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Saving Bookmarks

I love this forum but I think we can all agree that the search function does not function well (and this is NO reflection on the tech team here--I know they are limited by the software). At any rate, that nonfunctioning quality extends to bookmarks. I used to bookmark favorite posts in my profile, but trying to find them later was like pulling teeth. As the various threads are updated, they move around constantly in your bookmarks, so it takes forever to find what you are looking for (if you have a lot of bookmarks. Obviously, this does not apply if you only have a few).

So now I'm still bookmarking but doing it in my browser. I'm sure this is not new to many of you, but thought I would just throw it out there for those who hadn't thought about it. I use Chrome as my browser when I bookmark a thread now (although Firefox works using the same procedure). I click on the star in the URL bar and then save it in one of my travel folders in the Bookmarks Bar. I have several dealing with travel, including one for current trips but also for a separate one for future trips. Saving them in the web browser means I can access them later with by just clicking on the applicable folder in my bookmarks bar and scrolling to my target. YMMV. 😊

Posted by
6344 posts

Mardee, this looks like a great idea. I didn't know you could make folders in Bookmarks. I'll have to take a look at that. Thank you!

Posted by
32980 posts

that is a most excellent idea Mardee.

Now for just some spare time to implement. Good grief, what is spare time?

Posted by
6649 posts

Jane, you can make folders by right-clicking in the Bookmark Bar or by going to the Bookmark Manager. It really does make a different and it's so much easier to find threads now.

Nigel, I feel your pain! I always thought retired meant having all this time, but somehow I'm busier than ever, lol!

Posted by
14094 posts

"I always thought retired meant having all this time, but somehow I'm busier than ever, lol!"

Hahaha....that is SO true! My Dad always used to say that but I didn't believe it until I got there!

As it happens, I reorganized my bookmarks in my travel folder in Firefox one day last week. I was looking for something, couldn't find it and thought this is ridiculous. I made a bunch of folders in that folder and it's been so helpful for providing links to others or for doing my own research. Yep, I have one for my 2024 trip and have started separate folders for my 2025 trips. I am holding off on 2026 trip folders, hahaha!

I think I will go thru my RS bookmarks and pull out things that are pertinent to any of the folders in Firefox and add them there.

That will keep me busy instead of working on my tax forms, hahaha!!

Posted by
6344 posts

Mardee, thanks again. I had pulled up the Bookmarks Toolbar (which I didn't even know existed!) and didn't see anything about "folders." Being short on time this morning, I thought "Oh, well... Someday I'll figure it out."

But I just now followed your instructions, and Voila! Folders! Now if I can find the time... Lol.

Posted by
11392 posts

Great idea! I am an avid user of organized bookmarks and I don’t know why I had not thought of this!

Posted by
10270 posts

Genius idea! I bookmark other things, but never thought about doing it separately from the forum.

Posted by
6649 posts

Pam, that's what I've been doing—getting my RS bookmarks in there. AND avoiding taxes, lol!

Jane, glad you found it!

Laurel and Andrea, me, too! I just started doing this a few weeks ago. Better late than never, I guess. 😊

Posted by
4911 posts

It would also help if posters used specific words in their titles , instead of general terms, such as "what do you think of my itinerary?"
Thanks , Marlee, I'll see how skilled I am with this function.
See, I said you were a Renaissance woman!
Thx again!

Posted by
27265 posts

When I'm at home, I copy key text I want to keep and paste it into a master (multi-country) document. When I'm ready to work on a trip to particular country, I move all the relevant forum material to a country-specific document and edit it into notes I've taken from guidebooks and other sources. It's time-consuming, but it works for me.

However, when I'm traveling with a tablet computer, I'm not skilled enough to selectively copy and paste, so I have to use bookmarks. Then I ignore them, because I have so many, and I can't easily tell what country each one applies to. I do have folders set up on my PC at home; I never thought about setting them up on the tablet and using those folders rather than bookmarks on this website to flag threads I want to revisit when I'm back home. Thank you for the great idea.

Posted by
2429 posts

Thanks! I don't know why I never thought to do this. So much better than ctrl+f every time I try to find something I've saved on here.

Posted by
2725 posts

A raven, I do what you do at home. When I’m not at home and accessing the forum on my phone, I take screen shots of posts and save them in an album.

Posted by
3247 posts

Thanks Mardee, but I also long ago discovered saving threads on the website wasn’t working for me.
This is what I do since I mostly am on the forum on my phone. Copy and paste the thread and put it in notes on your phone. I have a list of each country and put it under the appropriate country. Or if I don’t want the whole thread, I copy and paste the sentence or paragraph I want to save.

Posted by
47 posts

Good thread, Mardee! As an obsessive techie, here's what I do:

BOOKMARKS:
I use Firefox on a windoze laptop, and also create bookmark folders. Naturally I have one called "Travel". Below that folder are subfolders for Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, etc... Below Germany, are subfolders called "MunichHotels", "Bavaria", "Rhine" etc...
For each bookmark, Firefox lets me do the following:
1. I edit the bookmark name to make the name shorter and easier to find. For instance, if it's a Rick Steves thread, I'd name the bookmark "RS-" + [thread topic]. If it's Ireland, I might have a bookmark named "Dublin-" + [hotel name]. Without renaming, some bookmarks are huge and full of other text.
2. In Firefox I can right-click the bookmark folder and select "sort bookmarks". This makes them easier to find and keeps all the "RS-" together.

MOVING BOOKMARKS TO MY CELLPHONE:
If you do the bookmarks on your phone, ignore this paragraph... I create bookmarks on a laptop and I also use Firefox on my Android phone, but syncing bookmarks seems to be a bit buggy. So what I do is, just before leaving home, I go to the Firefox "Manage Bookmarks" on the laptop, and highlight all the Ireland bookmarks. Press Ctrl-C for Copy. Then open up an email window, and create a new email. In the body, I press Ctrl-V for Paste. I send the email to myself. Now my wife and I (and anyone else I send it to), can open the email on our phone and see a nice link for each bookmark.

MANAGING FILES:
For any trip we accumulate files such as .jpgs of info, .pdf's of hotel reservations, airline itineraries, maps of cities, etc... I could put this on a Google Drive, but then I'd need internet to see it, and there might be some security concerns. So I make a directory on my laptop named "Ireland24". Using a Windoze program called "Syncback" I synchronize this with my phone and my wife's phone. On each phone I just make a shortcut icon to open the directory on the cellphone with one tap.

TAKING NOTES:
For any trip I have lots of notes, packing lists, inventories of cash, weight of luggage, restaurant names, etc... I use Google Keep for that. Very easy to synchronize this between a Windoze laptop and a cellphone. Works for me.

If you read this far, thank you for your patience! Good travels!