Organising bookmarks, favourites

If you have any sort of online life, then hopefully you already use bookmarks or favourites to manage your most visited websites.

It saves time and effort typing in web addresses and remembering lengthy urls. However, to get the most out of any system you need to keep things organised.

At the most basic level you should have your bookmarks at least sorted alphabetically. For Internet Explorer (IE) users, click on Favourites, then Organise Favourites and this brings up your list of links. Right click on the white space and choose the Sort by Name option.

If, like me, you prefer Firefox for your browsing, then click Organise your Bookmarks, then Views. You will see 10 different options for sorting your links.

Choose one that works for you - I like the date last visited option as it gives you a good idea of which bookmarks you actually use. For good digital housekeeping it is worth having a clear out of sites you have not visited for ages. Just right click on the bookmark in question and hit delete.

If your bookmarks are in the hundreds, then group them in folders to stay organised. IE users click on Favourites>Organise Favourites>Create New Folder. As with all filing, give your folders meaningful names. You can then simply drag and drop your favourites into the appropriate folders.

It is a similar story for Firefox users, click on Bookmarks at the top of your toolbar and then right click on the grey drop down menu which will give you the option to create a new folder. Another feature I make heavy use of in Firefox is the option to tag your bookmarks, this is great if you are struggling to find a particular bookmark as you can search for key words.

Of course, it means you do have to have tagged it in the first place. Which brings us on to the most obvious point - keep your bookmarks organised as you add them. It takes a second to add something to your bookmarks and maybe five seconds to select a folder to save it in or to tag it with keywords.

However, leave it until you have a list of 500 unfiled, untagged bookmarks and you will never get round to organising them unless you are freakishly disciplined.

If you regularly use different PCs or alternate between browsers then try delicious.com which lets you collate all your bookmarks and access them from anywhere. Delicious is a social bookmarking site, set up with the idea of letting people share their bookmarks with others. I don't know that anyone but me would find my bookmarks that fascinating, but you can keep them private by just altering your settings.

It is free to sign up for an account and simple to use. That is a great combination.

- © Fairfax NZ News