How To Manage Your Favourites In Microsoft Edge.

In Microsoft Edge you can save web pages as Favourites. Other browsers call them bookmarks, they are exactly the same thing. A favourite makes it easy to get back to a web page later, rather than having to search Google for it all over again.

In this guide I’ll show you how to add a favourite, how to show the Favourites Bar when it won’t stay put, and how to keep the whole lot tidy using folders.

If you haven’t set the browser up yet, start with how to set up Microsoft Edge, then come back here.

How to Add a Favourite in Microsoft Edge

When you reach a web page that you want to save, mark it as a Favourite. There are two ways to do it.

• Press CTRL and the letter D on your keyboard, or
• Click the Add to Favourites icon in the address bar.

Whichever way you choose, the Favourite Added window will open.

By default, Edge will save the web page to the Favourites Bar.

Click the DONE button.

How to Show the Favourites Bar in Microsoft Edge

The Favourites Bar sits just underneath the address bar, and it’s the quickest way to reach your saved pages. One click and you’re there.

Edge doesn’t leave it switched on though. Out of the box, the bar is set to Only on new tabs. So you open a new tab and there it is, then you go to a website and it disappears.

Nothing is broken and you haven’t lost anything. The bar is simply set to hide itself. Here are three ways to make it stay.

The Favourites Bar Keyboard Shortcut

By far the easiest way is to press CTRL and SHIFT and the letter B at the same time.

The bar appears. Press the same three keys again and it goes away. It’s a straight on and off switch, so if you ever press it by accident and your favourites vanish, that’s how to get them back.

Right-Click the Favourites Bar

Open a new tab so that the bar shows itself, then right-click on an empty part of it.

Move your pointer onto Show favourites bar and you’ll get the three settings that Edge actually uses, Always, Never and Only on new tabs.

Click Always. The bar is now on for good, on every tab and every website, until you change it back.

Use the Favourites Menu

The third way is through the Favourites menu itself. Click the Favourites icon on the toolbar, which is the second star along, or press CTRL and SHIFT and the letter O to open the same menu from the keyboard.

When the Favorites menu opens:

1. Left-click once on the three dots in the top right corner.
2. Move your pointer onto Show favorites bar.
3. Then click ALWAYS.

Where Your Hidden or Overflow Favourites Go

The Favourites Bar can only hold so many favourites before you run out of space.

Once the bar is full, it seems that no more favourites are being saved. But they are. There’s a kind of overflow for the favourites that won’t fit on the bar.

Click on the small arrowhead right at the end of the Favourites Bar and the hidden favourites will appear on a menu.

How to Move Favourites Along the Favourites Bar

The Favourites Bar is the place to have your most-used bookmarks, because they’re quick and easy to get to. Lesser-used favourites can live under the hidden favourites menu, or inside folders.

To move a favourite along the bar, you can simply drag and drop it to where you want it to be.

Put your pointer onto the favourite that you want to move, then hold down the left mouse button. Now move your mouse (drag) and you’ll see the favourite follow your movements. When it’s in place, let go of the mouse button (drop).

To help you position it properly, as you move it you’ll see a straight black line appear on the bar.

The line is where the favourite will go when you release the mouse button. All the other favourites will be shunted left or right along the bar to make way for it.

Note that the black line is nowhere near as big as it looks in the picture below. It’s actually quite small, so you do have to look for it.

How to Delete a Favourite in Microsoft Edge

One quick and easy way to manage your favourites in Edge is to just delete any that you don’t use any more. Put simply, the fewer bookmarks you have, the easier the list is to manage.

To delete a favourite, right-click on it.

Then, on the menu that opens, left-click DELETE.

When you delete an item from the bar, you’ll see all the other favourites automatically shuffle along to take its place.

If you’ve created enough space on the bar, then one of your hidden bookmarks will get promoted to the end of the bar.

How to Rename a Favourite in Edge

Websites saved as favourites don’t always have great names. Some are rather obscure, and others have names so long that they take up too much room on the bar.

Rename your favourites to be shorter and more descriptive.

As an example, take a look at these two bookmarks.

The first one, as many of you will already know, is for eBay. But it doesn’t say eBay. Apparently it’s “eBay UK Electronics”.

And then there’s Amazon.co.uk etc. That’s a little too long for what it is when space is at a premium.

To Edit an Existing Favourite

In Microsoft Edge, to change the name of an existing favourite, you need to edit it.

Right-click on the favourite that you want to edit.

On the menu that opens, left-click EDIT.

The Edit Favourite window will open.

Simply type a new name for your favourite in the NAME box.

You can pretty much name it anything you like, but short and descriptive generally works best.

In this example, I’ll change “Electronics, Cars, Fa” to simply eBay.

When you’re done, click the SAVE button.

How to Organise Your Favourites into Folders

If, like me, you have a lot of favourites, then it really does become a challenge to manage them all. In Microsoft Edge it’s actually rather easy to organise your favourites into folders. You can store related bookmarks together in a folder, in the same way that you’d store related files in a folder on your PC.

A folder only takes up the space of a single bookmark on the bar, but it could easily hold 10 or 20 plus bookmarked web pages.

As an example, let’s say you’ve got accounts with Amazon TV and Netflix and other video streaming services.

You could easily save all the favourites for these services into a single folder.

You can obviously do the same for online shopping, online banking, social media, email accounts and so on.

How to Create a Folder for Favourites in Microsoft Edge

To create a folder in Edge, right-click on the Favourites Bar.

On the menu that opens, left-click ADD FOLDER.

On the New Folder page that opens, type a name for your folder into the NAME box.

Just below the Name box you’ll see the two default locations for the new folder, Favourites Bar and Other Favourites.

Left-click once on Favourites Bar to select it, then click the SAVE button.

After clicking the SAVE button, you’ll go back to Edge.

You should be able to see your new folder on the Favourites Bar.

If you can’t see it, then it’s been stored on the hidden favourites menu.

You can position the folder anywhere on the Favourites Bar. Simply drag and drop it as if it were any other favourite.

How to Store Favourites in Folders

Now that you’ve got a folder, all you need to do is drag and drop whichever favourites you want to go into it.

Put your pointer onto the favourite in question, then hold down the left mouse button.

Drag the bookmark directly onto the folder, then release the mouse button.

Using Google Chrome as well? Bookmarks in Chrome work in almost exactly the same way, they’re just called something different.

Favourites in Edge FAQ

Q. Why does my Favourites Bar keep disappearing in Edge?
A. Because Edge sets it to “Only on new tabs” to begin with, so it shows on a new tab and then hides itself as soon as you open a website. Nothing has been lost. Set it to Always and it stays put on every page.

Q. What is the keyboard shortcut for the Favourites Bar in Edge?
A. CTRL + SHIFT + B turns the Favourites Bar on and off. If your favourites vanish suddenly, that’s usually the culprit, so press those three keys again to bring them back.

Q. Are favourites the same thing as bookmarks?
A. Yes. Microsoft Edge calls them favourites, Google Chrome and Firefox call them bookmarks. They do exactly the same job, which is saving a web page so you can go straight back to it later.

Q. How do I see all my favourites in one place?
A. Press CTRL + SHIFT + O to open the favourites menu. Everything is in there, including the ones on the Favourites Bar, the ones in folders and anything filed under Other Favourites.

Q. My Favourites Bar is full. Where have the extra ones gone?
A. Onto an overflow menu. Click the small arrowhead at the far right-hand end of the bar and the rest of them appear. Delete a few, or shorten some names, and they’ll come back onto the bar.

Summary

Managing (or organising) a large collection of Favourites can take some time and a little planning, but in MS Edge it’s certainly not difficult to do, and the results are well worth the effort.