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When I’m doing research for a project I’ll have one window with lots of tabs. When I’m doing other work, I like to minimize that window to save it for later.

What bothers me mightily is that I now have to always keep another Safari window non-minimized so that the minimized window(s) won’t suddenly be maximised again when clicking a link in another application or wanting a new Safari window by clicking the app icon. I want that minimized project window to always stay minimized unless I actively bring it forward.

Is there a way that Safari can treat that minimized window as “locked” in the dock? That it won’t be maximized when I click a link in another application or click the Safari dock icon?

I like this way of working with multiple windows, but I hate the fact that I can’t really close the active non-minimized window I’m now working in because it will make the minimized window reappear at some point.

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3 Answers 3

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One way is to use built-in way to open new window while clicking on link. ⌘ + , to open Safari preferences > Tabs and one can see following options:

enter image description here

So ⌘ + ⌥ + click will open link in new window and makes it active. By adding ⇧ will not make new window active.

Also - what action you call minimizing? Because I can't reproduce any sudden window opening if window is minimized (⌘ + M)

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    What I’m describing is if I click a link in another application, not within Safari itself. The scenario: I have no active windows in Safari, they are all minimized. When I click a link in Mail, one of the minimized Safari windows will be non-minimized and the link opened in that window. What I want instead is that a new window opens when I click the Mail link, instead of one of the previously minimized ones.
    – Simon
    Commented Feb 12, 2021 at 8:41
  • On screenshot there is 'Automatically' selected in 'Open pages in tabs instead of windows'. If you select 'Never' it should open new Safari window if link is clicked from Mail (at least it did in my machine)
    – Aivar Paalberg
    Commented Feb 12, 2021 at 9:37
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    That’s interesting. It gets me some of the way, though now all links clicked outside of Safari open in a new window, regardless of modifier key presses. I’d like to alternatively be able to open the link in the active Safari window (if there is one), not just always open in a new window. I realize this is a very specific use-case, though.
    – Simon
    Commented Feb 14, 2021 at 9:30
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+75

Might not be the answer you're looking for, but on Safari 15 and up, a possible solution is the Tab Groups feature to separate out tabs into different groups.

From the Apple Support page for Tab Groups:

You can organize tabs into groups that make it easy to quickly switch between groups of related websites.

Tab Groups can be accessed from the sidebar (View > Show Sidebar) and you can create them with the plus button located in the upper right there. Then you can move existing tabs into the appropriate Tab Group.

enter image description here

Using Tab Groups, you can separate tabs for your different projects into different Tab Groups. When you open other links, they'll open in your local Safari tabs and not in the Tab Groups for your projects. If you want to continue work on the project you can use the sidebar to open a Tab Group again.

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  • I will try this out as an alternative. Thank you.
    – Simon
    Commented Jan 26, 2022 at 10:51
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There's no simple way to do exactly what you're asking, but you could install Safari Technology Preview (or another browser of your choice) and use it for your project (with your minimized windows), while leaving "regular" Safari to handle links. Alternatively, change your default browser in Preferences -> General so that Safari won't handle http[s]:// links by default.

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  • That’s a good alternative. Thank you.
    – Simon
    Commented Jan 26, 2022 at 10:51

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