Have your Internet favorites or bookmarks available anywhere

Posted by Vic Laurie
January 16, 2006

I travel a lot and sometimes I end up using a computer in a library, Internet cafe, or other public place. I like to have access to my Internet favorites (AKA bookmarks) so I have a copy of them at a place on the Web where I can access them from anywhere. I happen to use Yahoo as a place to put them but Gmail or any number of free possibilities are available.

The way to get a copy that can be read on the Web is to export your favorites as an HTML file and either upload it to some personal space (many ISPs provide this) or as an attachment to an email, which you can keep at one of the free Web email services. All the major browsers have an export function that will generate a copy of your favorites in HTML form. (AOL used to be a big exception but that may have changed. I am unfamiliar with the newest AOL practices so I don’t know. Maybe somebody can comment.)

To create an HTML file containing Internet Explorer favorites, go to the IE “File” menu and choose “Import and Export…” Microsoft loves “Wizards” and one of these will open. Click “Next” and then choose “Export Favorites”. Click “Next” and choose the top of the list that appears if it is not already highlighted> Click “Next” and choose a convenient place on your computer to to put the exported file. Click “Finish”. The default location “My Documents” is as good as any, as is the default file name “bookmark.htm”. You can then upload or email this file to yourself at a Web email service.

Firefox has a different procedure. Go to the “Bookmarks” menu and click “Manage Bookmarks…” A window, “Bookmarks Manager”, will open. Go to the menu “Files” and choose “Export…” In the folder list that opens, browse to a convenient location to put the exported file. Note that here the default choice of folder is not “My Documents” and you will very likely wish to browse to some folder other than the default. The default file name is slightly different from IE. It is “bookmarks.html”. Click “Save”. Upload or email the file.

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