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Two things I miss from Firefox and Chrome when using Safari on Mac are the Command + Option + Arrows, that are replaced by Control + Tab or Command + Shift + Arrows, and specially the Command + #number, which will invoke bookmarks instead of tabs.

So I want to gather up ideas here on how to fix this. I've already found some on google, but I wish they were simpler - there could be a way to automate the setup.

edit: And that it wouldn't need a background app runnning.

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Plus, there's one big consideration: the biggest reason why I even consider using Safari is for saving battery. So it's important that there's no significant increase in processor usage or memory for any kind of patch - the more native the fix is, the better. – Cawas Feb 17 '10 at 2:14
Why would moving to Safari save battery life? You might try the Chrome Beta for Mac. It's definitely better than Firefox for Mac in terms of performance/possible battery drain. – donut Feb 17 '10 at 5:03
Well, I'm saying just after trying it. Safari seems to use less processor, and definitely less battery on regular use. It's just a matter to keep an eye on the percentage over time. I am using Chrome most times when AC plugged, and Firefox for internet banking mostly. – Cawas Feb 17 '10 at 18:28
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3 Answers

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You should be able to override tab switching shortcut keys with the Keyboard Shortcuts override in the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane.

So... Top-left Apple Icon > System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > + button. Follow the directions there.

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Ok, that actually works wonders for Next and Previous Tabs - and I really overlooked it. But what about numbering? – Cawas Feb 17 '10 at 2:19
Except I wish to replace Cmd + Shift + Arrows rather than replacint Ctrl + Tab. And numbering was the most important one, since there's no similar functionality built-in. So this didn't help much in the end. :P – Cawas Feb 17 '10 at 2:31
I actually am using a mix of this, SIMBL and FastScripts (as mentioned in my answer). But since this was the main solution, I'll just take it. ;) – Cawas Dec 20 '10 at 14:38
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up vote 2 down vote

Just as reference, and as a half-answer, following I'll summarize the options I've found. They came from two similar approaches, one from justinblanton.com and another from pugio.net.

Summing up, they both use FastScripts and this applescript:

try
    tell front window of application "Safari" to set current tab to tab 1
on error
    tell front window of application "Safari" to set current tab to last tab
end try

You'd have to save 9 files of this in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Safari, and give them all shortcuts in FastScript.

In my case, the 9th one in my case have just the "last tab" 1 line and no "try", and I got the SafariTabs.zip file from pugio and put it on root scripts, in /Library/Scripts/Applications, rather than generating them and putting under Users.

To re-enforce: I don't like this answer because it uses third-party backgrounded application. I wish a way to tweak my system, could be using the same application, but not needing more stuff running on my machine in the background.

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As an aside: the downvote was not mine, but I assume the downvoter did not like just the links. See meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/8231/… (+1 to undo the non-commented downvote, as you're quite busy on your first days here.) – Arjan Feb 17 '10 at 22:28
Thanks again, Arjan. I've got a lot of downvotes (6 within an hour, maybe less) out of nowhere, but that's fine. I just wish to know why. I haven't even read your link yet but I already agree I shouldn't have put just the links. At very least, a brief summary and actually writing the guides to the answer while linking to the source. I was hoping this wouldn't be an issue here given the context - it's not really the answer and I read somewhere it's encouraged to give the answer to own question rather than writing the answer ON the question. Anyways, still learning about this. ;) – Cawas Feb 17 '10 at 23:25
If you put these scripts in the "Safari Scripts" folder, can you then assign keystrokes to them, and avoid FastScripts? – Josh Mar 9 '10 at 13:41
@Josh I thought of something like that (trying to assign keystrokes to the scripts within OSX) but I haven't even tried it. I figured the scripts would need to appear in Safari menus somehow... But I didn't know about Safari Scripts folder. I'll check it out now, thanks! ;) – Cawas Mar 9 '10 at 14:41
@Cawas: I just tried it and sadly, it doesn't work. (For reference you can enable the AppleScript menu via /Applications/AppleScript/AppleScript Utility) – Josh Mar 9 '10 at 15:38
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up vote 0 down vote

For tab switching, you can use SafariStand, which has a nice feature for it : use , or .

For direct access to tabs, you can use Saft, which allows you to directly access tabs with Ctrl-#number.

Both plugins have useful features

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That seems like a lot of things to install for such small improvements. I'm already not happy with having to install FastScripts for actually using Command + #number. But this may work for some people. – Cawas Feb 17 '10 at 2:16
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