How to Inspect Element on Safari Mac Computer?

Inspect Element on Safari

If you want to learn more about the parts of a website and its backend, you need to use Inspect Elements on Safari Mac. InspectElement is a feature needed by every front-end or UI developer to debug UI errors or make quick changes to CSS and HTML scripts.

This feature is pre-enabled in Chrome and Firefox and can be viewed with a simple right-click. Still, Safari Mac users need to enable it before inspecting web items.

Read: How to Change Safari File Download Location On Mac

As a Mac user, it was difficult for me to make quick changes to web code without inspecting things while working on a web development project. I recently learned to inspect item attributes, and it immediately made my job easier.

Activate the Development Menu (Inspect Element on Safari )

Most average users don’t need the developer menu that hosts the Inspect Elements feature. Therefore, the Safari browser keeps this option disabled.

Inspecting elements of a website is only possible after activating the development menu of your Safari browser. Enabling the Develop menu is important because it will allow you to use Apple’s Web Inspector for debugging; Therefore, you need to enable Developer Tools for Safari.

Here are the steps to enable the Develop menu in Safari for Mac:

  • Launch the Safari browser on Mac.
  • Select the Preferences option.
  • This will open the Preferences window.
  • Go to the Advanced tab in the Preferences window.
  • Check the box next to the Show Develop menu in the menu bar.

This will add a separate Develop menu to the Safari menu bar and enable the Inspect Elements feature.

Inspecting Elements in Safari Mac

Once you have enabled Developer Tools, you can continue to inspect items in Safari on a Mac device. 

There are several ways to implement the inspect option. You can choose the one that you find more accessible or better.

Right-click for Context Menu (Inspect Element on Safari )

You can immediately open the inspect element and make the necessary changes to the HTML code. Simply right-click the web page whose elements you want to inspect and select Inspect Element.

You will never face any difficulty in this method, but remember to open the page you want to inspect first.

Web Inspector from Develop menu

You can open the Elements Inspector window from the Develop menu.

  • Launch Apple Safari on Mac.
  • Click on Develop menu in the menu bar.
  • Select the Show Web Inspector option from the list.

The Inspect Elements window will appear, but be sure to open the page you want to inspect.

Safari Shortcut keys

Hotkeys are always a time saver, just press a few keys at a time and you’re done. You can inspect items in your Safari browser with a set of hotkeys.

You can press Cmd+Options+I on the keyboard to invoke the Inspect element or Web Inspector. This is probably the shortest method you can use when you have the page you want to view open.

Conclusion: Inspect Element in Safari

The inspect element is useful for anyone studying the user interface and modifying HTML and CSS code.

Chrome and Firefox browsers have inspected elements enabled by default, and you can access them using the appropriate mouse button. However, Safari on Mac users must enable the Develop menu for the same functionality before examining the web code.

You can view the source code of a particular item and edit text, remove parts, hide details, and edit them in HTML format to view the source code. You can also review the formatting of elements, especially text elements, in the Styles tab. By enabling this feature, you will be able to inspect elements on a webpage with a single click or by pressing a hotkey.