Organizing your bookmarks folder can help you speed up many redundant tasks
Given the amount of time we spend online within our web browsers, one powerful management tool that’s often overlooked is bookmarks. If you have an optimized bookmark strategy, it can save you a lot of redundant tasks, such as manually opening the same destinations every time you fire up your browser, or spending time searching for that important article you discovered a few days ago. It’s important to note that this is a constantly evolving process and the more you involve yourself with ensuring your bookmarks are optimized, the more productive your browser experience will be. We will try to explore how to best manage your bookmarks across the three most popular browsers on Windows: Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
How to manage bookmarks in Firefox
Adding bookmarks
- The quickest way to bookmark a webpage is to click on the star symbol located in the right-hand corner of the address bar. Clicking the star opens a dialog box that lets you name the bookmark, and below it is the folder location of that bookmark.
- Under Location, you’ll see the Bookmarks Toolbar and Bookmarks Menu. You can add new folders if you want to demarcate your bookmarks, and these folders show up under Other Bookmarks.
- You can also add Tags to the bookmarks, to easily retrieve the saved web pages using tags.
- Right-click on the toolbar, and select Customize Toolbar.
- Drag the Bookmarks menu to the toolbar for quick access. This is an easy way to access various functions associated with bookmarks.
- You can even activate a bookmarks sidebar using this menu. Click on the Bookmarks menu> View bookmarks sidebar (or Ctrl + B) and you’ll be able to view the sidebar as seen below.
Adding bookmarks to searchable folders
- Head over to the right-most button on the address bar. Open application menu> Bookmarks> Manage Bookmarks.
- You can drag bookmarks from the right side of the panel to the folders on the left, rename folders, and much more.
Importing bookmarks from other browsers
- Head over to Open application menu> Bookmarks> Manage Bookmarks and click on Import and Backup> Import data from another browser.
- This will open a dialog box Import Browser Data.
- Here you will get a dropdown menu from which you can select the browser from which you can import the bookmarks-related data.
Adding tags to bookmarks
Whenever you are adding bookmarking websites, you can also add tags to make them easily searchable. Each tag has to be separated by a comma. You can view all the tags in the Manage Bookmarks section.
How to manage bookmarks in Chrome
Adding bookmarks
The simplest way to add bookmarks in Chrome is to tap on the star button at the far right corner of the address bar whenever you’re on a webpage that you want to bookmark. A dialog box pops up where you get the option to name the bookmark and select the folder to which to add it. Unlike Firefox, you don’t get the option to directly add tags. The keyboard shortcut for the same is Ctrl+d (Command+d on the Mac) to add a bookmark.
Adding bookmarks to searchable folders
- Click on the three vertical dots on the right-hand side of the toolbar and select Bookmarks and lists> Bookmark manager. The other way is by typing this URL in the Chrome address bar: chrome://bookmarks/
- In the Bookmark manager, you can add new folders, drag and drop bookmarks into folders, edit the names of bookmarks, and delete them.
Importing bookmarks from other browsers
- To import bookmarks from another browser, head to Bookmarks and lists> Import bookmarks and settings.chrome-bookmarks-import.png
- You are then prompted by a dialog box with a drop-down menu from which you can select the other browsers from where you want to import the bookmarks. Ensure that the browser you’re importing the bookmarks from is shut, or else the import won’t proceed.
- On clicking the Import button, the bookmarks will then be visible in a folder titled ‘Imported from Firefox’ if you imported your bookmarks from Firefox.
How to manage favorites in Microsoft Edge
Adding favorites
- In the Microsoft Edge browser, the bookmarks are called favorites. As with Firefox and Chrome, you can make webpages favorites by clicking on the star icon in the right-hand corner of the address bar.
- Tapping the star button opens a small dialog box that lets you name your favorite webpage and add it to different folders.
Managing your favourite bar
The favorite bar can only hold a limited number of entries before you have to click on the right-facing arrow to view other favorites. One way to have more favorite pages on this bar is by having shorter names for favorites, and having folders here that contain the favorites. In cases where the website logos are easily recognizable, just remove the name altogether. This lets you fit more pages in your favorite bar.
Importing favorites from other browsers
- Open the Favorites dialog box by clicking on the star icon in the taskbar or by pressing Ctrl + Shift + O.
- From the drop-down showing the various quick menu items for favorites, tap on the three dots beside the search icon and click on Import favorites.
- This will take you to the Profile section of Settings. Here you will have all the browsers installed on your machine and the Import button beside it.
Third-party bookmark extensions
Importing bookmarks from one browser to another makes sense if you are shifting your workflow to another browser. But if you are using multiple browsers simultaneously for different work scenarios, having a centralized bookmarks folder makes more sense than constantly importing bookmarks between browsers. This is where third-party bookmark extensions can come in handy. In these extensions, you would need to create an account on each of these bookmark managers. When you save a bookmark to these extensions, provided you are using the same login, those bookmarks will be visible on other browsers on laptops, tablets and smartphones. Here are three bookmark extensions that are available on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
1. Raindrop.io: Raindrop offers a simple user interface, the option to create folders and sub-folders, highlight text inside bookmarks, make web annotations, and take cloud backups of your bookmarks.
2. Booky.io: Booky offers public and private bookmark collections, changing layouts of how bookmarks are arranged, adding notes to bookmarks, and dark mode.
3. Bookmark Ninja: This brings you bookmark management that’s device and browser-agnostic. The layout can be arranged in a dashboard view that gives a higher-level view of all your bookmarks in one place.
Get control of your bookmarks
Having an organized bookmark strategy can save you a lot of time, thereby aiding in increased productivity. With the tips shared, your browsers won’t look like a messy collection of web pages in the Bookmarks tab anymore.