Extensions allow you to add functions and features to a program. And there are a lot of extensions out there for web browsers.
But Safari has lacked built-in support for extensions. Leaving extension writers for Safari to develop tricks and hacks to get their add-ons to work. Often these tricks and hacks would be broken in the next version of Safari.
Well, Safari 5 adds an official, sanctioned and supported mechanism for creating extensions.
But it’s turned off by default. No doubt Apple thinks that if you don’t know how to turn them on, you probably shouldn’t be installing any. Well, this is how you turn them on:
- Open Safari.
- In the Safari menu, choose Preferences…
- Click “Show Develop menu in menu barâ€
- Dismiss the Preferences window. (At the bottom.)
- You will get a new Develop menu in Safari’s menu bar. In this menu, select Enable Extensions.
That’s all there is to it.
Sadly you can’t enable extensions and then turn off the Develop menu. If you turn off the Develop menu, you not only disable the extensions, but you loose all the extensions you’ve installed. So leave that Develop menu there.
