DaleV 08 Dec 05

I have *never* hit the ‘close’ button by mistake. Non-issue for all but the sloppiest of mousers.

JF 08 Dec 05

I have *never* hit the �close� button by mistake. Non-issue for all but the sloppiest of mousers.

Actually, you’re the most highly efficient of mousers. Most folks aren’t. They aren’t sloppy, they’re normal.

PeterT 08 Dec 05

It’s never been a problem for me..

Mike Rundle 08 Dec 05

Nothing pisses me off more than when Safari closes a window full of tabs. Tabs like a new weblog entry, design tests, etc. I feel your pain man.

drudru 08 Dec 05

Just use firefox :-)

PeterT 08 Dec 05

It’s never been a problem for me..

Josh Williams 08 Dec 05

Aim low. I’ve done it a few times.

Aaron Kuzemchak 08 Dec 05

Another good reason to use the Backspace key instead of the mouse to go Back.

Aaron B. 08 Dec 05

I have never had a problem in Safari either. What I do all the time is accidently click the wrong application on the dock.

andrew 08 Dec 05

I’ve never hit the close button by mistake. Not in however long Safari has been out. I have, numerous times, hit Command-q instead of Command-w.

I do agree on the multiple tabs thing; one thing Firefox does right. Further, it’d be nice if Safari prompted you to save the state of windows when closing.

Dan Boland 08 Dec 05

I’ve been the victim of mistakenly closing a window full of tabs too. But one thing that bugs me is how I can no longer get rid of the Google search box and extend the address bar all the way to the right. I never use the search box, and now I can’t get rid of it. Lame!

Dan Kubb 08 Dec 05

The type of person reading this blog probably spends a larger amount of time using a mouse than the average person. Your control is probably going to be better because of this, so you’re not as likely to have this problem.

When laying out UIs its important to remember that your average user may not have the same precise level of control as you.

andrew 08 Dec 05

Thinking for a minute, I’m fairly sure that the reason I don’t have trouble is that the close button offers visual feedback of when it has focus. Windows users: the coloured buttons are blank when they don’t have focus; the little cross, dash, plus signs only light up as you mouse over. It’s small but effective.

Dave Simon 08 Dec 05

Good point -

However, I hardly ever click on a button to go back. I use the keyboard. But I realize that most people aren’t like that.

More often, however, I hit command-q when I mean command-w…

D Alexander Carlin 08 Dec 05

I don’t think I’ve ever actually clicked the Close Window button, or the Back button. I’m a keyboard man, myself.

I’m with Mr. Williams: aim low.

Matt 08 Dec 05

Mousing & browsing habits aside, one must consider…

What page was Sam browsing when he accidentally closed the window?

This is key.

Michael Spina 08 Dec 05

Does happen to me. I can be precise if I need to be, but when I swing the pointer toward the back button (if my fingers are already on the mouse, for example, instead of using command-left arrow) I’m usually doing other things (reading) and not looking right at the pointer.

>Click

Peter 08 Dec 05

It’s happened to me a few times, and Murphy’s Law always prevails. I’ll have to give Taboo a try.

Sam Stephenson 08 Dec 05

What page was Sam browsing when he accidentally closed the window?

It’s a secret! (I don’t remember.) And I actually caught myself right before closing the window.

I�m usually doing other things (reading) and not looking right at the pointer.

Exactly. The back button should be a big enough target that I don’t have to think about getting to it, and it shouldn’t be something I’m afraid of.

Eric 08 Dec 05

I recommend Saft over Taboo because it also lets you undo closing a tab (but not a window). It auto saves open tabs on a quit or a crash which I think is worth the price of admission on it’s own. It’s got tons more features. Check it out here:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12402

Eric 08 Dec 05

Also, you can reorganize the buttons in Safari …

Nate 08 Dec 05

Wow, this is a life-saver. The clicking isn’t so much a problem for me, because I usually use the keyboard. Problem there is, Apple-W closes a tab, but W is right next to Q.

Ryan Platte 08 Dec 05

I just tried moving my address bar to the leftmost position, but that just feels weird.

My wife and I argue over which browser’s tab/closing behavior sucks more, Safari or Firefox (I take Apple’s side for this issue). I probably feel the pain less than many, since I’m keyboard-oriented.

I wonder if there’s a larger issue in browser design that can be visited here? Seems like the basic set of controls could be reimagined by someone clever enough. In the meantime, it looks like OmniWeb works around this issue.

Nice to see a post from you, Sam!

Samuel Sidler 08 Dec 05

Dare I mention that Camino is also a nice alternative for those on OS X. Not only is there more than five pixels separating the back and close buttons, but it also offers, by default, a dialog when closing multiple tabs (or multiple windows) for those of us who get cmd-w happy and hit q by accident. (Happens to me all the time…)

Willie Abrams 08 Dec 05

Don’t use tabs. Seriously.

They don’t really work from a UI perspective (what does command-W do?) and you lose being able to use Expose to quickly see what pages you are browsing.

Scott Orchard 08 Dec 05

Here’s another vote for “not an issue,” though I will say that I use Command-T a lot and often times don’t close tabs or use the back button at all, I’ll have 10 tabs open on my 14-inch iBook and not have any problems. I don’t think I’ve closed the whole window by mistake, but this could be related to the fact that my resolution is maxed at 1024 x 768.

Matt 08 Dec 05

Willie-

For me, having lots of pages open in one window is a much appreciated tradeoff for not being able to use expose on it.

And command-W closes the tab.

Honestly, I feel that tabbed brosing is one of the best browser advances in years.

-Matt

Rahul 08 Dec 05

Eagerly awaiting the day when browsers evolve to solely gesture-based navigation (although still with keyboard shortcuts and accessibility support). If you’re going to move the mouse, translate the movement itself into something useful. Why move all the way to a 40x40 pixel rectangle only to risk missing it by 5 pixels and closing the window?

But getting gestures into the mainstream public eye is the challenge.

Matt Baron 08 Dec 05

There are also only 5 pixels between the forward button and the maximize button. Godd*mn windows are maximizing all over the place instead of going forward!

Anonymous Coward 08 Dec 05

I have *never* hit the �close� button by mistake. Non-issue for all but the sloppiest of mousers.


That’s because you’ve never used a computer before. Loser!

Jason 08 Dec 05

I don’t have any problem dragging blank space in front of the back/forward buttons. Maybe it’s just my setup?

Mike Gorrell 08 Dec 05

drudru’s got it. Use Firefox.

Sunny 08 Dec 05

Just use firefox :-)

I don’t think you have used Firefox on the Mac. Else you wouldn’t recommend it as an alternative.

Try Camino folks.

Daniel Drucker 08 Dec 05

I’m only being half snarky when I say that I only half remember that the browser even has “back” and “forward” buttons. That’s what the back button on the mouse is for, or if you’re using a mouse that doesn’t have one, gestures.

Jamie Tibbetts 08 Dec 05

I always use Command-W, Command-Q, Command-Left Arrow, and Command-Right Arrow. I rarely click the back/forward buttons, and I very rarely click the close/minimize/maximize buttons (in any app).

What drives me nuts about Safari is if a form field has the focus, it disables the Command-Arrow keys, so you can’t flip back and forth without clicking on the nav buttons. Now *that* is maddening.

pwb 08 Dec 05

I don’t recall ever hitting the red circle accidentally although it probably would make sense to have a setting defaulted off to warn you.

Saying that “tabs don’t work from a UI perspective” is kind of a funny statement considering that many folks like me consider it one of the biggest browsing advancements in recent years.

I’m not sure you could have “never used the Google search box”. I use it dozens of times per day. Although I do wonder if it is possible to configure it to a different engine in one of the plist files or something.

FireFox and Camino are nice, but I don’t see any reason for the average user not to use Safari for general purpose browsing.

manuel 08 Dec 05

has never been an issue for me either. maybe it has something to do with age and glasses? i dont know…

PJ Hyett 08 Dec 05

It’s happened to me a handful of times, but I almost exclusively use Camino in OS X now. This browser is absolutely fantastic.

Grayson 08 Dec 05

This annoys me to no end too, especially since Safari is my browser of choice on a Mac.

Glen C. 08 Dec 05

I love mouse gestures for firefox ;D

Chris 09 Dec 05

I like how there are so many people making suggestions to just “be less like yourself and more like me”.

Duh! Why didn’t he think of that?? He should have consulted you guys first! You’re so smrat! err.. Smart!

A Noonie Moose 09 Dec 05

Forgive my ignorance as I’m a PC user, but what’s the green + button for?

Miguel 09 Dec 05

> Just use firefox :-)

Ditto.

Carlos Ebers 09 Dec 05

That’s why I love the “Reopen Closed Windows”-function in Opera so much. I’m using it for ages now. It not only reopens the window or tab, but also have the windows-history again in place.

Great function.

Carlos Ebers 09 Dec 05

That’s why I love the “Reopen Closed Windows”-function in Opera so much. I’m using it for ages now. It not only reopens the window or tab, but also have the windows-history again in place.

Great function.

Michael Ward 09 Dec 05

The solution is to remove the close button and command from Safari.

Who the hell would want to close their browser window anyway? Only freaks, that’s who…

Robbie 09 Dec 05

Unlike some other OS X apps, Safari�s Customize Toolbar sheet doesn�t let you drag in a chunk of empty space.

Not that I suffer from the problem in question, however Safari quite happily let me add a “Space” (or even several) in front of the Back & Forward buttons…

Jonathan Sweet 09 Dec 05

My problem is that command-Q is next to command-W. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve quit the browser when I just wanted to close one window/tab.

Sebhelyesfarku 09 Dec 05

Safari is a p.o.s. anyways. I use Firefox.

Eddie 09 Dec 05

Opera or Firefox or whatever, the solution to this is a simple mouse gesture

Low bandwidth attention- you don’t even have to look at anything on the page or mouse to any target.

AJP 09 Dec 05

I’ve never hid the red X by mistake since I got a Microsoft Explorer mouse. Now I just use the back/forth buttons on the mouse.

I *am* guilty of the Cmd+Q instead of Cmd+W though.

Ryan Platte 09 Dec 05

I was looking for a “space” to drag in to the toolbar, and I sure can’t see one on my Safari Version 2.0.2 (416.13). If anyone can offer more information on how to coerce Safari to do this, I’d be interested, if only out of curiosity.

MH 09 Dec 05

Ryan D:
Yes, Fitt’s law is a fundamental principle of UI design.

Now, Fitz’s law, on the other hand, states that users will have a variably difficult time targeting buttons, in proportion to the number of drinks they have had… ;-)

joppe 11 Dec 05

“They don�t really work from a UI perspective (what does command-W do?) and you lose being able to use Expose to quickly see what pages you are browsing.”

use shiira then.

Amber 11 Dec 05

Is it really worth using a whole different browser just because of the few mistakes of pushing the wrong button?