Safari icon

Tabs preferences

Use the Tabs pane of Safari preferences to set options for opening webpages in tabs.

Option
Description

Open pages in tabs instead of windows

Some links on webpages open in new Safari windows instead of replacing the current webpage. Choose Never to have such links open in new Safari windows instead of tabs. Choose Always to open new tabs instead of windows.

Choose Automatically to have Safari open pages in tabs unless they’re designed to fit in specially formatted separate windows; Safari will open those pages in windows instead.

⌘-click opens a link in a new tab (Mac)

Ctrl-click opens a link in a new tab (Windows)

To change the shortcut for opening a link in a new tab, select or deselect this checkbox.

When a new tab or window opens, make it active

To have new tabs or windows open in front of the one you’re currently viewing, select this checkbox.

Confirm before closing multiple tabs or windows

When you close a Safari window that contains multiple webpages open in tabs, or quit Safari when multiple windows are open, multiple webpages close. Select this checkbox if you want to see a warning message before closing multiple webpages.

Some keyboard shortcuts change depending on which options you select in Tabs preferences. The list at the bottom of the Tabs pane shows you the keyboard shortcuts.


Related Topics

Browsing in tabs