How to revert to the previous Tab style in Safari 4

February 25, 2009 by Ross McKillop

One of the changes in Safari 4 is that the Tabs are now located at the very top of the Safari window. Though some folks like this new behavior, quite a few don’t. If you’d prefer to use the Tab location used in Safari 3 (below the Bookmarks Bar), follow the instructions outlined in this brief tutorial.

As show in the image below, tabs in Safari are now located at the very top of the Safari 4 window.

To change this, start by opening a Terminal window (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal). Enter the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool FALSE

Now restart Safari. The Tabs will be located below the Bookmarks Bar, as they were in Safari 3.

If you decide you want the Tabs back at the top of the Safari window, re-enter the command in a Terminal window but change FALSE at the end of the command to TRUE.

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Filed Under: Safari, Tutorials

Comments

10 Responses to “How to revert to the previous Tab style in Safari 4”

Wez on February 26th, 2009 2:20 am

I love where the tab bar is now but thanks for the tip.
Jeff Douglas on February 26th, 2009 8:25 am

The new tabs are great but I hate the fact that new links open up in a new window instead of a new tab in the current window. Any idea if I can change that?
Ross McKillop on February 26th, 2009 10:55 am

Jeff -

this tutorial has you covered.
Safari 4 Beta and Changing Tabs on Top « mikelao photography on February 26th, 2009 6:10 pm

[...] So, for those of you who want to bring this back, check out this simple tutorial from Switching to Mac to get the Safari tabs below the address bar. [...]
Put Safari 4 Beta’s Tabs Back « Daily Feed on February 26th, 2009 10:29 pm

[...] Safari Tabs [via switchingtomac] [...]
Greg on February 26th, 2009 10:42 pm

Any idea if this could work the other way around to get the new style tabs on Safari 3 for those of us sub-10.5? (Sort of the same way you can add entries into Firefox’s about:config?)
Ross McKillop on February 26th, 2009 10:50 pm

@Greg -

Very, very unlikely. I dare say not possible.
Archivist on February 27th, 2009 1:52 pm

Thank You!
those top tabs were annoying!
Anonymous on March 9th, 2009 10:04 pm

I hated the top tabs, too. I was constantly opening the same page twice or three times because I didn’t realise that it was already open in another tab. Thanks very much for the tutorial, which has now restored my tabs and my sanity.
brad on March 17th, 2009 12:27 pm

Does apple ever plan to put a new tab button on safari like they have in firefox? Not the one at the top right like they have now but a button you can move around. Is there a hack out there for that?