toolbar) is *not* automatic or ingrained. Admittedly it’s not something I use often, but the button to do it is on nearly every other window in OSX. Safari should be no different.