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Safari’s Tab Behavior

Prior to my reinstallation, I seem to recall that closing a tab in a series of Safari tabs would result in the tab to the right of the closed tab being selected. Now, after reinstalling everything, the tab to the left is selected.

Is it just my imagination? Did I change some setting eons ago that has since been wiped out? What's up?

Update: It's a Saft pref. All fixed.

9 Responses to "Safari’s Tab Behavior"

  1. I'm using Safari right now, and mine seems to select the tab to the right if you close the current tab in a series of tabs. (Of course, when you close the current tab, the others shift over, so the selected tab still appears in the same place as before.) Here's a movie to make sure my explanation isn't misunderstood: http://homepage.mac.com/simx/.Movies/Safari-tabs-behavior.mov

    So, no, I don't think its your imagination, but I'm curious as to how you got Safari to work the other way around. (I recently bought a new comp, and it uses the above behavior.)

    -- Simone

  2. Yeah, that's what I would call selecting the tab to the right. I can get that behavior as well, but try this:Open apple.com.Command-click several of the links in the menu at the top of the website (like "QuickTime" and "Hot News" and "Education") so that they open in background tabs.Click on one of the middle tabs you just created to view the page, then close that tab.When I do those steps, I am dumped back at the first tab - apple.com - regardless of how many tabs lie to the left or right of the tab I close.

    It's like Safari is trying to be helpful, but is instead being very, very, very confusing. I'll create a video if necessary and if others can't see this behavior.

  3. I can't replicate that behavior Erik -- a video would be good. 🙂 I still get the behavior as with the movie I created; after selecting one of those new background tabs and then closing it, Safari still selects the tab to the right.

    -- Simone

  4. Here's the movie: http://iacas.org/asm/tabs.mov. You'll note I use cmd-W to close the tabs. The same thing occurs when I click the "X" to close the tabs.

  5. In Saft 8.1.5, a feature to focus the previously-selected tab when you close the current one as added. Check your preferences.

    -R.

  6. Yeah, Saft was the cause. In restoring most of my prefs, just about everything worked… but that got it. Thanks. Case closed.

    I wonder if anyone uses that feature in Saft. It annoyed the crap out of me.

  7. Yeah, it was pretty annoying for me to, even when I tried to like it, I just couldn't, so I just turned it off.

  8. I've been annoyed by the same issues and while I figured it was Saft, Stand or some setting I could change somewhere I never could find it. Now that you pointed out that Saft was the culprit I looked again and there, right in front of me, was the option to uncheck. Woo! Thanks.

  9. It was me that suggested this feature to Hao Li. Mainly because I fell in love with an extension called FLST (Focus Last Selected Tab) for Firefox.

    You don't like it? I can't live without it as I often find myself sitting with loads of tabs and if I 'open link in new tab' from one of the tabs I have open and active, it makes sense to get back to the last selected tab once you close the one you're currently have active.