Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Technology Lesson: How to Bookmark

Today's lesson is a bit remedial, so my advance apologies to my mom, who knows how to bookmark, and long suffering reader Belgian Waffle, who I suspect knows everything that's been posted here anyway.

So! Bookmarks! They're handy. They make finding your favorite Web sites, or that cake recipe you need to forward to your sister, easier to find. You should start using them! (Or using them more often!) Today I'll show you how.

Please note: I used Mozilla Firefox on a Mac in this lesson. These screenshots should work with Firefox on a PC. You can read a lesson about browsers here, and she ought to consider using Firefox (or Chrome) when you browse the web.

There are two ways to bookmark a page with Firefox. The first way is fast, but less thorough. I tend to bookmark this way and go back and organize my bookmarks later. This isn't advised, as it requires some commitment. The other, more thorough, slightly more complicated method, allows more options for organization. (You'll see below.)

1. Go to the site you want to bookmark. For this lesson, I used this blog.
2. Click the STAR ICON in your ADDRESS BAR. (The address bar is at the top of the page and has the Web address of the site you are viewing.) The star is not filled. It should be an outline. My version of Firefox has blue stars. Yours may be yellow.

That's it! You're done! The star should be filled/solid.

This is the other way. It takes more than two steps, but it lets you choose a folder to file your bookmark and the option to add tags. (Tags help me find bookmarks when they're not in a folder, or when I can't remember where I filed my bookmark. It's also a really good habit.)

1. Go to the site you want to bookmark. For this lesson, I used this blog.
2. Click BOOKMARK. It's at the top of your browser window.

3. A menu will descend. It will list options, your folders, and sites you already have bookmarked. Click BOOKMARK THIS PAGE.


4. Another menu will pop up. The previous menu will disappear. This one will appear under the blue star, under the address bar on the right.

You can edit the name of the bookmark (next to NAME), choose a folder to file your bookmark (the drop down menu next to FOLDER), and add tags (the drop down menu next to TAGS; you can also add new tags here). Click DONE when you are satisfied.

You did it! One nice feature here is the RECENTLY BOOKMARKED FOLDER. I use it when I book something for the short-term. You can check out your new bookmark by clicking the BOOKMARKS menu and clicking RECENTLY BOOKMARKED. Look! Lessons for Old People is at the top:

Nice job! You'll find that surfing the Web is easier when you use bookmarks.

1 comment:

Anne said...

Too kind. While, yes, I do know how to bookmark, the culture lessons are invaluable. That leet stuff? Who knew? All the young little starlets I've never heard of? Fantastic. Find it all very useful. You are doing noble work.