Bookmark Tips Bookmarks are your key to online productivity.

Your bookmarks appear in  your bookmark menu in the order you "added" them. It is worth your effort to know how to effectively manage your bookmarks.

In your netscape window click on bookmarks  and select edit bookmarks. A window similar to the oneon the left  should appear. The items in this window represent your bookmarks Change the order of your bookmarks by clicking, dragging, and dropping an item up/down within the bookmark window. Delete a bookmark by selecting it and selecting delete in the edit menu of the bookmark window (or by hitting the delete key) Rename a bookmark by selecting it, and selecting bookmark properties in the edit menu of the bookmark window. (re-naming is useful, since some webmasters choose poor titles for their web pages) Create a sub-menu of bookmarks by selecting new folder in the file menu of the bookmark window. In the subsequent dialog window, choose a descriptive title for this sub-menu. Once you see a folder symbol added to your bookmark window, add bookmarks into this sub-menu by dragging and dropping them onto the folder's name. (You can create nested menus by creating folders inside of folders) Close the bookmarks window and confirm that your bookmark menu has been modified.

I encourage you to create many bookmark submenus, each one containing dozens of bookmarks related to particular topics that interest you. I would also add bookmarks "constantly" as you surf the web. Then on a weekly basis, look through the bookmarks at "the bottom" of your bookmark menu and delete those that were just temporary for a spontaneous project. Be sure to move the really valuable finds up into your bookmark submenus.  

You can also add new bookmarks directly into the appropriate bookmark folder.   Simply select file bookmark instead of add bookmark.  Now your bookmarks will remain organized as you add them.

The techniques described above will keep you organized for the first couple hundred bookmarks. However, after a while, your bookmarks menu will become too long to effectively use "as a menu". You will become frustrated trying to find your favorite bookmark through a series of complex submenus.

Fortunately, all your bookmarks are stored on your hard drive in a single file called "bookmark.htm". As with any web page, the "bookmark.htm" page can be viewed using Netscape. Just go to the "file" menu and select "open File". Browse around your hard disk until you see bookmark.htm (usually located in the same directory as the Netscape program) You can also use your operating system's search function to locate the file (Windows '95 --> Start button -->find File/Folder --> search for bookmark --> double click on the bookmark.htm.)

The Username at the top of the screen  is  based on Netscape's edit -> prefences menu --> Mail and News --> Identity. This is a valuable useful page. Make a bookmark while viewing this page Visit the bookmarked links by clicking on them. Blue bookmarks have not visited in a while (should they be deleted?)

You should also consider making this page of bookmarks to be your home page which will automatically appear whenever you launch Netscape (or hit the Home button). The Home page for Netscape is specified in Netscape's "edit Menu" -->  preferences . on the "navigator screen" which should appear first, just click on "use current page" while your bookmarks page is being displayed.

Netscape contains a "personal toolbar" which you can customize with your own sites.  While editing bookmarks you will see a folder called "personal toolbar folder"  Any bookmarks placed into this folder will instantly appear in your toolbar. You should rename these bookmarks to short length titles so that more of them can be displayed in your toolbar.  Feel free to delete the existing bookmarks which were placed there by Netscape or your ISP.  You can also place bookmark folders into the personal toolbar folder - this will give you pull-down menus in your toolbar.

Note: The bookmarks.html file is just a regular text file.  You can copy it to a floppy disk and share it with other people. In fact the bookmark is one file you will want to make a back-up copy of. If your machine ever dies, your bookmark file is often invaluable, having taken years to build-up.

Another Note: It is possible to get a print-out of your Bookmark URL's by using the following steps:

• Go to Netscape's boomark menu and select edit bookmarks. (You should now see a Window containing your bookmarks)
• In the bookmark window, go the edit menu and click on Select All.
• Go into the edit menu again and select copy.
• Now go into your favorite word processor and select paste from the edit menu.
• You should now see a listing of your bookmark URL's.

Note for my Alumni: Your referrals are always appreciated