Delicious

In this Power Up, Miraz Jordan keeps track of all her favourite web pages. [First published April 2006. Some details may be a bit dated. Update February 2008: hmmm, Google's so efficient I seldom bother bookmarking anything any more. When I do use bookmarks, I generally do it via Delicious.]

Locating good websites can easily fill many hours. If you’ve invested precious time into finding the best camera review website or that crucial manual for your classic motorcycle then the last thing you want is the intense frustration of looking for it again next week or next month.

Are you still using Internet Explorer for web browsing? It was pretty good in its day, but that day was about 5 years ago and it can’t keep up with modern web pages. It’s time to use a modern browser such as Safari, Firefox, Opera or OmniWeb.

Advice columns will cheerfully tell you to Bookmark a web page, and of course you should, but with dozens or hundreds of bookmarks the list is unwieldy and hard to use. Banish frustration and temper tantrums with some organisation. This article shows you how to manage Safari’s bookmarks, but it’s pretty much the same even if you’re using a different web browser.

Tip: Visit Safari’s File Menu and choose Export Bookmarks … before you start messing about with your Bookmarks. Save the html file in a safe place. If you mess everything up you can import this file again. This is also a good way to back up your Bookmarks.

Show all Bookmarks

Screenshot 1: I’m looking at the bookmarks in my digicam folder.

First make sure the Bookmarks Bar is visible by visiting the View menu and checking it. You can Show all Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu, or by clicking the open book icon at the left end of the Bookmarks Bar. Once the Bookmarks window is open select any folder in the Collections list on the left to see all the individual Bookmarks it contains.

Delete and re-order Bookmarks

Screenshot 2: I drag the most important bookmark for my camera to the top of the list.

Delete a bookmark by selecting it and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. Be careful with this as the bookmark is simply deleted with no additional warnings. If you accidentally delete a bookmark you intended to keep immediately choose Command Z to restore it. You could also choose Undo from the Edit menu.

Change the order of bookmarks by dragging them around in the list. A bookmark appears to stay where it is until you finish the move by dropping it in its new location. A black line with a circle at the left end shows where the bookmark will go when you drop it.

Tip: you can duplicate a bookmark by holding down a modifier key while dragging. The Option key is the normal choice for this, but the Command key seems to work too.

Work with collections

Screenshot 3: I created a Personal collection, move it near the top of the list and drag bookmarks into it.

The Collections list may already have some default folders of bookmarks. If you don’t want the bookmarks Safari came with you can delete a folder by selecting it and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. The folder (and its contents) is simply deleted with no additional warnings. You can Undo this (see above) if you don’t do anything else in the meantime.

Add a new Collection by pressing the + icon below the Collection list. It will appear as an Untitled Folder. Type a suitable name and press the Return key to complete the action.

Drag the new folder within the list to change the sequence of Collection folders. Drag a bookmark from one Collection folder to another to move it.

Find a bookmark

Screenshot 4: I find the Macguide bookmark by using the Search box at the bottom of the Bookmarks window.

Macguide — now where was that bookmark? In the latest version of Safari (and possibly earlier versions) there’s a search box at the bottom of the Bookmarks window. Click the icon of the magnifying glass to choose whether to search in the currently selected Collection or all Collections. Then type your search term.

It’s a Live Search so each letter you type filters out bookmarks, leaving only possible matches. The column called Parent tells you which Collection contains the bookmark.

Use the Bookmarks Bar

Screenshot 5: Create a folder whose contents will open with one click.

I keep a handful of my most commonly used bookmarks in the Bookmarks Bar. Group related bookmarks into a folder. You’ll see the Bookmarks Bar collection at the top of the Collections list. Seleect the Bookmarks Bar collection and click on the + icon below the Bookmarks list to create a new folder.

I check the box in the Autoclick column for my new Astronomy folder so I can call up several pages showing me the night sky with just one click.

Screenshot 6: The folder whose contents will open with one click is marked with a small square on the Bookmarks Bar.

Backing up and organising your Bookmarks can save a lot of hair-pulling. Try it and see.

First published in Macguide magazine Issue #26 March / April 2006 and republished with permission. This article may have been modified from the original.

Popularity: 23% [?]

This month Miraz Jordan shares some useful techniques for bookmarking web pages. [First published December 2006.]

It’s del.icio.us

What a nuisance! You bookmarked that web page of useful Mac tips, but that was on your home computer and now you’re at work, or visiting a friend, or using a different web browser. You’ll have to search all over again. Unless you make use of a free service called Del.icio.us, that keeps your bookmarks online: http://del.icio.us.

Sign up

Visit the Del.icio.us website and sign up for a free account. Verify the account by clicking on the URL in the email you receive. To make using the service easier, add the Post to Del.icio.us and My Del.icio.us bookmarklets to your web browser toolbar. There is a Help page with details, if you’re not sure how to do this. I signed up with the account name: mirazj.

Add bookmarks

Now surf around the web in the usual way. When you come to a page you want to bookmark click on the Post to Del.icio.us bookmarklet in your toolbar. You may need to login at this point, but once you’ve done that you’ll arrive at a screen where you can enter tags (categories) and save the bookmark. Then you’re returned to the page you were visiting. You can access your list of links from any web browser anywhere in the world. Mine are at: http://del.icio.us/mirazj.

Screenshot 1: A few of my bookmarks at Del.icio.us. Note all the tags on the right. I can also see how long ago I added a bookmark, and how many other people bookmarked that page.

Pukka

The Del.icio.us bookmarklets make it quick and easy to bookmark a page. Another tool making bookmarking easy is a piece of software called Pukka (codesorcery.net/pukka, US$5).

Download and install Pukka. Then, if Pukka hasn’t asked you for the account information for Del.icio.us, go to the Pukka menu and get the Preferences….

Click the Plus symbol to add an account, enter your Account name and password for Del.icio.us, then click the Save button. If you have more than one account at Del.icio.us, then go ahead and enter the details for any other accounts. For example, you may have one account for work and another for home.

If you like, go to the Pukka menu again and choose Install Bookmarklet. A web page opens with instructions and a link to drag to your web browser’s Bookmarks bar.

Screenshot 2: I’ve selected some text on a web page and click the Pukka bookmarklet.

Now when you want to bookmark a page at Del.icio.us either fill in the details in the Pukka window and click the Add Link button, or visit a web page and click the Pukka bookmarklet link. Pukka opens, with some information already present, allowing you the opportunity to edit the URL, Title, Tags and Description before clicking the Add Link button.

Screenshot 3: Fill in details in Pukka.

Pukka is simple, helpful and unobtrusive. It also has a free trial and costs only US$5 if you decide to keep using it.

Delibar

If you use Mac OS X 10.4. (Tiger) you may like to use Delibar (www.rknet.it/program/delibar) to make it easier to access your Del.icio.us bookmarks. Delibar is free, but if you find it useful you may like to make a donation to its author.

Download and install Delibar. Then, if it hasn’t asked you for the account information for Del.icio.us, go to the Delibar menubar item and get the Preferences…. Enter your Del.icio.us Account name and password, then click the OK button.

You may need to choose Reload Bookmarks from the Delibar menubar item, but once it’s showing your bookmarks, you’re good to go. Click on the Delibar icon in the menubar and you’ll see all your Del.icio.us bookmarks listed, by tag. To speedily reach a tag, don’t scroll, but instead just type the first letter of the tag. When you select a bookmark it opens in your default browser.

Screenshot 4: Choose a bookmark from the Delibar menu.

Another site to add to your Del.icio.us bookmarks is the MacTips archive: www.mactips.info.

This article was first published in Macguide magazine Issue #30 November / December 2006 and may have been modified from the original.

Popularity: 15% [?]

The Internet has utterly changed in the last couple of years, as the primary emphasis moves from storing and sharing information to connecting people.

Older uses of the Internet such as Gopher, Usenet newsgroups and IRC are hiding away in dusty corners; email is becoming less useful by the day as spammers drown out legitimate messages and spam prevention techniques interfere with personal and business communications.

Newer tools and techniques are on the rise. Driving their growth is people’s desire to connect with friends, family and strangers. What’s more the power of each individual tool is often enhanced by combining it with other tools, knitting together a strong fabric of connections and community.

Many modern services incorporate features that allow you to rank items, add comments, add items to your favourites, share items with friends via email or blogs, add items to your (shared) bookmarking system, or place items within a context of geographical or social networks.

YouTube videos are a good example: watch a video online and then add it to your list of favorites and your playlists, add a comment, click a link to share the video with others via email, Digg, del.icio.us, Furl, reddit or StumbleUpon, or by embedding it on your own web page (such as a blog). Use Google Maps to find YouTube videos from specific locations.

It’s all about connecting people in ways that go far beyond the original web concept of linking one file to another. Note: all these services tend to reflect the real world, in that some content is entertaining, high quality and family friendly, while other content is unpleasant, explicit or just trivial.

You should spend some time to explore some of these tools:

• Flickr
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Digg
• Del.icio.us
• Google Maps
• Furl
• Reddit
• StumbleUpon

On YouTube start with this 2 minute video from Amnesty International: Signatures — Winner of the Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions 2007. Your signature is more powerful than you think. [Link updated 11 January 2008.]

Written for and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, August 2007. This article may have been modified from the original.

Popularity: 13% [?]