Ask Team Vox: Safari support on the way

Aug 22, 2006 at 12:06 PM
45 comments

Q: Is there a time frame for Safari support? -- Pixie

A: Fellow Mac users out there in Vox land have probably noticed that composing a post in Safari isn't quite
as fun as we'd like it to be. It's easy enough to whip up a quick message to your friends and family, but bringing your words to life with vibrant colors or cute baby pics is a little more difficult. In fact, it's impossible. :(

Webkit

For the time being, much of this is out of our control. The current version of Safari does not support many of the functions available in today's modern browsers. Without these features, it's impossible for us to provide the same rich editing experience on Safari that many of you have come to enjoy on Firefox or Internet Explorer.

But don't despair, help is on the way. It looks as though the next version of Safari will fix many of these problems. In the meantime, we'll continue to add Safari support and provide alternative methods where possible. For those of you brave enough to give it a whirl, check out the latest build of Webkit to get a sneak peak at the next version of Safari.

-Noam, Product Manager @ Vox

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[this is good]

Thanks for the link to the Safari sneak peak! I will be trying it out at home today since my firefox decided to act weird and flock really doesn't do it for me.

So we have to wait until Leopard for full Vox supprt?

[this is good]

Hooray!

Thanks for answering the question for me. Can't say I like the answer but I know where we stand on Safari support at least.

For the time being, much of this is out of our control.

Backwards compatibility isn't something you believe in? I understand that you may not be able to get all the features but it would be nice if you use it at all.

Either way I'm glad we will eventually have support.

Carbone: We'll continue to provide increased support with each release. In areas where we can't duplicate functionality in Safari precisely, we'll degrade gracefully or provide alternative methods to perform the same function.

Hm. Another one of the many reason to continue my use of Firefox.

Although... "Safari does not support many of the functions available in today's modern browsers." Hey now, don't be hatin'! ;) I mean, where do people learn such behavior?

what about just allowing there to be an HTML toggle switch so then if people are having issues or want to post more in depth content like quiz results, pictures hosted places other than those you support, and such that they can do so without messing up the WYSIWYG editing flow?

Is this the same situation with Opera? I have difficulty composing in my version, is it Opera or should I upgrade to the most current version?

Hooray! It was getting annoying having to switch to Firefox just to make a post :X

:( boooo. leopard is such a ways away.

i started a tag called "vox suggestions". i saw some suggestions under the tag "vox" after i wrote my deal about the best blogging space ever...maybe the team might want to take a look.

this doesn't help for those of us who are stuck in the dark ages with safari 1.0.3 because our machine can't handle anything above osx 10.2.

Yeah, it'd be nice if the compose window wasn't so wonky in Opera...

It took me awhile to be convinced to switch to Firefox from Safari, but I'm finding MUCH better results across the web. I often test websites in Safari and in Firefox and FF is lesstroublesome. It works on 10.2 as well. Which is good because nobody tests on 1.0.3 anymore and things can get really whacked with it. I know, I'm stuck with it as well, Kunzite.

Plus, the Extensions feature is frickin' amazing. I really recommend at least trying FF if you can.

I've found Camino to be a lot closer to the Safari experience than Firefox. In fact, it only took me a week to abandon Safari all together. Not to say that this is the only solution, but in the interim until Safari support is better, Camino is a great alternative.

BULLETPROOFsoul: We look through all the feedback constantly. It's extremely helpful. Thanks!

noaml: this is why threaded comments would be awesome.
also: non-RTE entries and comments would be rad as well.

Opera (at least on the Mac) acts a little wonky as well. Of course, the two broswers I most use, and both have problems with Vox. *laughs*

Wouldn't it be easier to simply make it possible for people to edit in raw HTML?

Awesome news! But, I don't hate VOX can't used on Safari.... I still have Foxfire or IE. *winks*

If you have a developer copy of Leopard, would that Safari work right then? Might bug friend to borrow his copy if so...

[this is good]

I'd rather use Camino than FF... but then again, I'd much rather use Safari than anything else. Glad to see there's hope for us. :)

While it's good that this will be supported, I hate knowing that we have to buy a whole new operating system to get it. So I'll have a supported version of Safari on my home computer but not my work computer. That's not cool. And Firefox keeps crashing on me. Firefox has gotten progressively less reliable over the last several months. And I've uninstalled and reinstalled it several times already. It just pisses me off. But I have to use it for blogging as both Vox and Typepad don't work well on Safari or Camino. And I refuse to use IE. Personal issues with an inferior product.

Thank you team. I'm sorry that us mac folk are using antiquated technology :( A++ for trying! Most people just ignore us!

And I refuse to use IE. Personal issues with an inferior product.

Not to mention that IE is two years out of production and unsupport on the Mac now. (You can't even download it anymore.)

Sorry to hear you've had Firefox issues. That's been most most realible browser on my Macs. I've ended up using it mainly due to my use of both Macs and PCs and I like having that uniform browser experience on both sides of the OS fence (I use it on my linux boxes too).

The other good thing about Firefox is that the numbers are on your side a little better. Last I saw, FF was at about 12% of web usage and Safari about 5%. Most of FF is on the PC, but they seem to behave very similarly.

The only FF trouble I have is going to MSNBC. Microsoft deliberately crashes it, I swear! MS is SOOOO evil. :)

Thanks for keeping us safari folks in mind. Firefox feels nothing like a mac application and after trying camino it took less than a day to run back to safari.

[this is good]

Hey Mena, thanks for the Camino reminder!!

I used to use it years ago when I had gone on an anti-MS spree, before I was able to upgrade to OS X to get Safari. I’ve just downloaded it again... I had fogotten how nice it is. For anyone who’s looking for that Safari alternative but doesn’t was to go to Firefox, Camino is that great little middle ground between the two. Now, it doesn’t have the same level of customizability as Firefox but it was built specifically for OS X so it behaves i na much more Mac-like way.

Also, if any of you are interested in customizing things like I am you should go to pimpmycamino.com to see what’s available. I highly recommend the Camitools and Caminicons to tweak the look and feel.

One of my favourite interface features about Safari is the Address/Progress bar combo which Camino, unfortunately, does not have. However, in a very Mac-like way, Camino lets you shuffle around the Icons so you can at least place the spinning progress wheel next to the Address bar for some immediate visual feedbac k.

Thanks again for the Camino reminder, Mena.
I’m all over it...

Oh, right. Camino also allows you to sync your bookmarks with an FTP server of your own choice and sync those bookmarks with other computers as well. NEAT!
--
steelie

Hey, I just checked the newest version of OmniWeb (5.5 beta 4) and it works! Must be because we're using a newer WebKit than Safari currently is.

If you want a Mac-like browser with a modernish WebKit, OmniWeb 5.5 may be the way to go.

disclaimer: I work at Omni.

Update: Some stuff in the Compose page doesn't work in OmniWeb, but you can use the basic styling stuff like italics, bold, and colors.

hello, i'm new here! didn't understand how to write a comment... every time someone wants to write me a comment, do they have to sign in? what's the easiest way to leave a comment?

thanks!
cassio

Not really great to have to wait for Leopard AND purchase Leopard in order to use Safari. Another vote for a raw html option.

[this is good]

I'm only posting this here because I can't leave a comment on the 'ask team vox' post (I guess 85 is the max?), so I apologize for that.

My question was if there could be a 'remove all tags' feature integrated? Or if there is one, please let us know where. I like trying to use iStockphoto, but it was a real hassle to remove the 40 or so tags it auto-applied one by one. Thanks :)

"The current version of Safari does not support many of the functions available in today's modern browsers."

One word: FUD.

Let me enter and edit raw HTML; I don't consider a popup warning everytime I want to post anything to be "failing gracefully."

Hmm, spoofing Firefox using Safari Stand and latest nightlies of Webkit still doesn't work. I suspect something is not quite right?

Any updates?

Well at least you can use raw HTML now. That’s a plus!
Though, I’ve gotten used to using Camino over the last little while... it’s also compatible with the email I use where Safari is not. So, until Safari becomes more compatible, I’ll likely stick with Camino.
--
steelie

[this is good]

A bug has been opened against WebKit here: http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10165

Lend your support!! Log into the webkit bugzilla system and vote for this bug so it might just get fixed in the WebKit nightlies.

Any updates? Webkit developers have not engaged the bug above at all.

[this is good]

I assume this is still a problem? And I know that my iPhone won't allow me to enter text - at least I can't get the keyboard to popup. Any word on this? Or another tread to follow? Thanks!

Still not able to answer the QotD in Safari - the text stays in the "quoted" style of the initial question. No idea why this is the case - even with Safari 3.1 on Mac or Windows. Any movement on this?

steelie replied to Rube Burrow’s comment:
Mar 18, 2008
Reply

I’ve got a quick work-around if you’re interested... on a Mac at least anyway.

Right after you click on the Qotd “Post your Answer” button, in the “Compose” window, give yourself a Return then click the “Begin Blockquote” button then the “End Blockquote” button. This will remove the “quoted” formatting and restore the indent to what it would have originally been before the “quoted style was added.

Hope that helps.

Additionally, the other big (only?) shortfall I can find, so far, is in VOX’s “Compose” window. All of the buttons seem to work now except for the “Decrease Text Size” and “Increase Text Size” buttons.

A Mac work-around is to select the text you wish to format and Control+Click (or Right-Click) to bring up the system’s Contextual Menu and select “Font > Show Fonts”. You can change the text’s size as well as most other formatting options.

Rube Burrow replied to steelie’s comment:
Mar 20, 2008
Reply

[this is good]

Diabolical ingenuity. Works equally well in Safari and in OmniWeb and posts up right in my blog theme. Thanks very much - this would be a great thing to have in the FAQ for browser compatibility.

Ask Team Vox: Safari support on the way

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