PC Doctor February 24, 2011
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Dear PC Doctor,
I have a lot of bookmarks in my Firefox browser. I don't want to accidentally lose anything if something happens to my computer. Is there any way I can save and backup my bookmarks?
Tony
Dear Tony,
Backing up your bookmarks is a great idea. I'm sure that you probably have as many as I do— even though I don't use them all on a daily basis, there's no way I'd like to lose my years of internet bookmarking!
Fortunately, it's very easy to back up bookmarks in any browser. My browser of choice, Google Chrome, is integrated with my Google account (if you have a Gmail account, it's also this) and everything is backed up by Google. If I ever have a computer crash or fail on me, I can just log into Google on Chrome and ta-da! My bookmarks are back 100%. It's really nice too, to be able access my bookmarks anywhere I go. I just need Google Chrome. I'm not trying to get you to switch over to Chrome from Firefox, but I'd really recommend it.
In Firefox, click Bookmarks Menu, and select Organize Bookmarks. This will open up your Bookmark Library. You should see all of your Bookmarks. Click “Import and Backup” followed by clicking “Export HTML.” Here you will be given an option to save the Bookmarks as an HTML file. Save it wherever you wish... a thumb drive, burn it to a CD, or even upload it to file-storing site. (check out Dropbox.com). For Internet Explorer - go to File and choose “Import and Export.” Click “Next.” Under “Choose an action to perform,” select “Export Favorites.” Choose the favorites you desire to back up, “Click Next.” You will then be given an option to save the Favorites as an HTML file. (Note: IE refers to Bookmarks as Favorites.) For Safari, click on File, then “Export Bookmarks”. Save the html file to your desired location!
PC Doctor
I thought I'd share one of my favorite web services ever— Dropbox. I recommend it especially when backing up your Favorites and Bookmarks. You can upload almost any kind of file to Dropbox and there it'll be safe until you need it again! It's also free; when you first sign up, you get 2gb of storage for free, and more space is unlockable by adding information to your account. You can also pay more for a premium feature of more space. While you can just upload your files via the uploader at the Dropbox website, it's so much easier if you download Dropbox. It saves itself as a basic folder on your computer. However, unlike any other folders on your computer, as soon as you drop a file into the Dropbox folder, it syncs it straight up to web into your Dropbox account! So nifty. On the go, just log into the Dropbox website (www.dropbox.com) and download the files you need!
Until next time... happy computing!
Posted: to Athol Library News on Thu, Feb 24, 2011
Updated: Thu, Feb 24, 2011
