Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

11.3. Favorites (Bookmarks): All Versions

When you find a Web page you might like to visit again, press Ctrl+D. That's the keyboard shortcut for the Add to Favorites command. (The long way is to click the Add to Favorites button identified in Figure 11-5.) Type a shorter or more memorable name , if you like, and click Add.

Figure 11-5. Top: When you want to flag a Web page for visiting later, using this menu is one way to do it .

Bottom: Internet Explorer offers to add this Web page's name (or a shorter name that you specify for it) either to the Favorites menu itself, or to a "folder" (category) within that menu. The next time you want to visit that page, just select its name from the star-shaped menu at the top left of the window.

The Web page's name appears instantly in the "Favorites center," which is the menu indicated by the yellow star (Figure 11-5). The next time you want to visit that page, open this menuor press Alt+Cand click the Web site's name in the list.

Tip: You can send your list of Favorites to or from other browsers or other PCs, which can save you a lot of time.To do that, open the Add to Favorites menu (Figure 11-5); choose Import and Export. The Import/Export wizard appears to guide you through the process. Consider saving them onto, for example, a flash drive, for ease in transporting to another location or computer.

You can rearrange the commands in your Favorites menu easily enough. Open the Favorites center (Figure 11-6), and then drag the bookmarks up and down in the list.

Figure 11-6. When the Favorites menu opens, you can drag names up or down to rearrange the list, as shown. Or right-click one to access the commands that rename, delete, or file a favorite into a folder. (Unfortunately, the Favorites menu covers up part of the Web page you're reading. It hides itself soon enough, but you might also want to freeze the Favorites Center open so that it doesn't cover the page. To do that, click the Pin the Favorites Center button shown here.)

Or, for more elaborate organizing taskscreating and deleting folders, renaming sites, and so onclick the Add to Favorites button (Figure 11-5) and, from the shortcut menu, choose Organize Favorites. You get a little dialog box that makes all of those tasks easy.

Tip: If you Shift -click the Organize Favorites command, you open a standard Explorer window that lists your favorites as though they're standard computer files (which they are). Technically, you're now inside your Personal Favorites folder. Now you can use standard Windows techniques to delete, rename, copy, paste, and otherwise manipulate your Favorites. You can even back them up, copy them to a flash drive, and so on.
11.3.1. The Links Toolbar

The Favorites pane is one way to maintain a list of Web sites you visit frequently. But opening a Web page in that pane requires two mouse clicks an exorbitant expenditure of energy. The Links toolbar, on the other hand, lets you summon a few, very select, very favorite Web pages with only one click.

You make the Links toolbar appear by choosing Tools Toolbars Links. Figure 11-7 illustrates how to add buttons to, and remove them from, this toolbar. Once theyre there, you can rearrange these buttons simply by dragging them horizontally.

Figure 11-7. Once you've got a juicy Web page on the screen, you can turn it into a Link by dragging the tiny page icon directly to the Links bar, as shown here. (You can also drag any link from a Web page onto the toolbar.) If you right-click a link, you can choose Rename (to pick a shorter name that fits better) .

Tip: As shown in Figure 11-7, you can drag a link from a Web page onto your Links toolbar. But you can also drag it directly to the desktop, where it turns into a special Internet shortcut icon. To launch your browser and visit the associated Web page, just double-click this icon whenever you like.Better yet, stash a few of these icons in your Start menu or Quick Launch toolbar for even easier access. (Moreover, if you open your Computer C: drive Users [Your Name] Favorites folder, youll see these shortcut icons for all your favorite links. Feel free to drag them to the desktop, Quick Launch toolbar, Links toolbar, or wherever you like.)

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