“Of Mice and Megabytes Supplement”

HOW TO BOOKMARK YOUR FAVORITE WEB SITES
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Imagine, if you will, one day you’re nonchalantly surfing the ‘Net when you happen upon a site listing every widget known to man (and women). Widget heaven! Deciding you’d like to re-visit at a later date, you write down its address (a.k.a. URL). But instead of using pencil and paper, why not let your browser do the remembering?

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) calls them “favorites,” while Netscape’s browser refers to them as “bookmarks.” Whatever the nomenclature, the end result is the same: A shortcut to any Web page.

Creating these cyber shortcuts is easy, but IE and Netscape differ slightly so I’ll separate the tasks by browser type. First, we’ll start with the same starting point: Your browser is currently displaying the Web page/site that you’d like to re-visit.

INTERNET EXPLORER
Select Favorites, then Add to Favorites. Near the top of the window that appears, you can edit the site name if you desire. If on the right side only three buttons are visible, click Create In. The resulting window (titled Add Favorite) will display your current folders. Click on the folder you’d like to store the URL. Or, create a new folder by clicking the New Folder button, naming it, then storing the bookmark. When completed, click OK.

If you want to list the Web page directly on the drop down list that appears when you select Favorites, pick the folder Favorites at the Add Favorite screen.

NETSCAPE
Click Bookmarks, then File Bookmark. A window titled Add Bookmark will pop-up. Here, you can edit the name of the site if you’d like. Find, then click once on the folder you’d like to save the URL to. Click OK. If you don’t find one you like, create a new folder (click on the New Folder button), then name it. Click OK. (In Netscape 6.0, the File Bookmark feature is not available.)

Netscape will save the currently displayed Web page directly to the Bookmarks drop down list if you select Bookmarks, then Add Bookmark.

EDITING AND ORGANIZING
You can further organize, edit, or delete any saved URL, by selecting Favorites (or in Netscape, Bookmarks), then Organize Favorites (or Manage Bookmarks). To move a folder or URL, click then HOLD DOWN the mouse button while you move it to a new location. To further help the sorting process, the nesting of folders within other folders is allowed. Additionally, Netscape provides for separator lines to further assist in visually sorting out your bookmarks (select File, New Separator).

USE IT
Access your saved shortcuts at any time by clicking either Favorites or Bookmarks, then choosing the folder that it’s stored in, then select the site.

Bookmarking your beloved and most-visited sites make cyber surfing a breeze. You’ll probably find, though, that creating them is easier than organizing them. So at the very least, weed out early those dead links created by closed Web sites or changed content. Otherwise, your Favorites list will become unwieldy. Like mine.

Re-printed from the Rafu Shimpo, April 2002. Copyright©2002 Rafu Shimpo. All rights reserved.