Skip to content
Electron Magazine

Electron Magazine

Keeping Up With The Trends.

  • Home
  • Entertainment & Culture
  • Tech & Guides
  • Gaming World
    • Final Fantasy
  • Pokemon
  • Home
  • Tech & Guides
  • Get Rid of Reading List Sidebar on Mac

Get Rid of Reading List Sidebar on Mac

Greg Mcfee August 14, 2022 3 min read
177

The Reading List sidebar first appeared way back in OS X Lion (10.7) and has remained unchanged ever since. While it’s marginally useful for folks who manage multiple Safari accounts on one Mac – say an iCloud-based account and a separate Google Gmail account – it becomes more of a nuisance than a help for most users since you can’t read articles from the Reading List side by side with individual web pages, and there’s no “open in tabs” function either.

If you’re a “Safari only” user, the Reading List sidebar is more of a distraction than a help. It’s always there by default when Safari launches. You can hide it via preferences-display, but you cannot get rid of it entirely either from the menu bar or from within Safari itself.

How to get rid of sidebar on mac

One is to use MacPilot. The article has a link to MacPilot’s “Hide Safari Sidebar” control panel. Note that this also removes the bookmarks sidebar, so if you want that back you’ll have to re-enable it manually after removing the checkmark from Hide Safari Sidebar.

The other way is to use a utility called “SideSwitch” by software developer Justin Garcia. SideSwitch allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts for showing and hiding all sidebars, including the Reading List sidebar. Since the two methods do slightly different things, it’s good to have both utilities installed at once in case you want to toggle between publishing your computer without the Reading List sidebar to share with others and publishing it while showing the Reading List sidebar.

Open Safari on your Mac.

You can do this by double clicking the Safari icon in your Dock, using Spotlight to search for it, or choosing Safari from your Applications folder. Pull up the “Safari” menu bar item via Apple Menu –> “Safari”. Open Preferences under that menu.

Open Safari again and click on the SideSwitch icon in your menu bar. You can get to it by going up to the Apple Menu –> “System Preferences” and then clicking on System Preferences under that menu. It should appear no matter which one you open first, so don’t worry if it looks like you jumped ahead in the instructions. Click on either of the left-most boxes under “Show Sidebar” to toggle the sidebar’s visibility on and off. You can also double click a box to assign a keyboard shortcut for showing and hiding that particular sidebar (the one whose box is currently checked).

Click on the “Safari” menu and select “Preferences”

Click on the “Advanced” icon in the Preferences toolbar to open that section of preferences. Scroll down to “Sidebar.” The checkbox for “Show Sidebar” will be selected if you have not already disabled it. Deselect this box by unchecking it, and click on the close button to finish.

Close your Safari preferences pane, then open the main System Preferences pane again by clicking on that icon in your menu bar or using Spotlight to search for it. You can also just click on the Apple logo at the upper left of your screen and choose “System Preferences” from there. Click on SideSwitch’s name to open its preferences. Click on the checkboxes to assign a keyboard shortcut for showing and hiding both sidebars, the bookmarks bar, and anything else that you want to hide or show quickly with a simple key combination. Click “OK” to finish.

In the Preferences window, click on the “Websites” tab

You can find this by clicking on the words “SideSwitch” in the second section of preferences. Click inside the text field next to “Left sidebar:” and type a keyboard shortcut for showing that particular sidebar, then do the same thing again to assign a shortcut for hiding it. Click on any other checkboxes to assign a shortcut for showing or hiding that particular item. Click on “OK” to finish. You can test your shortcuts by either activating any sidebar with its shortcut or by using the keyboard shortcuts you just assigned for showing and hiding each item.

Conclusion

So, now there is no need to use additional software as MacPilot as Safari has its own built-in feature for this.

You can use the shortcuts you previously assigned for showing and hiding each sidebar object. Alternately, you can use your keyboard shortcut for showing and hiding all sidebars together (this will hide or show everything except for your bookmarks bar).

Continue Reading

Previous: Clear Safari Reading List On iPhone and Mac
Next: My iPhone Doesn’t Vibrate

Trending

Spin to Win: A Guide to Fairspin Casino Slots 1

Spin to Win: A Guide to Fairspin Casino Slots

June 1, 2023
Landing And Dodging Skillshots – League of Legends Guide 2

Landing And Dodging Skillshots – League of Legends Guide

May 31, 2023
The Importance of Luck in Online Gambling 3

The Importance of Luck in Online Gambling

April 18, 2023
Rocket League Credits Prices rocket league credits prices 4

Rocket League Credits Prices

March 30, 2023
Rocket League Season 3 Countdown rocket league season 3 countdown 5

Rocket League Season 3 Countdown

March 30, 2023
Rocket League Pros Settings rocket league pros settings 6

Rocket League Pros Settings

March 30, 2023

Related Stories

Must-Have High-Performance and Good Streaming Cameras for PC
3 min read

Must-Have High-Performance and Good Streaming Cameras for PC

March 28, 2023 97
ByteDance’s foray into VR bytedance vr pico vr q1 yoykharpalcnbc
11 min read

ByteDance’s foray into VR

March 12, 2023 74
Comparison of Surfshark vs ExpressVPN dcbased zerodium expressvpn surfshark pc therecord
11 min read

Comparison of Surfshark vs ExpressVPN

March 12, 2023 86
The Benefits of Galaxy SmartTag fastcompany jaeyeon jung galaxy smarttag smartthings
5 min read

The Benefits of Galaxy SmartTag

March 12, 2023 84
The future of Samsung’s new SmartTags fastcompany vp jung galaxy smarttag december
9 min read

The future of Samsung’s new SmartTags

March 12, 2023 84
How Smarttag can help you save time and money interview fastcompany vp jung smarttag smartthings
13 min read

How Smarttag can help you save time and money

March 12, 2023 73

Trending News

Spin to Win: A Guide to Fairspin Casino Slots 1

Spin to Win: A Guide to Fairspin Casino Slots

June 1, 2023
Landing And Dodging Skillshots – League of Legends Guide 2

Landing And Dodging Skillshots – League of Legends Guide

May 31, 2023
The Importance of Luck in Online Gambling 3

The Importance of Luck in Online Gambling

April 18, 2023
Rocket League Credits Prices rocket league credits prices 4

Rocket League Credits Prices

March 30, 2023
Rocket League Season 3 Countdown rocket league season 3 countdown 5

Rocket League Season 3 Countdown

March 30, 2023
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Talk to the Team
Electron Magazine © All rights reserved.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT