My Safari Set Up

I am a big fan of single key shortcuts (originally introduced by Opera when it was at its peak before they had a brain freeze and messed it up with ads inside the browser) and in this post, I am going to share how I set them and more using Vimari, Keyboard Maestro, BetterTouchTool (available on Setapp) and other extensions in Safari on my Mac.

Shortcut	What it does
t	new tab
c	close tab
z	go back
x	go forward
a	prev tab
s	next tab
r	reload
⌘i	start element selection (begin inspecting)
F12	toggle web inspector (Dev tools)
⌘⇧R	hard refresh
F4	show tab overview
F2	toggle sidebar
⌘⌥←	prev tab
⌘⌥→	next tab
3-finger tap (trackpad)	copy url
3-finger click (trackpad)	add to reading list

Also have these set up for trackpad but don’t use them often:

Shortcut	What it does
1 Finger Tap Bottom Left	prev tab
1 Finger Tap Bottom Right	next tab
1 Finger Tap Top Left	close tab
1 Finger Tap Top Right	new tab
1 Finger Tap Top Middle	focus address bar
3 Finger Swipe Left	prev tab
3 Finger Swipe Right	next tab

Vimari

Vimari is the only actively maintained port of Vimium for Safari.

This is what makes the single key shortcuts possible.

Here’s my config file:

{
  "excludedUrls": "ct_builder=true",
  "linkHintCharacters": "asdfjklqwerzxc",
  "detectByCursorStyle": false,
  "scrollSize": 150,
  "openTabUrl": "topsites://",
  "modifier": "",
  "smoothScroll": true,
  "scrollDuration": 25,
  "transparentBindings": true,
  "bindings": {
      "hintToggle": "f",
      "newTabHintToggle": "shift+f",
      "scrollUp": "k",
      "scrollDown": "j",
      "scrollLeft": "h",
      "scrollRight": "l",
      "scrollUpHalfPage": "u",
      "scrollDownHalfPage": "d",
      "goToPageTop": "g g",
      "goToPageBottom": "shift+g",
      "goToFirstInput": "g i",
      "goBack": "z",
      "goForward": "x",
      "reload": "r",
      "tabForward": "s",
      "tabBack": "a",
      "closeTab": "c",
      "openTab": "t"	
  }
}

The primary goal of Vimimum (and Vimari) though is typing a key and following links on the page by typing the hints.

To click a link on a page, I press f (f to follow links) and Vimari shows link hints like this:

If I want to read the Facebook article in the above screenshot, I simply type DS or FS as shown on that link.

Keyboard Maestro

Here’s an export file of all the above macros. Mirror.

BetterTouchTool

Here’s an export file of Trackpad gestures for Safari. Mirror.

Extensions

• 1Password: the best password manager there is.
• Bitwarden: I use this for storing not-so important/temporary passwords.
• Clean Links: removes tracking junk from URLs.
• Grammarly: keeps my English in check.
• Notion Web Clipper: say hello to my personal information manager.
• Octotree: makes it easier to navigate Github repos.
• Select Like A Boss: lets me select text inside links.
• SponsorBlock for YouTube: skips sponsor-related portions in YT videos.
• Wipr: blocks ads, trackers, cryptocurrency miners, EU cookie and GDPR notices, and other annoyances. I also have AdGuard running system-wide. I do not remember what ads looks like anymore.

Alfred

I have Alfred set to index Safari’s bookmarks so I can quickly ⌘+Space, type where I want to go and return.