Stay Organized Online

1. Favorites and Bookmarks

What if you search for an FAQ and find one that is really helpful to you? Do you know how to save it for easy access later? Being able to save and organize websites are two important technology skills you want to have. Taking the initiative to save and organize sites you use often or want easy access to can save you time later. That means more time to focus on achieving your personal and professional goals.

1a. The Bar

You can save websites in any browser you might be using. Typically, after you save them, they will appear in one of two places: under the address bar or in a drop-down menu you can access on the far right side of the favorites bar.

The example above shows you what favorites look like in Google Chrome. You can see Facebook and YouTube saved in the bar and a folder with recipes on the far right in other bookmarks. These favorites were added as bookmarks by first clicking on the star on the right of the address bar, then selecting the destination and clicking “done.”

Take some time to review how to save favorites as bookmarks in your favorite browser. The steps may vary slightly, but it is typically no more than 2 or 3 steps.

IN CONTEXT

Grady’s mom texted him at least once a week so he could remind her of the name of the site where he had family photos posted for sharing. Usually, he had to send the link by text or email. One Sunday afternoon while he was visiting his mom, Grady sat down with her on her computer to show her how she could save the site on her favorites bar. By having the site saved, Grady’s mom could look at photos of her grandkids anytime she wanted to without needing to text Grady and have the address sent.

term to know

Favorites Bar

A toolbar in your web browser that saves webpages for easy and quick reference.

1b. Digital Folders

Bookmarks are meant to save you time and make you more productive . If you save every bookmark in the same place and don’t take any steps to organize them, you won’t reap the benefits of saved searching time. You will just be searching your bookmarks instead of the web.

To keep your bookmarks organized, it is a best practice to use digital folders. Just like word documents, photos, or videos, creating folders and subfolders can help you store your favorites in a way that makes locating what you need when you need it a breeze.

The short video below will show you how you can add a new folder and save your favorite to that location.

did you know

After you save your favorites, you can move them to a different folder later. You may find you need to do this if you create a subfolder or you clean up your list and move some other items. You can find videos and tutorials online that can help walk you through this process for your specific browser.

term to know

Digital Folder

A folder on your electronic device in which users can organize their files.

1c. Naming

You may find that sometimes when you save a site, the default name is very long. It may include information you don’t need or it may not be a clear indication of the content on the site. To avoid this and make your bookmarks as meaningful as possible, you can rename them. Consider the example below:

Default Bookmark Name: Resume Gary 2018: Google Docs

Improved Bookmark Name: Gary Resume 2018

Chances are there is no need to know this is a Google Doc (that will be obvious when it opens). You can simply delete that portion before you click "Done." This may seem like an adjustment so small it does not matter, but when you have a long list of bookmarks, being concise makes it easier to review them and find what you need.

The video below will walk you through the process of renaming a bookmark.