Getting started
- Install New Tab Plus from the Mac App Store.
- Open Safari, then Settings, then Extensions.
- Tick New Tab Plus to enable it.
- Open a new tab. That is it.
Questions
Why does it want to read every website?
Safari does not let extensions read your browsing history, so the only way to offer shortcuts that fill themselves in is to notice which pages you open. That needs broad website access.
What actually happens is narrow: the extension notes the address and counts it, on your Mac. It never reads page content and never sends anything anywhere. You can turn tracking off and add shortcuts by hand instead, and everything else still works.
My new tab still shows Safari's default page.
Check that the extension is ticked in Safari, Settings, Extensions. If it is, quit Safari completely and reopen it.
Safari also has its own setting for what a new tab opens. Under Settings, General, set "New tabs open with" to Homepage if the override is being ignored.
How do I move widgets around?
Click the edit button in the top right, then drag any widget where you want it, or drag its bottom right corner to resize. Press the same button again when you are done.
You can do all of it from the keyboard too: press Tab until a widget is focused, then use the arrow keys to move it and Shift with the arrow keys to resize it. Cmd+Z undoes a layout change.
How do I add or remove a widget?
Open Settings with the gear button and use the Widgets section, or enter edit mode and press Add widget. Every widget can be turned off, and the ones you do not use cost you nothing.
Can I stop it connecting to the internet?
Yes. Turn on airplane mode in Settings and the extension makes no outbound requests at all, no weather, no feeds, no photo, no icons. The dashboard keeps working and the affected widgets say they are off.
Where are my notes and settings stored?
In Safari's local storage on your Mac, and nowhere else. There is no account and no sync. You can export everything from Settings, Advanced, which is also the safest way to move your setup to another Mac.
Where do the daily photos come from?
They are a curated set of public domain and freely licensed space and nature photography, mostly from NASA and Wikimedia Commons. Each one credits its source on the page. You can also use your own image, a gradient, or a plain colour instead.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. There is no analytics, no telemetry and no server of ours. The privacy policy lists every connection the extension can make and exactly what each one receives.
Still stuck?
Tell us what happened and what you expected instead. Mentioning your macOS and Safari version helps us reproduce it faster.
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