A Few Tips Regarding Bookmarks and Using Netscape Communicator

These tips have been compiled from the Netscape Netcenter Tip of the Day, sent out every day to Netscape users that have subsribed to that service. To subscribe yourself, go to http://home.netscape.com , find the selection titled In-Box Direct: Free E-Magazines and click on that link. On the next page go to the category titled Web Building News and select More Computing and Internet Publications. The publication that these are from it titled TipWorld, and is near the bottom of the page. Follow the instruction for subscribing and you will start receiving these tips in your Email Inbox the next day.

BOOKMARK HELP

Want help with your bookmarks? Check out a helper application called Smart Bookmarks. It helps you manage and automatically update your Communicator bookmarks. To find out more, go to http://www.firstfloor.com or search for Smart Bookmarks at http://www.download.com

UNLISTED NUMBER

The Location (Go To) box has a drop-down list of the URLs you have recently visited. This makes it easy for you to go back to certain sites (if you forgot to bookmark one, for example). You may notice, however, that some sites don't appear on the list. This is because it only includes the URLs you actually entered in the Location box or opened with the File, Open Page command. If you open a page by clicking a link within another page, the URL doesn't make the list.

A NEW BOOKMARK PLACE

One way to organize your bookmark file is to put all new bookmarks into one folder. Communicator allows you to do this automatically. Click Bookmarks, then select Edit Bookmarks to open the Bookmarks file. Choose File, New Folder from the menu to create a new folder (name it something like New Bookmarks), then click OK. The new folder appears on the folder list. Highlight this and right-click, then select Set As New Bookmarks Folder from the Context menu. Now when you're at a site you want to bookmark, just select Bookmarks, Add Bookmark to add the site automatically to the New Bookmarks folder. (This only works when you select Bookmarks, Add Bookmark, not when you drag the URL from the Location box to Bookmarks.)

KEEP THOSE BOOKMARKS PRIVATE

If you work in a shared computer environment--or if you just want to prevent snoopers from seeing your browsing habits--consider creating a private bookmark file. There are no fancy tricks here--just create a new bookmark file and name it something other than "bookmark.htm." Aim for an innocuous name such as "stuff," "things," or "there's nothing to look at here." To use your private file when you browse, select File, Open Page, then click Choose File and select the private bookmark file.

PERSONAL BEST

In addition to offering the familiar bookmarks pull-down menu, Communicator includes some other quick ways to access your favorite sites. One is the Personal Toolbar, which appears in the Communicator Display window. This toolbar has some canned links, such as the ones to the New & Cool and Lookup sites, but you can add your own buttons to it. To do this, drag the Proxy icon (it's just to the right of the Bookmarks icon) into the toolbar. The current site (the one specified in the Netsite box) becomes a button link on the Personal Toolbar. Click the button and you access the site.

GETTING MORE PERSONAL

The last tip told you about the Personal Toolbar. This is actually a part of the bookmark file, and allows you to edit, add, and delete items from the Bookmark window. To do any of this, click Bookmarks from the Communicator window, then select Communicator, Bookmarks, Edit Bookmarks to open the Bookmarks-bookmark.htm window. You'll find the links for the Personal Toolbar in the Personal Toolbar Finder. To dump a link, select it and press Delete. You also might want to edit the link—for example, giving it a shorter, snappier name (when you create the link, the button title defaults to the site's full title, which can be pretty long). Highlight the link that you want to edit and select Edit, Bookmark Properties. Enter the new name in the Name field, then click OK. Close the Bookmarks-bookmark.htm window, and the Personal Toolbar reflects your changes.

TOOLBAR ARRANGEMENTS

The last tip showed how to use different bookmark folders as your Personal Toolbar. Remember that you can arrange the Personal Toolbar however you want. Just grab any bookmark icon and drag it to a new location.

OTHER ITEMS ACCEPTED

In Communicator, the Personal Toolbar on the desktop (and the Personal Toolbar Folder in the Bookmarks file) is not just for Web site links. In addition to those familiar links, you can add button icons for newsgroups, mail folders, or Address Book entries. To do this, first open the window that contains the component you want to add (such as the Mail window). Select the item to add, such as the Inbox icon, then drag it into the Personal Toolbar. The item now appears in both the Personal Toolbar and the Bookmarks file in the Personal Toolbar Folder.

ONE FOLDER AT A TIME

If you're like most Netscape Communicator users, your bookmark list tends to get pretty long, even if you organize everything neatly into folders. However, you may not need to see all these folders every time you use Communicator, so you can limit the folders the browser displays. To set the limit, open the bookmark file (select Bookmarks, Edit Bookmarks) and select the folder you want to display. Right-click, then select Set As Bookmark Menu from the context menu. Only this menu appears the next time you open the bookmark list, and you can change the folder anytime you want.

GO ON A BOOKMARK HUNT

Most bookmark files get so large that you lose track of what they contain. To find a long-lost or misplaced bookmark, open the bookmark file (Ctrl-B) and press Ctrl-F to bring up the Find Bookmark box. Enter the word, phrase, or URL for which you want to search in the Find field, then select the search criteria. As you see, you can search the name, location, or description (you can choose any or all), and you can match the case or the whole word (you don't have to select either). Click OK, and Communicator highlights the first bookmark that matches your search or tells you that it found no file.

BOOKMARK COPY SERVICE

Sometimes you want to let someone else in on one of your cool bookmarks. If so, open your bookmark file (Ctrl-B) and highlight the bookmark. Right-click, then select Copy Link Location from the Context menu. Now open a new message in the Composition window and select Edit, Paste. The live link pastes into the message.

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