Swafari.exe
Swift/Safari as an external browser
With freeware browser Swift and, since very recently, with a very badly programmed beta version of Safari 3 Windows users can at least get an idea of what their pages look like on a Mac. Both browsers use the same rendering engine as Safari on the Mac, namely WebKit.
Swift is only available as version 0.2. Quite a few things have not been implemented yet, among them the possibility to pass files to the program as parameters.
As of Safari 3.0.4 Apple has finally managed such a standard feature. (For further information on all the other defects of Windows Safari please resort to the search engines; we do not intend to discuss them here.)
Fact is, that neither Swift nor early versions of Safari can be registered as external browsers with Phase 5 (and similar programs).
But there is help from blechtrottel brodaktschns. :-) Swafari.exe (Swift + Safari) calls either browser and passes a file from Phase 5 via File - Open. In Swift it then maximizes the file window to Swift-window size.
installation
- Swift needs Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0.
- Download and install Swift.
- Safari does without the Framework but needs a lot of help in order to display pages properly.
- Unpack Swafari.exe into the same folder that the regular exe sits in.
- In Phase 5, register Swafari.exe as an external browser without parameters (see screenshot).
If you want to test both Swift and Safari, you have to take the last two steps seperately for each of them.
final remarks
- Swafari.exe should work in any program that passes files as "%1". Additionally, you can create a link to it and pass files via drag and drop or use it from the command line: C:\Progam Files\Safari>swafari test.html
- We have tested Swafari.exe under Windows XP. Any comments are very welcome - as always.
- Swafari was written using a freeware scripting tool called AutoIt.
