Custom Application Keyboard shortcut for Safari not always working

google-chromekeyboardsafari

I uninstalled Flash a little while back, and installed Chrome as a back-up for when I hit something in Safari and want to see the Flash. I have the "Show Develop in Menu Bar" preference set, and created an Application Keyboard Shortcut for Safari, to Develop>Open Page With>Google Chrome. The shortcut I created was ⌘ + K. And it works!

Well, kinda. It seems like every time I quit and restart Safari, the shortcut stops working. But once I navigate back to Develop>Open Page With (I can just cancel when I bring up the menu, I don't need to select anything), the shortcut works again.

Any way to make sure it always works?

Best Answer

This is a known “bug” which I don’t know if Apple will ever consider a bug.

The problem is that the list of browsers is generated “dynamically” each time you click on it (or at least the 1st time after Safari has been launched); the reasoning behind this is that different users will have a different set of browsers, so the list cannot be hardcoded. So given the above, the shortcut fails to work until the list has been “generated” by Safari. This occurs when you display the menu.

A possible solution would be to use Automator and create a service that opens the current safari page onto Chrome. But that’s beyond the scope of this answer.

TLDR version: There’s nothing you can do other than file a bug report at Apple if you want to stick with the same shortcut technique. Alternatives involve Automator.

Open in Chrome Service

You can make a Service in 10.6 or 10.7 using Automator that will open a selected URL in Chrome.

Here's how:

Open Automator
When Automator asks you to Choose a type for your document window, select Service
Change the "Service receives selected" drop-down to "URLs"
Add a Run AppleScript action (found under the Automator Library, or just search) by dragging from the left pane to the right
Copy the code below to the text field (replacing all the existing text)
Save and give the service a name (it will be added automatically to the services menu)

Code:

on run {input}
    set theURL to input
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        if not (exists first window) then
            make new window
            set URL of last tab of first window to theURL
        else
            tell first window
                set newTab to make new tab with properties {URL:theURL}
            end tell
        end if
        activate
    end tell
end run

This will open any selected URL in Safari or other application in Chrome, either in a new tab in the most recent window, or a new window if there is no open Chrome window. To access it, right-click and under the Services item at the bottom of the menu, you should see an item with the name you assigned.

One important caveat: OS X seems to be a bit picky/buggy about passing link to this sort of service. It works fine if you have text selected as a URL, but it only seems to work on some links. If I discover a better method, I'll update this post with it.

You may also need to restart Safari for the service to appear.

Best Answer

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