Mac question: Is it possible to create a website shortcut on desktop?

Submitted by Julia on Tuesday, April 30, 2019.
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macOS & Mac Apps

Hello, dear applevis community. I have a mac related question, as the subject says, is it possible to create a bookmark or shortcut to a specific website on mac desktop, like in Ios homescreen? I’ve read some articles about that possibility, and for sighted people it is done via dragging an url from safari address bar to the desktop, but anyone knows how it’s done with voiceover? Thanks in advance for Your help, I’ve tried figuring out this for a ffew days now without any luck.

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Submitted by Julia on Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Ok, so I found the way of doing this by queuing different actions in automator and showing the website as an app on desktop, but I believe there must be a simpler way to do this. :)

Submitted by Bruce Harrell on Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Have you tried exporting your bookmarks to your desktop, using safari file>export bookmark? I tried it, and I ended up with a single file on my desktop containing all my bookmarks, each one identified as a link ready to be opened. I didn't try clicking on any of them, though.

Submitted by Nicholas on Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Hello Julia,
Something I do to save individual web pages as a file on my Mac. In Safari, move to File Menu, choose "Save as..." This will save the current Safari web page as a webarchive. You will end up with the complete web page as a file on your Mac, including all links, buttons and graphics. This resulting page can be opened in Safari and will be fully intact, regardless of current internet connection. If you have current internet access, the links and buttons will be "live" and can be interacted with as normal. The webarchive format will take up a bit more space since it saves all graphics embedded in the file, but it gives a complete web page experience regardless of internet connection. Of course, if you do not have a current internet connection, the links and buttons will not function correctly. After saving onto your Mac, it will have the ".webarchive" file extension. This can give me the full info on a web page for off-line use, but will not be 'connected'.
You can move the webarchive file around as normal in the Finder, group into folders of your own making, etc.
Hope this helps. :-)
Best regards.

Submitted by Igna Triay on Wednesday, May 1, 2019

this app turn websights into apps, sort of what can be done in ios to add a webpage to your homescreen. Hth

Submitted by Julia on Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Thanks for all the responses. I'll try fluit, and also I will try to play around with automator.

Submitted by Oliver Kennett on Thursday, May 2, 2019

So, you might have to play with this as some things might be redundant but seem to work for me.

command L
command a to highlight the address
mouse down with vo, command vo shift and space
command tab to finder
make sure you're in the list
mouse up with command, vo, shit and space once more.

Let me know if that works.

Submitted by Oliver Kennett on Monday, October 14, 2019

Hi,

I've found a far easier way than I previously described. Simply open text editor and create a new file.
Make sure it is a text only file by using the shortcut command shift T.
Now, copy and paste the following text into text editor:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.applevis.com

Now, when you save this file with a name such as 'apple's' make sure to add dot URL at the end of it so:

AppleVis.URL

It will ask you if you are sure you don't want to save it with the TXT extension, go for URL.

Now you have a lovely little file on your desktop, or where ever you saved it that will open a URL.

Drop me a line if you're having any issues.

@OliverKennett