Help me manage my Safari bookmarks

March 23, 2004 8:38 PM

Another (probably stupid) Safari question: how can I (if it's at all possible) add bookmarks without driving one of my essential links off the toolbar? [More inside.]

I have all my daily must-check bookmarks on the toolbar, as it takes a long time to go fetch them from the endless serpent of other bookmarks on the left.

When adding secondary-interest bookmarks (the kind you like to have but don't use regularly), they inevitably pop up on the toolbar, (replacing and displacing a "staple" link to the long list of other bookmarks.

Is there a secret or clever way of directly sending new non-essential bookmarks there, without disturbing the upper toolbar?

Many thanks!

posted by MiguelCardoso to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Miguel, why not add a bookmark folder (or three or four) to the bookmark bar folder, and stick your essential links there? I've got four folders set up for different categories of links.

Also, when I add a non-essential bookmark in Safari, I try to file it away in a sub folder, instead of dropping it onto the bar. Command-D is quick and easy...
posted by jazon at 8:43 PM on March 23, 2004

Unless it's changed significantly in Safari 1.1 and higher (Jaguar user here, and wishing he had Panther!) Safari bookmarks are generally in one of two places, the 'Bookmark Toolbar' or the 'Bookmark Menu'...and by default, when you choose 'Add Bookmark...' from the menu it sticks new bookmarks in the Toolbar.

Sounds like this is what you're seeing...so it should be as simple a matter as taking the drop-down menu in the Add Bookmark dialog and choosing 'Bookmark Menu' instead :)
posted by cyrusdogstar at 8:49 PM on March 23, 2004

If you hit the little "book" in the toolbar, you can organize bookmarks to your heart's content to clean up the current mess, as well.
posted by bcwinters at 9:05 PM on March 23, 2004

Hitting Command-D or selecting "Add Bookmark..." brings down a sheet for me that asks what I want to call the bookmark and where I want to put it. It doesn't automatically put the bookmark in the bar (or the pull-down menu.) Apple's human interface guidelines people put the ellipsis in there for a reason. When you select a menu item with an ellipsis after it, that tells you that you're going to have to follow another step before you get the result you want.

Folders in the bar are the best. I have a folder of news links, a folder of blogs, etc., and with one click I can tell Safari to open every site contained in a folder in separate tabs.
posted by emelenjr at 12:02 AM on March 24, 2004

Thanks guys for so expertly (and diplomatically) solving my problem. I don't think I've ever registered such a seismic Duh! tremor on my stupidity monitor.

I'm very excited now with the prospect of folders - something I'd previously regarded as rather kinky and anal - and expect to be boring you with a folders-organizing question before the onset of Summer at the very earliest.

It must have been difficult to phrase your answers in a language not betraying your pity but, again, I appreciate it! :)

bcwinters: I've always wondered about that enticing little book-icon on the left. Would it lead to my Amazon wish-list? Might it provide me with random quotations from The Bible? Now I know!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:13 AM on March 24, 2004

Another cool thing about folders: you can right click them and be prompted to open all their links in tabs.
posted by timeistight at 3:12 AM on March 24, 2004

um...


Shift-Command-D will just but them in your bookmarks list. I think that is what you want. Cmd-D to toolbar, shift-Cmd-D for list.
posted by n9 at 6:17 AM on March 24, 2004

Yes! Special thanks, n9!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:33 AM on March 24, 2004

n9: very cool! I hadn't run across that myself, it's very good to know.

emelenjr: what I meant was that the default selection of the drop-down menu in that dialog is the Bookmarks Toolbar, so that if one is in the habit of going "Add Bookmark..." and then immediately hitting Enter, that's where one's bookmarks will go =) Drop-down menus are often easy to overlook, I've noticed.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 6:52 AM on March 24, 2004