Mastering Safari’s status bar
Written by: hexley on Wednesday February 13th 2008, 1:07 am
Filed under: Applications, OS X 10.5, Safari
If there is one feature to Safari that should be enabled by default, but is not, is the “Status Bar”. This seemingly uninteresting feature can tell you, at a quick glance, exactly what Safari is doing, or about to do.
Perhaps the reason it is not enabled is that Apple feels it would be too confusing to new users. I on the other hand, think it is a near mandatory option to enable.
Enabling the status bar
If you navigate to the “View” menu in Safari, you can select “Show Status Bar”.
With this now enabled, if you look to the very bottom of your browser, you will see there is a short bar. The right corner of the bar will give you your usual ability to change the size of the Safari window. I also find it is a great way to show some contrast between your desktop and a web page. If you have a black desktop, and load an all black web page, the two tend to blend together.
The above is merely trivial in regards to real utility. The real value comes in what this new status bar can tell you about web pages.
As you load a new page, you will see text displayed in the left of this status bar. It will start by saying “contacting…” and then “loading…”. During the loading process, it will tell you how many items it is loading. For example, “loading 12 of 23 items”.
Just the loading status it gives you is valuable. It gives you a sense of what is going on, rather than trying to guess. At times, you will try to load a slow website. Safari will appear to be doing nothing. The status bar can tell you at a glance, that it is indeed trying to load. At times like this, lending a little patience to the website may not be such a bad idea. Were it not for the status bar, you would have no simple way of knowing Safari was at least trying.
Status bar feedback on mouse hover
The second area in which the status bar is valuable is in mouse feedback. For every link you hover over, the status bar will tell you a little about it. Take the two examples below:
In the first, I was simply hovering my mouse over a link. The status bar told me what link it was about to open.
In the second, I was hovering over a different link. The status bar in this case, told me the link would be opened, but in a new window.
I use this all the time, as a way to tell if a link is trying to take me off to relevant content, or perhaps a new site that is not related.
Sometimes I will be in the middle of reading something, and notice there is a link in the middle of what I am reading. I may be inclined to click on it, only to learn it took me to nothing more than a stock quote, or a dictionary definition.
The status bar saves me from wasting that time, and having to click the back button in Safari. If I am on osxhelp.com, and I hover my mouse over a link, and the status bar says it will take me to sillysite.example.com, I know to not even bother clicking that link.
As a pure safety measure, I suggest you enable this feature. With so many nefarious sites out there, it is a quick and simple way to know in advance, if you should even bother clicking on a link.
Great series – I just purchased my first Mac, a MacBook Air, after 25 years of PCs (from DOS 1.0 to Vista) so this is all new to me. Thanks!
Comment by Dan Mosqueda 02.13.08 @ 9:06 amEverything you say about the status bar is correct. I’ve used that status bar on various browsers for many years. It’s invaluable in keeping track of what the browser is doing and where a link will take you. Thanks for the series.
Comment by Dan 02.13.08 @ 2:53 pmFirefox behaves so similarly to Safari, or even identically, that I’m learning much that’s new & useful after using Firefox for yrs on my old PC. Thanks Scott!
Comment by Margaret S 06.16.09 @ 11:35 amI would tend to think that the status bar isn’t on by default because it breaks the overall frameless design the window. Apple developers tend to be very anti-borders on their window designs.
Just my two cents of course. 
Definitely a good read though – I accidently turned my on – which was good, but didn’t need it anymore and had no idea how to get rid of it. Now I do. Thanks.
Comment by Josh Bruce 09.23.09 @ 3:10 pm
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