Instant Google search in Safari
Written by Brent Sheets
Dec 4
The Dictionary included with the Mac OS X operating system is outstanding. Nevertheless, when working on a writing project, there are times when only a Web search will do. Here’s a method to quickly search Google in Safari – even if Safari is not running.
If you’re writing in most Mac Text Editors (I use the awesome, and free, Text Wrangler from Bare Bones Software) then simply highlight a word or phrase and press Command+Shift+L. Safari will automatically open and search Google using the text you highlighted as the search term.
I usually write my blog posts in Microsoft Word for Mac but Word doesn’t appear to support this keyboard shortcut (yeah, I’m shocked, too). But no worries, as when working in any application that doesn’t support this neat keyboard shortcut, there is another method that is almost as quick.
Simply highlight a word or phrase and then drag and drop the text on the Safari icon on the Dock. This method also causes Safari to open and complete a Google search – plus it generally works in any Mac OS X application.
That’s Command+Shift+L. Think “L” as in “Lookup” to help you remember this helpful Mac keyboard shortcut.
