Making Safari pretend to be an other browser

The material on this page was generated in response to a question from a member.

CONTENTS
Introduction
Activating debug mode in Safari
Imitating other browsers

Introduction

Unfortunately there are still some ignorant website developers who build sites that can only be looked at with Internet Explorer 6 or better and they give you a message that you cannot access the site if they determine that you are not using Internet Explorer. Microsoft love these people but it is very annoying for those of us who need to use such a site. Safari can be made to look like Internet Explorer and thus get passed the message. Here is what you do:

Activating debug mode in Safari

Before getting Safari to pretend to be a different browser it must be set into "debug" mode. Here are two possible ways to do this:

Start the Terminal (usually in the Applications->Utilities folder) - type the following command:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1
and then press the return key (the same command but with a 0 instead of the 1 will turn the debug mode back off if you ever need to do so).
Start Onyx (freeware - see the software page) and set "Enable Debug Menu" as follows:

Imitating other browsers

If the debug menu has been turned as above then any of several browsers can be imitated by using the debug pull down menu as in the picture below:

If all of the above seems to complicated then a simpler method is to obtain Safari Enhancer (freeware - see the software page of this website) and select the browser that you need to intimidate as follows:

Caution: this will get you into the site but there may be some code that is Internet Explorer specific and will not work properly in Safari, but at least you will be able to see what is happening and you may be able to work around any problems. Other wise call Bill Gates and tell him what you think.