Safari has a wealth of special features designed for web developers, all gathered together under a hidden Develop menu. Depending on the version of Safari you are running, the Develop menu will display three or four groups of menu items, such as the option to change the User Agent, show additional features like the Web Inspector and Error Console, debug JavaScript, or disable Safari’s caches. Even if you’re not a developer, you may find some of these features useful.
Before you can use the Develop menu, you must first make this hidden menu visible. This is a fairly easy task, much easier than revealing the Debug menu.
Display the Develop Menu In Safari
- Launch Safari, located at /Applications/Safari.
- Open Safari’s Preferences by selecting ‘Safari, Preferences’ from the menu.
- Click the ‘Advanced’ tab labeled.
- Place a check mark next to ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar.’
The Develop menu will appear between the Bookmarks and Window menu items. The Develop menu is particularly handy for web developers, but casual users may also find the first two items extremely helpful in their daily browsing. The ‘Open Page With’ menu item lets you select any installed browser to reopen an open web page from within Safari. The ‘User Agent’ menu item lets you see how an open web page looks in a variety of Mac and Windows browsers and versions.
