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Migrating from Safari

Are you a Safari user who’s looking to try Camino for the first time? Or maybe you’ve already tried Camino and are ready to make the switch? Below are some helpful tips and tricks to make the move easier.

Migrating from Safari

Please note: any third-party utilities listed here are for informational purposes only; the Camino Project does not maintain or endorse any third-party utilities.

Migrating Your Safari Settings and Data

Bookmarks

Camino can import your Safari bookmarks. Simply choose Import Bookmarks… from Camino’s File menu and select Safari from the drop-down menu in the window that appears. For more information on importing and working with bookmarks, see our documentation on bookmarks.

History

Camino cannot currently import browsing history from Safari.

Cookies

If you have a collection of cookies, you can use the third-party application CookieThief to import your Safari cookies into your new Camino profile (or to sync cookies back and forth if you’re still using Safari on the side). Note that Camino 2 requires CookieThief 1.1 or newer.

Custom Styles

If you have defined a set of custom styles that are selected in Safari’s Advanced preferences, you can copy the styles into a userContent.css file in your Camino profile’s chrome folder. Your Camino profile is located in ~/Library/Application Support/Camino/ (where ~ is your Home folder).

Preferences

While Camino includes most of the same features you’re used to in Safari, Camino supports a different set of preferences. We encourage you to explore Camino’s Preferences window and set the preferences to your liking.

Passwords

Camino can read website passwords that Safari has stored in the Keychain, so logging in to your favorite sites is just as simple as if you were using Safari. When Camino encounters a site for which Safari has saved a Keychain entry, the Keychain will prompt you to allow Camino to access that username and password. Choose Allow to allow access just once, or Always Allow to allow Camino to access that Keychain entry any time in the future. (If you’re still using Safari on the side, Safari will also be able to read any new Keychain entries created by Camino.)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Since Camino has a long history as a Mac browser, many of its keyboard shortcuts predate recent changes made by Apple in Safari’s shortcuts. Safari’s keyboard shortcuts often change with every new version, and some of them seem to make no sense or to break standard Mac OS X cursor movement behaviors.

A full list of Camino’s keyboard shortcuts can be found on our Keyboard Shortcuts page, but some of the most significant are listed below:

  • Bookmark Current Page… - Command-K
  • Bookmark Current Tabs as Tab Group… - Command-Option-K
  • Downloads - Command-Shift-D (opens/focuses Downloads window)
  • Fill Form - Command-Shift-F (fills in forms from your “Me” card in Address Book)
  • Email Page Location - Command-Shift-L
  • Next Tab - Command-Option-Right Arrow
  • Previous Tab - Command-Option-Left Arrow
  • Show All Bookmarks - Command-B
  • Show History - Command-Y
  • View Source - Command-Option-V

If you would prefer to use some other keystroke for a certain menu item, you can use the standard Mac OS X method of customizing keyboard shortcuts, the “Keyboard & Mouse” pane of the System Preferences. For information on how to change keyboard shortcuts using this method, please see this entry in our FAQ.

Alternate Behaviors

Command-1 through Command-9 Keyboard Shortcuts

Like Safari, Camino also uses ⌘1 through ⌘9 to open bookmarks and tab groups on your Bookmark Bar. In Camino, however, these shortcuts only work when the Bookmark Bar is visible in order to prevent unexpected behavior.

Form Fill

Camino is capable of filling in non-password forms on websites using information from your “Me” card in Address Book. To fill in web forms, choose Fill Form from the Edit menu (or use the corresponding keyboard shortcut, or add the optional Fill Form toolbar button to your toolbar).

Camino of course fills in login and password forms using information saved in your Keychain, including information saved while using Safari.

Extending Camino

Camino includes a limited official mechanism for creating add-ons, known as “third-party preference panes.” There are a number of third-party add-ons that take advantage of this mechanism. Like Safari, there are also a number of add-ons that do not use this official mechanism, and many popular third-party Safari “plug-ins” have Camino analogues (in addition, some features only available in Safari “plug-ins” are already present in Camino).

There are also a number of third-party themes for Camino which may change the appearance of toolbar icons and tab widgets.

Please note that none of these add-ons are supported or endorsed by the Camino Project; in addition, add-ons might not use the supported mechanism, may become outdated, and may break Camino.

PimpMyCamino (run by Jon Hicks, of PimpMySafari fame and creator of the Firefox icon, and Camino theme wizard David Feare) is your one-stop shop for Camino add-ons including preference panes, themes, and other software that interacts with Camino.

A few popular Safari “plug-ins” and their Camino analogues are listed below, but be sure to visit PimpMyCamino to see the ever-expanding world of third-party Camino add-ons.

If you’re interested in developing Camino preference panes, visit the documentation in the Camino Wiki.