How to Open a Link and Go Between Tabs in Safari on a Mac

What you need: A Mac with a web page open in Safari. To open Safari on a website, follow How to Go to a Website by Typing Its Address in Safari on a Mac.

Steps

1. Look near the top of the Safari window. If you see a row of tabs there, each showing the name of a page, note the name on the highlighted tab: it is the page you are on now. If there is no row of tabs, only this page is open.
2. On the web page, find the words or picture you want to open. Words that are links are often blue or underlined.
3. Move the pointer onto those words or that picture and hold it still. If the pointer changes from an arrow to a hand with a pointing finger, it is on a link. If it stays an arrow, it is not a link; move the pointer onto other words or another picture.
4. While the pointer is a hand, click once.
5. Wait for the new page to appear. Then look near the top of the Safari window again. If a row of tabs appeared, or a new tab appeared in the row, the link opened the new page in a new tab. If no new tab appeared, the new page took the place of the earlier one, and you have finished.
6. To see the earlier page again, click its tab, just to the left of the new tab. The earlier page shows, and the new page stays open in its own tab.
7. To go back to the new page, click its tab.
8. When you have finished with the new page, move the pointer over its tab. An X appears at the left end of the tab. Click the X. The tab closes. If only one page is left, the row of tabs goes away; this is normal. If a different page shows, click the tab of the page you started on.

Expected result: The page from the link opened. If it opened in a new tab, that tab is now closed, and the page you started on is showing.