I really like Safari, but I've realized that Firefox has some very distinct advantages over Safari such as an incredible array of "addons" which can be very useful to bloggers.

I am sorry that Safari seems to have some quirks. You have my sympathy Mark!
I know how difficult it is to navigate all the browsers, and their own interpretation of "standards."

Given that Apple actually use WordPress it's not like they don't know.

There are other ways people..... :)

Here's an Apple discussion on running Leopard on an original mini:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5613432

You should be able to do it.

Running Windows via Boot Camp is an incredible experience.

I understand the technical problems you mention -- I'm just trying to put myself in the mind of someone here seeking help and being overwhelmed with the differences between browsers and betas and wondering why their favorite won't do what they wish. I can imagine that as a tech support nightmare and why it is preferred to point people to use a particular browser that is proven to work.

As I said though, other browsers have issues and we await any fixes. If Safari has some "unique features" that sit uncomfortably with what we use then the potential wait is longer. I'm sure the people at moxiecode - who create the editor - have a long list of things that people want.
This is not some switch that we can magically flip and we aren't doing - most of the devs here use macs and have Leopard (I'm waiting to see if a mini will handle it - which I doubt) - so it's not anti-apple :)

That URL is sort of misleading and confusing on Apple's part because it applies to the Tiger version of Safari and the Windows version of Safari which are both in perpetual beta much like Gmail... I'm sure they'll clear up the confusion soon...

I mentioned Leopard in my comment -- and this URL makes the narrow distinction between the various versions a little more clearer:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari.html

So Safari on Tiger and Windows is in beta, but if you're using Leopard, you have the released version.

I wonder if it's just better to say "We don't support Safari" instead of drawing the line at being in beta or not?

EDITED TO ADD:
I just finished writing my Mac OSX Leopard book -- so I understand the difficulty in making these issues clear and drawing fine lines between features and problems and workarounds...

I was going by that.

Either way, just as Opera users have problems with the editor we have, Safari users will have to wait until we get those fixes.

Leopard was officially released on the 26th -- so Safari on the Mac is no longer in beta. The released version of Safari is 3.0.4 and it is much improved over the previous version.

Safari is faster than Firefox now so a lot of Mac users will be moving back to Safari as their default browser -- at least until Firefox 3.0 comes out -- to gain the incredible speed and interface benefits.

We recommend Firefox on the mac, though Camino also works.

not sure, how windows version of Safari could speed up things of creating still non-existant web standards (yet should be checked how those things are getting on up today).

you might also like see a year ago posts:
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=1718&page&replies=9#post-11315
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=2260&page&replies=10#post-13391

I was always under the impression that Safari worked (better - not great!) with the RTE switched off altogether.

Thanks for the update!

1. In the visual editor, if you hit return to start a new paragraph, it appears like things are OK until you hit save, or save and continue editing and then the paragraph breaks disappears and you have one long paragraph. A trip to the code tab reveals there is no paragraph break. In the post I did, I had to enter the paragraph break tabs manually in code view for them to stick. If you do a page break and then switch to code view before hitting save or save and continue editing, there is no page break either. So, visually it's showing the break, but it is not inserting the code.

2. When you highlight text to make it into a link and then hit the link button in the visual editor, enter the link URL and hit insert, the link is not coded in. If you take a trip to the code editor, it verifies that the link code has not been inserted. I got around this by doing link insertion in code view. When you hit save or save and return, the link code stays in place. I then go back to the visual editor and continue writing.

3. If you highlight text in the visual editor so that you can change it to bold or italic, and then hit the appropriate button, it does not insert the code. Again, you have to go to the code editor and make your change there. After making your change in code view, it sticks and will appear correctly in the visual editor.

I have so much to learn about in blogging. I haven't even (or maybe have only just) found where I want my focus... but I realize that the look of some of y'alls blogs is SO much better. Well, I will continue to play and tweak... until I really hit my stride and then want to upgrade to paid.

Thanks again!

I use Ecto http://infinite-sushi.com/software/ecto/ as an off-line editor and have been reasonably happy with it. Once in a while I will somehow get formatting kinked up in a post, but I just pop into the code mode and delete the offender and all is back to normal. There is also another one I've downloaded to try, but haven't yet called MarsEdit http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/ . Both cost money, but less than $30. For a free editor you might check out one of the following:

QTM: http://qtm.blogistan.co.uk/
Lycos-Qumana: http://lycos.qumana.com/download.htm

@thistime...: Yes, I did turn the checkbox on and off... Oh, well, wait. I did that while still trying to get Safarie (earlier version) to work. I didn't again! try to toggle on/off in Firefox.

I did read on the horrors of word. Darn. SO: ANY suggestions on off-line blog editors??

Thanks so much!

(1) Have you tried shutting off the text rich editor and using the standard editor instead?
-> Users -> Your Profile
uncheck the checkbox for "use the text rich editor" then click "Update Profile" to save the change.

(2) A second alternative is to use an off-line blog editor.

(3) A third alternative is to ditch Word with all it's extra microsoft stuff in it cluttering up the html and use a plain text editor like notepad instead.

P.S. It's also recommended that you upgrade your safari and firefox browsers to the new versions.

After following this thread (VERY helpful in realizing that Safari 2.0+ is the reason I am not getting the rich editor) and switching to Firefox (also sad about that like neils), I don't understand what I can do to maintain indents.

I've pasted the content from Word using the "paste from Word" icon; I've free entered; I've tried using the indent icon (but dang, it adds an extra height line!)

What can I do?? Any suggestion would be very appreciated.
Thanks!!

Now I've turned off the visual editor I'm not losing markup.

And your first firefox suggestion also did the trick, though now I can use my preferred browser, I'll stick with Safari.

Thanks for your timely help.

{waving to timethief}

(2) Stab in the dark, if that doesn't work - Have you tried using Camino?