Safari is the default web browser for Mac. Because of not only its speed performance but also its constant stability, it has become favourite web browser for Mac users, standing as high as Firefox browser.

In Safari, as well as other web browsers, you can find built-in bookmark service to help you surf the web and take your surfing result as reference easily. Today, I'm going to share you some of the tricks in using Safari browser bookmark.

Let's get started by familiarizing with two kinds of Safari browser bookmark.

Safari Bookmarks Bar and Bookmarks Menu

Bookmarks Bar is located just above your browser tabs. Bookmarks that are placed in this bookmarks bar are meant to be accessed quickly as future reference. I usually put my recent bookmarks on the bookmarks bar first before moving them to my bookmarks menu.

Tip: There is an easy-to-remember shortcut to access to bookmarks stored in bookmarks bar: Command-1, Command-2, Command-3, etc. These shortcuts are automatically assigned according to the order of your bookmarks from left hand side of the browser (exclude bookmarks folder).

Bookmarks Menu can be accessed via your Safari menu bar. By clicking on the Bookmarks section, all bookmarks menu items will be shown. Bookmarks are shown in form of list items with arrow right to expand inside the folder. Obviously, you can put bookmarks folder inside another bookmarks folder.

The advantage of using bookmarks menu is that, unlike storing in bookmarks bar which storing space is limited by how wide your Safari browser, you will have a virtually unlimited space of storing your bookmarks and you can easily refer back to your pool of bookmarks.

So, now you've learnt what's the difference between those two types of bookmarks. Next, let me explain you how to bookmark your webpage address.

Storing Webpage Address to Safari Bookmarks Bar

There are three ways to do this, which one is more preferable depends on you.

1. Dropping favicon to bookmarks bar
2. Using menu bar Bookmarks ▸ Add Bookmark or Bookmarks ▸ Add Bookmark for These Tabs
3. Hitting keystrokes Command-D

Favicon is the small icon next to displayed address. Some of the sites don't have favicons defined, in this case, their favicons will be shown as a globe.

Batch Bookmark Tabs

To perform batch bookmark tabs, dropping favicon one by one isn't a wise decision. The wisest decision would be to navigate with menu bar: Bookmarks ▸ Add Bookmark for These Tabs....

Dialog box will be opened upon clicking on that menu. You will be asked to fill in the folder name and the location where you want to store bookmarks folder for these tabs. If you leave blank for the folder name, your new bookmarks folder will be labelled Saved Tabs by default.

Tip: You can store bookmarks folder inside another folder.

Transferring from Safari Bookmarks Bar to Bookmarks Menu

If you've noticed, there is an opened book icon sitting on the left-most of Safari bookmarks bar. By clicking on this icon, you can access and manage your saved bookmarks with simple drag-and-drop action. Using the same drag-and-drop, you can move your bookmarks and bookmarks folder from bookmarks bar to bookmarks menu.

The only problem here is that, unlike other social bookmarking sites, you need extra task to synchronize your Safari bookmarks.

Synchronizing Safari Bookmarks

Mac OS X Hints has discussed about how to Sync Safari Bookmarks without .Mac. The main idea is to use Automator action to move around the file Bookmarks.plist from folder Macintosh HD ▸ Users ▸ [your username] ▸ Library ▸ Safari ▸ Bookmarks.plist via FTP server. You can read the full explanation from Mac OS X Hints.