Practicing the Black Art (08/03)
Managing Your Favorites Menu in Internet Explorer
by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@home.com
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Anyone who tunes into the Internet today uses a browser to see the substance of a web site. Prior to the development of browser utilities, the only way to access Internet content was through a command line. Of course, command lines meant you needed to know commands and their structure (syntax). Other than scientists, engineers, propeller heads, bit twiddlers, and other assorted computer geeks, normal people were excluded from the Web.
Netscape changed all this. The Netscape (tm) browser was originally based on the Mosaic program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Today, Netscape has lost its dominance, and most people use Internet Explorer.
One of its best and most useful features is the Favorites menu which keeps track of web sites you like to revisit.
Over time, you will probably collect a long list of Favorite web sites. Think about how much time it would take to recreate your Favorites list if it were inadvertently deleted or became corrupted. It could be an impossible task. Since you back up your valuable data, why not include the Favorites menu? Windows XP has a built-in backup utility for the Favorites menu. To back up your Favorites folder:
- In the Internet Explorer browser, open the File menu and select Import and Export.
- The Import/Export Wizard appears. Click Next.
- Click Export Favorites.
- The Favorites folder is highlighted. This will back up the entire list. Click Next.
- This screen shows the Internet Explorer 6x default location. Choose another location to store your backup material, preferably on a CD-ROM, another disk drive or any location other than the C: drive. It's very dangerous to keep any backups on your primary drive. If disaster occurs, you lose everything, including your backup.
Let's open the Favorites menu from the IE menu bar and select Organize Favorites.
Here is where the action takes place. The Create Folder button creates a new folder in your Favorites list. Click it, type a name for the folder, and press Enter.
The Delete button removes folders or web sites that are no longer useful.
Rename does exactly what it says. If you want to change the name of a folder or a web link, you can easily do it here.
The information box tells you the name of the selected web site, its web address (URL), how many times you've visited the site, and the last time you accessed it. It may be enlightening to highlight some of your Favorites to see how often you use the links. Some web sites quickly lose their appeal. Delete the ones you no longer want.
Open the Favorites list from the menu bar and right click on any item that is not a folder.
There is an impressive amount of options available for you to manage your Favorites list simply by bringing up these menus. You can perform every function available in the Organize Favorites dialog box and more. The Sort by Name option puts things in alphabetical order, and the Send To displays a list of locations where you can send a copy of the item.
The Make available offline option specifies that you want the content from the selected Web page available when your computer is not connected to the Internet. Follow the choices on the Offline Favorite Wizard, and be sure to select a limited amount of content, otherwise you may overwhelm your machine no matter how powerful it is.
When a page is marked available offline, you can update the content manually by clicking Synchronize on the Tools menu. If you want to update automatically, click the Setup button in the dialog box, and then create a schedule.
The Favorites menu is only one small but important part of Internet Explorer. Keeping it organized and up-to-date will enhance your Internet experiences. :
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Copyright 2003. This article is from the August 2003 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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