If you’re a Mac user, you know that the Safari toolbar is one of the most customizable elements on your screen. You can add or remove tools, change the color and font of the toolbar, and even add your own icons. But there’s one thing you can’t do: customize the Safari toolbar’s location on your screen. That’s because Safari defaults to using the bottom-left corner of your screen. Fortunately, there are a few ways to customize Safari’s toolbar location on your Mac. The first way is to open System Preferences and click on the General tab. Then click on the Keyboard & Mouse tab and select “Location.” Under “Location,” you’ll see a list of different locations for the toolbar. You can choose any of these locations, but make sure that they’re at least in the bottom-left corner of your screen so that they’re always visible. The second way to customize Safari’s toolbar location is by editing its preferences in System Preferences. Open System Preferences and click on Security & Privacy > General > Security & Privacy > Extensions & Plugins > Extensions (or just “Extensions”). In this window, you’ll see a list of all extensions that are installed on your Mac. Click on “Safari” in this list and then click on “Customize.” Under “Location,” you’ll see a list of different locations for the toolbar again. This time, however, make sure that they’re at least in the bottom-left corner of your screen so that they’re always visible when you use Safari.
Why Should You Customize the Safari Toolbar?
By default, the Safari toolbar shows all your enabled extension icons along with the URL bar and navigation buttons.
If you have a lot of extensions, you might want to hide some from the toolbar. You might also want to disable the Sidebar button or the Share button if you’re going for a cleaner look.
When you go to customize the Safari toolbar, you’ll find a new set of buttons that you can add to the toolbar. Shortcuts such as iCloud Tabs, Top Sites, Home, History, Bookmarks, Zoom, Mail, Print, Web Inspector, and so on.
For a pro user who doesn’t like using keyboard shortcuts, fast access to features like Bookmarks and History can be incredibly useful. If you’re a web developer, the same goes for the Web Inspector tool.
RELATED: Mac Users Should Ditch Google Chrome for Safari
How to Customize the Safari Toolbar
Now that we’ve answered the why, let’s get to the how. You can customize the Safari toolbar to your liking by first clicking “View” from the menu bar and then selecting “Customize Toolbar.”
This will open a drop-down menu with a visual customization tool for the toolbar. You’ll notice that all the icons in the toolbar start to jiggle, signaling that you can now move them around if you like. If you’ve tried reorganizing your iPhone or iPad home screen, you’ll be familiar with this interface.
In the top part of the customization menu, you’ll see a list of all available buttons. This is where you’ll find new buttons like History or Bookmarks. If you want to add one of these buttons to the toolbar, click on the button, and drag it to the toolbar.
If you want to remove a button, click and drag the icon out of the toolbar area.
You can also customize the look of your Safari toolbar by adding some empty space. Click on the “Flexible space” button—located in the last row—and drag it into the toolbar.
To remove flexible space, click and drag it out of the toolbar.
Now that you understand how every element works, feel free to play around to get the Safari toolbar to look and feel just the way you like it.
