In Microsoft Edge, bookmarks are called Favourites and over time, most of us will garner a large number of Favourites. That then makes finding the one you want a difficult task. It’s often easier to simply search Google for the web page you’re looking for rather than scan through a large, disorganised list of favourites.
The good news is that managing your favourites in Microsoft Edge is actually rather easy to do and once you get on top of them, they become a breeze to use.
Microsoft Edge Favourites Basics.
In Microsoft Edge, you can save web pages and websites that you use regularly as Favourites (they’re called Bookmarks in other browsers). Favourites are normally stored on the Favourites Bar to make them easy to get to.
How To Add New Favourites In Edge.
When you reach a web page that you want to save as a favourite. you can either
- 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 your new bookmark onto the Favourites Bar.
Click the DONE button to save the bookmark and it will appear on your favourites bar.
How To Show The Favourites Bar In Edge.
By default, Edge doesn’t show the Favourites Bar, it’s turned off or hidden. You have to manually turn it back on. There are two ways in which to enable or show the Favourites Bar in Edge.
The first and by far the easiest way is to press CTRL and Shift and the letter B at the same time on your keyboard.
The second way of showing the Favourites Bar is by using the Favourites menu. Click the Favourites icon. The Favourites icon is the second star.
When the Favourites menu opens, left-click once on the 3 dots in the top right corner.
Move your pointer onto the “Show Favourites Bar”
Click ALWAYS.
Hidden (Or Overflow) Favourites In Edge.
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 bookmarks that won’t fit on the bar.
Click on the small arrowhead right at the end of the Favourites Bar and the hidden (or overflow) favourites will appear on a menu.
How To Manage Your Favourites In Microsoft Edge.
As you add more and more favourites, the list can become too large to use properly. You simply can’t find the item you’re looking for.
When that happens, it’s time to start managing your favourites. There are many ways in which you can manage your Favourites in MS Edge, from simply organising them on the bookmarks bar, renaming them and saving them into specific folders of related web pages.
How To Move Favourites Along The Favourites Bar.
The Favourites Bar is the place to have your most-used bookmarks because they’re easy and quick to get to. While lesser-used favourites can be stored under the hidden favourites menu, or within 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 position the favourite 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 other favourites will be shunted left or right along the Bar to make way for it.
Note that the black line that appears is nowhere near as big as in the image shown. It’s actually quite small, so you do have to look for it.
You Can Also Move Your Hidden Favourites.
You can also use drag and drop to move items from the hidden favourites menu onto the Favourites Bar, but obviously, as you do this, something else will drop off the Bar to make way for the new entry.
It can be a bit like juggling glass bottles to get it right but it’ll be worth the effort in the long run.
How To Delete Favourites In Edge.
One quick and easy way to manage your favourites in Edge is to just delete any that you don’t use anymore. Simply put, the fewer bookmarks you have, the easier it is to manage the list.
To delete a Favourite, simply 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.
Rename Your Favourites To Create Space On The Bar.
Another great way to manage your favourites in Edge is to just rename any bookmarks that have overly long names.
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 “Electronics, Cars, Fa”, whatever Fa is.
And then there’s Amazon.co.uk etc. That’s a little too long for what it is when space is at a premium.
In Edge, you can edit, or change, the name of any of your favourites, either at the time of adding them or after they’ve been added.
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
Edit Favourites As You Save Them.
When you’re adding a new bookmark, you can change the name of it in the NAME box.
Again you can call it anything that makes sense to you.
Click the DONE button when you’re ready.
Create Even More Space On The Favourites Bar.
Many websites use what’s called a Favicon (a logo). It’s a small image or design that represents the company behind that website. Whilst many aren’t immediately recognisable, some are instantly recognisable.
eBay, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are among the most easily recognised logos.
If you use any of these websites, then you probably don’t really need to have the website name displayed on the Favourites Bar. Just seeing the favicon (logo) would be enough.
To achieve this space-saving miracle when you’re adding a new favourite, just delete everything inside the name box.
The same can be done for existing favourites. Just right-click on one of them, left-click EDIT, then delete everything in the NAME box.
When you’re trying to manage your overcrowded Favourites Bar, reducing them to be simply company logos will create a whole lot of extra space.
Manage Your Favourites With Folders.
If like me, you have a lot of favourites (bookmarks), 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, similar to how you’d store related files in a folder on your PC.
A folder only really takes up the space of a single bookmark on the bar, but it could easily hold 10 or 20 plus bookmarked webpages.
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, etc.
How To Create Folders For Favourites In Microsoft 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 the Favourites Bar to select it and then click the SAVE button.
After clicking the SAVE button, you’ll return 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 to drag and drop whichever favourites you want to go into the folder.
Put your pointer onto the favourite in question, then hold down the left mouse button.
Drag the bookmark directly onto the folder and then release the mouse button.
How To Save New Favourites Directly Into Folders.
Now that you’ve got all your current (or existing) favourites organised into relevant folders, what about any new bookmarks that you might make.
There are two ways to do it. Firstly, you can simply save the favourite to the bar as you normally would and then drag and drop it into the relevant folder. This works fine and is my preferred method.
However, you can save new favourites directly into the folder that you want to store them in.
When you’re adding a new webpage as a favourite by clicking the STAR icon or pressing CTRL + D, the Favourite Added window opens. Just below the name of the website, you’ll see the FOLDERS box. By default, Microsoft Edge will save new favourites to the Favourites Bar.
To save it into a different folder, click the downward-facing arrowhead then click the folder of your choice.
Quick Note.
The only slight issue with this is that Edge will “remember” which folder you saved your favourite into. So the next time you try to add a new one, it will save into the last folder that you used.
So you have to get used to checking (and changing, if necessary) exactly which folder the favourite is going to go into before clicking the DONE button.
If you make a mistake, it’s easily rectified by dragging the offending bookmark from the “wrong” folder and dropping it into the “right” folder. But I have temporarily “lost” the occasional bookmark until I’ve realised what I’ve done.
Renaming & Deleting Favourites Folders In Microsoft Edge.
Over time you may find that you want to either change the name of a particular folder or even delete it completely.
You can easily rename or delete any of your favourites folders in Edge.
Right-click on a folder and on the menu that appears either click RENAME or DELETE.
Please note that deleting a folder will delete all the favourites inside that folder
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.
This guide deals specifically with managing your bookmarks in Edge. If you want a more complete guide to using Edge, setting the Home page, Start page and other settings in Chrome, then click here How To Set Up Microsoft Edge.
At Home Computer Step By Step Guides.
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