Stupid Simple Mac Tips for Lawyers #21 – 80/20 Web Browser Tab Trick
If you’re like most lawyers I work with, chances are the 20-30 tabs I often have open on my browser doesn’t even compare your usage. In fact, my long-time client – and friend – high-profile civil-rights litigation attorney Subodh Chandra knows this struggle all too well—often with dozens upon dozens open at a time.
Trying to find a specific tab can be maddening.
Every second you waste looking around for the right tab is time lost. What’s most annoying is when you need a commonly used tab, but it is lost in the sea of tabs.
When you are working and are in the zone, you want to remove bottlenecks, things that make you stop or slow you down.
Lets remedy this problem by “pinning” the 20% (more likely 5%) of the tabs you use 80% of the time. These tabs will remain pre-loaded on the left side of your browser’s bar.
Regardless of how many tabs you have open, you can now access your top 5 or top 10 and always in the same order, on the left-hand side. This lets you build muscle memory to access these faster than before.
See how I pin them below and how thy shrink into icons on the left.
I suggest you are selective about which tabs you pin, as overloading these can drastically slow down your Mac (aim for 5, with no more than 10). Each tab takes up RAM.
[Tip: As a preventative and to future-proofing the Macs you buy, always purchase as much RAM as is available (except for the Mac Pro – maxing out the RAM will set you back $25k).Here’s how to do it in Safari:
Pin a Website
- In the Safari app on your Mac, click and drag the tab you want to pin to the left side of the tab bar.
- Then, drop the tab’s icon or initial in place after it shrinks. Alternatively, it’s possible to select Window > Pin Tab, or Control-click a tab, before choosing Pin Tab.
Customizing the Order of Pinned Sites
In Safari’s tab bar, drag pinned sites in your preferred order.
Unpinning a Website
In Safari, drag the pinned tab to the right side of the tab bar.
You can select Window > Unpin Tab, or Control-click a pinned site, before selecting Unpin Tab.
Here’s how to pin a tab in Chrome:
- Open a new tab in Chrome
- Right-click on tab
- Select ‘Pin tab’
These efforts seem small, but they make a big difference.
Warm Regards,
Tom
