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How to export to any directory individual bookmarked sites like Favorites in IE

Benvingut
Benvingut

I would like to export bookmarked sites and store them in a library in my hard disk for easier sorting and access from any browser, just like I can use Favorites of Internet Explorer

I would like to export bookmarked sites and store them in a library in my hard disk for easier sorting and access from any browser, just like I can use Favorites of Internet Explorer

Chosen solution

Till, Thank you very much, I have solved the problem by dragging the icon to the desktop. At first I thought it was much more complicated as it actually is, and that's why I did not succeed initially Thanks again and have a nice day: Benvingut

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All Replies (8)

Till Schneidereit
Till Schneidereit

You can either export all your bookmarks as an HTML file, or create shortcuts to individual websites.

The former you can do by opening the bookmarks manager via the Bookmarks menu and clicking on "Show All Bookmarks". There is a dropdown for managing bookmarks, and that contains the option of exporting your bookmarks to HTML.

The latter is possible this way:

  1. navigate to the website you want to create a shortcut for
  2. drag the icon immediately to the left of the url to your desktop

That will create a shortcut that you can open in your default browser with a double click.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator

In Firefox you can only export all the bookmarks and not a selection like you can in IE.

Firefox stores all the bookmarks in an SQLite database and not like IE does as a folder and file structure on the hard drive.

You can export all the bookmarks to an HTML file, but you will have to edit this file if you only want to keep a specific selection.

Benvingut
Benvingut Question owner

Thanks. But how to edit?

Till Schneidereit
Till Schneidereit

The exported bookmarks are a plain html website, so you can use any software that has the ability to edit HTML.

One way to do the editing without requiring additional software is to do it with the development tools integrated in Firefox:

  1. open the exported bookmarks.html file in Firefox
  2. press F12 to open the development tools
  3. select the "Inspector" tool
  4. this shows a list of entries with names in angular brackets, e.g. "<body>". Clicking on the arrow to the left of them opens them and shows nested entries. Clicking on entries highlights them on the page
  5. do that until you see entries (which are either entire folders of bookmarks or, if you drill down further, individual bookmarks) you want to remove
  6. right-click on such an entry and click on "Delete Node" in the menu that is opened
  7. once you're satisfied with the result, save the file using the File menu (or clicking Ctrl-S on Windows or Cmd-S on Mac)

I'm sorry that this is such an involved process. There may well be better methods I'm not aware of.

Benvingut
Benvingut Question owner

Reflecting to the advice to Till Schneidereit and the Moderator

Thanks for your valuable answers. I guess I partly see what you mean, but I cannot effectively put them in practice. 1) Till: "You can create shortcuts to individual websites. Drag the icon immediately to the left of the url to your desktop" Right, but how can an icon be dragged on the desktop when the latter is covered by the website that's just been navigated to? Where is exactly the spot the icon should be drawn to? 2) Moderator: "You can export all the bookmarks to an HTML file, but you will have to edit this file if you only want to keep a specific selection" Once all the bookmarks have been transferred to a HTML file, how am I to do the editing of that file in order to keep a specific selection as you suggest?

Thanks a lot of your help Benvingut

Till Schneidereit
Till Schneidereit

You can drag the icon to any point on the desktop, i.e., the space where your wallpaper image is displayed and icons for files that are in your Desktop folder are shown. Alternatively, you can also keep a Windows Explorer window open to the side of the Firefox window and drag the icon over to that window to create the shortcut in a directory of your choosing.

Benvingut
Benvingut Question owner

Chosen Solution

Till, Thank you very much, I have solved the problem by dragging the icon to the desktop. At first I thought it was much more complicated as it actually is, and that's why I did not succeed initially Thanks again and have a nice day: Benvingut

Till Schneidereit
Till Schneidereit

Hi Benvingut,

great, I'm glad that worked for you!

cheers, till