How to Close Tabs and Windows on Your Mac
You can open as many Safari tabs and windows as you would like in Safari on your Mac. Sometimes you may end up with so many open tabs and windows that you want to close all or some of them to get rid of the clutter; having too many tabs or windows open can be overwhelming and make it difficult to focus on what you’re doing. In this article, I explain several ways you can do this.
Tabs in browsers allow you to have multiple pages open at the same time without having to juggle multiple windows.
How to close a browser tab on Mac
- This is probably the easiest one. Move your pointer over the tab where the site’s address shows, and a close (x) button will appear. The X button will not appear until you hover your pointer. Click that to close the tab.
- Move your cursor over the tab where the site’s title is displayed in the tab bar. Then right-click (or Control-click) and select Close Tab.
- You can also click on File in the Safari menu bar and select Close Tab while you have that tab open.
- The Command–W shortcut also closes the current, open tab.
How to close all browser tabs on Mac
- Move your cursor over a tab, right-click (or Control–click) and select Close Other Tabs. This will cause all other tabs to be closed.
- I often use this to close all tabs (and windows): Press and hold the Command key and then keep pressing the W key. This will close tabs one at a time, but it will just take a few seconds to close all tabs.
- This is very similar to the one above this, but even faster. Simply press and hold down the Command and W keys together until all tabs are closed. This is pretty fast. This will close every tab (and window) open until you stop holding the keys down.
How to close Safari windows on Mac
- The most common and easy way is to click the red close (x) button located in the top-left corner of the window to close a single window.
- You can click on File > Close Window in the menu bar.
- You can use the Command–Option–W keys to close all open windows. Or alternatively, click on File > Close All Windows from the menu bar.
- If you press Command–W, you can close a single window.
When you close windows in Safari on your Mac, Safari will still continue to run. This does not completely quit Safari. To quit Safari, go to Safari > Quit Safari in Safari.
About the keyboard shortcuts used to close tabs and windows
- The above-mentioned keyboard shortcuts will work in Safari and other browsers, like Chrome, as well.
- They will also work in Finder windows and other app windows.
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