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Safari? Flock? Firefox? Omniweb? Oh My. Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Hi there.

I just downloaded the latest Omniweb build last night - my first time using Omniweb. So far, so good. I heard a lot about it. I noticed a few things though, and I beg you not to take this as a flame/loaded set of questions/unfair critique as a new user. :)

1) I noticed that plugins load, including Saft? Does my Saft work with Omniweb? If so, how do I configure it? It doesn't appear to save my tabs when I quit. I'd really love that and it's a really big reason why I bought Saft in the first place.

2) WHY would I buy Omniweb? This isn't meant to be a cruel question, but just a legitimate one. I currently use Safari since over a year as my default browser. Sometimes I fire up Flock or Shiira just for fun - but that's about it. What makes Omniweb worth the price? I like Shiira's Expose-like feature, but it's still too raw to use as a normal browser. Firefox runs way too big on my machine (Powerbook G4) for me to really want to use it (I do use it on PC though). Flock is just there because I think their icon rocks and it has promise. Also, the UI is really very mac-like and nice.

But Safari is still my #1 and I don't understand what should draw me to Omniweb yet. I use SafariStand for thumbs like Omniweb... so what's the draw?

I did notice that Omniweb is faster than Safari. I do like that. But that's really the only thing. Any tips? I'm using Omniweb right now to post this but I'd love to read about in detail differences someplace.

3) You guys really need a "open new tab" button. :) I know there's the little gizmo in the thumbnails drawer, but it would be nice if you could add a button to the toolbar. Or maybe I missed it?

So far, really nice though. I'm just wondering why it's worth the price - other than the fact that you guys need to make a living and capitalism rocks (that, I do agree with :) ).

Anyway, this isn't meant as a flame, but just genuine interest. I'm basically looking for an excuse here. Help me out. :)
 
Hi Banagor,
Although ultimately the choice of a browser is very much about personal taste, here are some reasons why OW has replaced Safari (with Saft, Pithelmet & safaristand) as my primary browser.

re 1): in Worksapce> Show Worksapces, tick "Auto-save while browsing". That will save your tabs, even if OW crashes (remember, it's still a beta). Saft does not work with OW as far as I can tell, but I don't miss it.

re 2): it comes with features worth my money, IMHO..., such as workspaces (I have one default, one for work stuff, one for shoping): I switch through them with the press of a function key. Another major plus is site-specific settings (Appearance, Ad-blocking, Security, etc.). I find the tabs much cleaner than the Safari pluggins offer. The tabs are clear enough to render shiira's exposé feature redundant.
A few more nice little things at random: drag a url from a web page to the tab drawer, it will load a new tab in the background; shift-select several tabs and re-order them for some nice eye-candy; cut one or more tabs from one workspace and paste them in another; switch through tabs with command-arrow up/down; OW checks all your bookmarks for site updates; right-click a search field and set a short-cut to access it directly (if you use Quicksilver, this feature is bliss), etc. etc. etc. There are a lot more, and I'm still descovering new things just about every day. And yes, it's fast...
Plus, the money goes toward a cool, inovative company!

re 3): I use command-T....

Granted, there is room for improvement, as you can see by reading posts in the forums, but taken together, I think OW is the best and most promising browser I've tried. My 2c.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Banagor
I use SafariStand for thumbs like Omniweb... so what's the draw?
Omniweb tabs do so much more. For example:

- double click a tab to open it in a window by itself
- Alt-drag tabs to create a duplicate
_ Shift or cmd select multiple tabs, and then close reload or maybe copy them and paste them into a drawer in another workspace. Or drag those tabs in another drawer in the same workspace.

Then there is the way they behave. When drag and dropping tabs , the other tabs move out of the way to let you drop more easily. SafariStand doesn't let you do any of this.

If you're prepared to pay for Saft, paying for Omniweb doesn't sound like much of a leap. Also, there is a lot to be said for having those feature in the browser, not in a plugin that can break.

Make sure you try and use workspaces and the zoomed text editor too!
 
I was using Safari with SafariStand before making OW my default. Why?

Primarily because of site preferences. Yes, Stand makes that possible on Safari, but OW does it so much better.

Zoomed text editor. AFAIK, no other browser has this capability.

Paying for it? You've forked out for SAFT, as another poster noted. My only reservation is that OW should work on all sites for the expenditure to be justified. That day will be coming soon, I expect.

In the end, these are all personal choices however. Good luck with yours.
 
Hey!

Now THAT is what I'm talking about. :) Wow...that is a huge difference. I'm still trying to figure out snapshots, but that is very nice. Nice enough for me to want to buy it. I'm going to use it as my default for a night and see how it works with everything.

Thanks for answering all those questions and that is exactly what I was looking for. Yes that does look great, btw.

Oh, for some nice eye candy though, check out the new beta Shiira 2.0. Those glass floating windows are really nice and I do like the way they do the tabs at the bottom too, but I'm still so used to tabs being on the side.

Thanks to you all for replying and yes, that is very nice (and yes I do use Quicksilver - gotta be crazy not to, but I'll have to figure out how to work with QS and Omniweb tonight sometime.).
 
Question: Does it have the capability to live spellcheck in forms like Safari does? If so, how do I enable that?

Also, I use endo as my Newsreader. Any way to make it so that I can subscribe with a click to endo and not to my bookmarks bar in Omniweb?

BTW, this is fantastic so far. I'm just wondering if it does those two things. It's so clean and fast...I'm loving it. I usually have about 20-40 tabs open in Safari and that can REALLY slow Safari down. I just tried it with Omniweb and absolutely no slowdown at all. I'm fairly frigging amazed. :)

Edit: I figured out the spelling thing. Awesome.

Any word on making endo my newsreader when I click on subscribe? That's really a key point for me.

I don't see anything about a zoom text editor...can't find it but I'll hunt around. And wow, you guys seriously appear to have sold me on this. It's so fast, clean, and smooth. And you're right: Saft is nice but it would be nice to have a browser with all that and more built in. I never knew anything about Omniweb other than people really liked the thumbnails feature or something. Now I can see why some are fanatical about it.

BTW, I regularly try out software before I buy it and ask questions like that. Sort of like going into a car lot and saying "Okay, sell me on something. Why should I buy from you?" That sort of thing. :)

I really like the bookmarks checking feature. It already found some dead ones. I'm starting to use Ma.gnolia.com anyway, and I tried it and it worked fine. I didn't see any site that didn't work so far - even checked my WP 2.0 blog and it seemed fine though I didn't post with it yet (I bought ecto as well as endo and I love those programs). So I don't really post from the web anyway. That's why having a laptop is so nice: I don't tend to use other computers other than my own since I carry it everywhere.

I still think a tab button might be nice. I have an iCurve I use on my table sometimes and I don't have a keyboard for it so I tend just to idly browse through pages with the mouse when that happens and I'm working on my PC (Yuck, I know...trust me, feel for me..I'm with you on that one). Anyway, when I browse with the mouse I tend to hit "new tab" a lot with it in Safari, but I can accommodate easily enough with the new tab click thing in the tab shelf. That's fine. No biggie on that one.

There's so much to learn with Omniweb...It kicks firefox's butt, that's for sure. At least on the Mac, it does. In fact, I removed Firefox from my dock just now.

Last edited by Banagor; 2006-08-18 at 07:34 PM..
 
Edit: Spelling: Check Spelling As You Type.

No is the answer to your second question.
 
The zoomed text editor is that little cross in a square icon that you see in multi line text input boxes, like the one you used to write the message on the forum. Click it, and a resizable window appears for typing in. Not only does this give you more space, but it means you can use keys like tab that you can't in the input box. I use this a LOT!

As for subscribing via Endo, I just drag the url from Omniweb onto Endo's dock icon. Endo then looks for feeds at that URL and gives you a list of what its found for you to subscribe to. Omniweb does desperately need a preference to allow people to send feeds to their news reader of choice, although it does respect any feed URLs using the feed: protocol.

Here's a few more of Omniweb's features: http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/omniweb-tricks
 
FWIW, one of the biggest advantages to having the tabs in a side drawer (or sidebar in the case of Safaristand) is that you can scroll through them easily with a scrollwheel mouse. Having them horizontal doesn't let you do this.
 
The other thing is that many of the features that have only relatively recently appeared in FireFox or Safari (through extensions or third party hacks) were in OmniWeb 5.0 over two years ago. I guess if you are only just moving to OmniWeb 5 then the justification for the cost is not so great as it was back then when other browsers completely lacked the power browsing features OmniWeb has had for a long time now. However, the way I look at it is that I use OmniWeb 99% of the time, therefore paying for it was justified. Let's face it, I've spent a grand total of ~ £20 to £25 ($40 to $50) since I first started using OmniWeb 4.x over 5 years ago. That is not a lot of money to have spent on a product that I have used virtually every single day since.

There are certainly some features in other browsers I would like to see in OmniWeb in the next version (assuming there is one), but I don't miss them that much.
 
 


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