I’ve been looking at how Safari’s Reader View icon works with the new Compact tab layout. I think that the following describes the situation, but I’m not certain. Is this how the Reader View icon works with this new tab layout?
There are two tab layouts in Safari 15: Compact and Separate
(Safari > Preferences > Tabs pane)
The tab layout that you choose determines how the Reader View is presented.
With the Separate tab layout, Reader View works as described in Apple’s documentation, which appears to not have been updated for Safari 15. That is, the Reader View icon appears on the LEFT side of the tab’s Smart Search Field when the webpage has an article that Reader can show.
The Compact view is new and Reader View works differently in it. If a webpage has an article that Reader can show, then the Reader View icon will appear on the RIGHT side of the tab’s Smart Search Field. However, the Reader View icon disappears after just a few seconds unless you hover the cursor over the icon or click it. So, how does one access it after it disappears? There are several ways:
* Keyboard shortcut: shift+command+r to open Reader View, if available.
* Keyboard shortcut: command+r to reload the webpage, but the Reader View icon again will only appear a short time.
* There is a circle with 3-dots at the far right of the Smart Search Field. If you hover over it, you will see that it says, “More options”. Clicking on More options reveals several features, including Reader View, if available.
* Menu bar: View > Show Reader
Compact Tab layout Reader View Notes:
* After using Reader View on a webpage, its icon stays on the right side of the Smart Search Field until the page is either reloaded or closed.
* While in Reader View, More options includes:
– Reader Appearance
– Exit Reader View
I am trying to fully understand The way in which Safari 15’s Reader View icon functions when using its new Compact tab layout.
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Bev in TX
Yes, your detailed assessment seems right to me. Well written too. I'll post it as a Q&A just because of that.
Thanks Gary for taking the time to look at this.
I guess the only thing I missed was that we can use the same keyboard shortcuts to close Reader View in both Compact and Separate tab layouts.
Wow, thank you so much for providing this information! I hope/assume that Apple will implement Reader View to be accessed with more ease in future updates of the Safari Compact Tabs layout, but I am glad to have learned a new keyboard shortcut (lol) in the meantime. Many thanks