managing IE Favorites

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I have thousands of IE Favorites, fairly well organized into folder groupings. Some of these sub-folders have around 1500 items in them.

Is there a way to “off-load’ all these Favorites that I have accumulated over the years out of Favorites, so that I can just move back the ones I use now as I need them and use them?

My concern is that now when I look for something in one of my massive sub-folders it is like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Thanks,
Dick

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Perhaps I should reframe my question above:

Approximately how many IE favorites do you have; and, what do you consider “best practices” for managing them?

Thanks,
Dick

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Hi Dick,
All i can think of is to start early one morning when you have nothing to do for the remainder of the day, then:-
Go through your fav’s and copy / paste the ones you want into notepad.
Then backup your IE fav’s and store them somewhere safe.
Delete all IE favs then re add the ones from notepad.

26058-Dozy

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Hi George:
I would be the male version of your picture above if I did that. But at least it’s one way (brute force) to do it.
Silly me. I was hoping there was a software package or tool to do what I want.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my query.

Best,
Dick

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Well a slightly simpler way would be to back them up to a htm (or html) file (export), and then just go into organize favorites and start deleting unwanted favs.

I’m down to about 12 favorites by the way, I use Chrome though so just typing the first character of a website that’s been visited before pops up a short list of “favs.” Sure, they’re tracking my butt but it also makes the experience super slick! I’d rather have ads targeted at things I’m interested in than say women’s hygiene products for instance.

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Hi Dick,

I’ve thought of an easier method but need a image of your setup like this:-

37066-RR

I would make a full fav backup, then delete all except folder A-F then back up again giving me A-F only.
Reinstall your full backup, then delete all except folder G-H, then back up again giving me G-H only.
Repeat for the remainder.

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George:
Here’s my IE Favorites Image:
37070-Captured_Favorites
Dick

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To elaborate more on FUN’s export suggestion;
How to Save and Export Internet Explorer Favorites

As to editing and importing the edited html document back into Favorites, you’ll just have to try it and see.
Like Roadrunner says, make certain you have a backup prior to proceeding.

Edting:
https://www.google.com/#q=edit+htlm+documents

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Hi Dick, all you have to do is as I showed you with mine. BUT you have to remember, if you import any file / folder into IE, it will not overwrite whats already in your favs, you will get duplicates. FF uses file extention .json and it overwrites them.

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And, keep in mind the ones you haven’t used in years will be needed soon after you delete them!

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Thanks everybody for your suggestions.
Dick

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You can have a “Favorites” folder located anywhere you wish, then tell Windows which folder to use (or just let it continue using its usual one). So, maybe do this:

1) Use Windows Explorer to copy your entire “Favorites” folder to any location of your own choosing;
2) Delete everything inside your current “Favorites” folder;
3) Add the backup copy of “Favorites” to your Task Bar as a “new Toolbar”;
4) Use that new Toolbar whenever you wish, then also “add to Favorites” (the one IE is using) any link you want available in the regular IE Menu Bar or Favorites Bar.

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Lee:
Thank you. I tried what you suggested, and it’s just what I needed. I can now add just what I need to my “real” IE Favorites. Now I won’t have to bang my head against my monitor.
Dick

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I am surprised that Fred Langa did not propose the simple and obvious thing I do in Chrome, but is applicable to IE and all other browsers. Just shorten the fave/bookmark/whatever label to the minimum number of characters/arconym which will identify the bookmark for you. I currently have 20 bookmarks on my Chrome bar, all very easy to identify (especially when you add the icon displayed with each bookmark label). In addition, the first 15 or so bookmarks on the “extras” list which appears when the small right arrow is clicked are similarly minimalized, and are easily dragged into the displayed bar area if you find yourself frequently using a particular bookmark. No hidden tricks for a particular browser, just get smaller!

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Thanks Bob:
I might not have been clear in what I am trying to accomplish. I have over 5K Favorites accumulated over the years. I have them in multiple folders, but I still find it tedious to search for a particular one. I was looking for a better way to search/organize/ find things in my Favorites.
Dick

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Oh, I get it. Yes, we’re now into a data base design problem, and I have almost as many bookmarks as you do. I have found few magic answers here. One thing I would like to see is the ability to sort most recent bookmarks within a folder to the top. That would help a bit. More useful to me would be a copy button which place an instance of a given bookmark into several different folders as they are clicked on.

As an example, I work in electronics. My big “Doc” folder has a “Manuals” sub folder, and so on, and also a big “Engineering References” sub folder. Besides Doc, I have another high level folder called “Projects”. Often, within a Projects sub folder, I would like to put a relevant engineering idea I have found into the related Project sub folder, but now it isn’t in the main “Engineering References” sub folder back under Doc. It would be very handy to have the proposed multiple copies button show me a (multi-column, if needed) display of all folders and, allow me to put one instance into the main “Engineering References” sub folder, and another instance into the relevant “Projects” sub folder with a single click for each copy operation. If such a feature exists in Chrome, I sure can’t find it. With TB sized hard disks, multiple link entries would surely not create a problem.

It seems to me that those of us who value their bookmarks collection could use some kind of downsized/simplified SQL database tool here. I wish you the best luck in designing your own personal filing system. It would help to find a small book filled with ideas for creating your own personal filing structure. At least, I could surely use one. . . .

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This might be a ludicrous suggestion, but have you considered switching over to an actual bookmarking/pin board type of site? I started using one when my bookmarks were getting really out of hand. I’ve found it incredibly useful…and so much less time consuming than searching through loads of files…there are various ones out there, but I use Pinterest. If you have many sites filed that do not have images associated with them, a different bookmarking site might work better for you.

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I agree Bob. One problem that popped up for me was one time I ran a piece of software that was to find “dead” references in my Favorites. It worked; however it then changed all the “last used” dates on the “live” ones to the date I ran that software.
So, when I tried one day to find very old Favorites that I no longer used/needed, well you can guess the rest.
Dick

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Thanks for the suggestion ERin. I’ll look in to this idea.

Dick

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Hope you find one that works for you, Dick. Have enjoyed exploring the options…

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