Safari 4: Possible to display text labels on buttons?

cwa107 · Jun 11, 2009

I am once again giving Safari a try, now that Apple has finally released it.

Although I'm sure that there is a way to do this (and I think previous versions of Safari could), I just don't see a way... and repeated Googling yields nothing. So, I'm hoping one of you longtime Safari users can help a Firefox person out

I would like text labels on the buttons in Safari. For example, in Mail, if you right-click the toolbar at the top, you can choose "Icon & Text, Icon Only, or Text Only". In Safari, the only option is to Customize Toolbar. When you do so, the kicker is that it actually shows the text labels on the buttons within the scope of the customize window. But once placed on the bar, it's icons only.

This is a very minor annoyance, but I just prefer the text labels. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

dtravis7 · Jun 11, 2009

Interesting. In Safari 4 I see no way to give it Icons and Text in the toolbar. Like you said Mail has that option. I remember older Safari way back having that option. Will get back to you if I find a way.

bobtomay · Jun 11, 2009

Don't see a text option in the Win version either.

Mr Macintosh · Jun 11, 2009

I don't see that option either.

If you want to download one of the older versions of Safari to get this feature, just google it or something.

Regards.

vansmith · Jun 11, 2009

I tried looking through the plist file for Safari and the best I could get was to remove the toolbar completely, leaving only the bookmarks bar (which can easily be done through the View menu anyway). After fooling around with the plist file, I was somehow able to get the home label under the home button but that was the only button. For the life of me, I can't remember what to change in the plist to get that again.

EDIT: Got it! Okay, all buttons will display text below them except the back/forward button. Open the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.safari.plist file and change the "NSToolbar Configuration BrowserWindow" > "TB Display Mode" value to 0. That should get all buttons with labels except back/forward. That's as far as I can get you. Note, when asked to save, I had to choose "Don't Save" or the values were re-written.

cwa107 · Jun 11, 2009

vansmith said:
I tried looking through the plist file for Safari and the best I could get was to remove the toolbar completely, leaving only the bookmarks bar (which can easily be done through the View menu anyway). After fooling around with the plist file, I was somehow able to get the home label under the home button but that was the only button. For the life of me, I can't remember what to change in the plist to get that again.

EDIT: Got it! Okay, all buttons will display text below them except the back/forward button. Open the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.safari.plist file and change the "NSToolbar Configuration BrowserWindow" > "TB Display Mode" value to 0. That should get all buttons with labels except back/forward. That's as far as I can get you. Note, when asked to save, I had to choose "Don't Save" or the values were re-written.

Awesome, just awesome! You rock, Vansmith. Thank you!!

vansmith · Jun 11, 2009

No problem.

I'll see if I can figure out later when I get home if there is a way to add a label to the back/forward button as well. It seems a little odd that only some buttons have the label and other don't.

bobtomay · Jun 11, 2009

way to go vansmith

dtravis7 · Jun 11, 2009

Good work Van. I am just sort of surprised that there was not more on google as I am sure others wondered where the text labels went.

vansmith · Jun 11, 2009

vansmith said:
"NSToolbar Configuration BrowserWindow" > "TB Display Mode" value to 0.

That should actually be "NSToolbar Configuration BrowserWindowToolbarIdentifier" for anyone else wondering.

I tried looking around and I can't seem to figure out if there is the ability to add one to the back/forward button. As an aside, I noticed that after I checked the plist file again, the value had reverted back to 1 but Safari still had labels under the TB buttons. It's a mystery to me as to how or why this happens. I'm starting to think that this button is special in relation to the others, perhaps because it is "two-in-one" so to speak.

dtravis7 · Jun 11, 2009

I wonder why apple chose to take out the option to show text and icons? In my searching around early this morning I found old Safari with that option. Strange.

Safari 4: Possible to display text labels on buttons?

cwa107

dtravis7

bobtomay

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Mr Macintosh

vansmith

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cwa107

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