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Bookmarks Use Cases: Difference between revisions
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This will give you a "folder" with all bookmarks containing "Mozilla" in their name, dynamically generated. I don't really know how flexible this can be used and where you can find more documentation about it, but the basic functionality is available. | This will give you a "folder" with all bookmarks containing "Mozilla" in their name, dynamically generated. I don't really know how flexible this can be used and where you can find more documentation about it, but the basic functionality is available. | ||
:Um... how do you do this? | |||
== More on Smart Folders == | == More on Smart Folders == | ||
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If live bookmark items were marked "read" or "unread" as described above, I'd love to have a button on the toolbar called "Next unread" to jump between all the new items. If the button showed a count of the unread items, that would be even better. | If live bookmark items were marked "read" or "unread" as described above, I'd love to have a button on the toolbar called "Next unread" to jump between all the new items. If the button showed a count of the unread items, that would be even better. | ||
== | == LiveBookmarks Homepage == | ||
I'd like to click in a LiveBookmark Folder and go to the feed's homepage, e.g. If the feed url is http://www.mozilla.org/rss.xml clicking in the LiveBookmark folder should lead to http://www.mozilla.org/ | I'd like to click in a LiveBookmark Folder and go to the feed's homepage, e.g. If the feed url is http://www.mozilla.org/rss.xml clicking in the LiveBookmark folder should lead to http://www.mozilla.org/ | ||
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== Bookmarks Combined From Several Files == | == Bookmarks Combined From Several Files == | ||
Currently all bookmarks for a user (well, profile) are stored in ''bookmarks.html''. It is possible to share that file with others (by doing things that Firefox remains blissfully unaware of, such as using symlinks or synching the file), but that only works for sharing the ''entire'' bookmarks; I've encountered several situations where I wish to share just some of | Currently all bookmarks for a user (well, profile) are stored in ''bookmarks.html''. It is possible to share that file with others (by doing things that Firefox remains blissfully unaware of, such as using symlinks or synching the file), but that only works for sharing the ''entire'' bookmarks; I've encountered several situations where I wish to share just some of my bookmarks, a subtree of them say: | ||
* I use Firefox at both home and work. Generally, I do different things in each place, so they have different bookmarks: at work, I have lots of prominent links to internal systems, which I hardly ever need to access from home. However, there are some bookmark folders I'd like to have in both places, such as those with links to technical reference material like the W3C specs. | * I use Firefox at both home and work. Generally, I do different things in each place, so they have different bookmarks: at work, I have lots of prominent links to internal systems, which I hardly ever need to access from home. However, there are some bookmark folders I'd like to have in both places, such as those with links to technical reference material like the W3C specs. | ||
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The first post pretty much had it! You should be able to edit your bookmarks through Firefox as per usual, and then an extension or something would silently sync your bookmarks with a server somewhere. This way no matter where you go you could always have your same bookmarks available to you. Also, on the idea of making your bookmarks publicly available, all you would need to do is add a little locked/unlocked button besides each bookmark to control which ones are public and private. | The first post pretty much had it! You should be able to edit your bookmarks through Firefox as per usual, and then an extension or something would silently sync your bookmarks with a server somewhere. This way no matter where you go you could always have your same bookmarks available to you. Also, on the idea of making your bookmarks publicly available, all you would need to do is add a little locked/unlocked button besides each bookmark to control which ones are public and private. | ||
== Relative Bookmarks == | |||
Provide Relative Bookmark features for '''profile''', '''chrome''', '''cache''' folders, and portable device '''drive letter''' (Firefox Portable), along with user assigned folders to provide better access from any computer and with various portable devices. | |||
profile://. (for the profile folder itself) | |||
profile://.. (up one level from the profile folder) | |||
profile://bookmarks.html (simple way to locate bookmarks) | |||
cache://. (experienced users may move the cache file) | |||
This would greatly simplify locating these folders for user browsing and editing as needed, and identifying the profile actually in use. | |||
=== Additional Relative Bookmarks features for Portability === | |||
For a presentation file:///c:\big\pathname\file.htm#relativebookmarks might be referred to by that name on the c: drive and on a portable device have part of filename given a shortcut type descriptor | |||
presentation://file.htm#relativebookmarks | |||
which would facilitate use of existing keyword shortcuts | |||
presentation://%S | |||
presentation://chapter4/%S | |||
Note %S currently provides for fragment id (file.htm#id); and %s currently does not. | |||
The means of bookmarking a string reference to a relative tag, so existing | |||
bookmarks remain as they are but could be treated differently on a portable device. Any bookmark starting with c:/site could also be found with the '''portable://''' prefix. | |||
presentation = file:///c:/big/pathname/ | |||
portable = file:///c:/site | |||
portable2 = http://www.example.com/user3/ | |||
And specifically to address reassignments when using USB devices used in such implementations as Firefox Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable) one must | |||
currently use SUBST to alias a drive or a pathname in a command | |||
window external to both Firefox and Firefox bookmarks. | |||
To alias a drive letter to a path on the active drive (external to Firefox) | |||
SUBST W: \firefoxportable\data\profile | |||
To alias a drive letter to the current drive letter (external to Firefox) | |||
SUBST X: \ | |||
This assumes that you would be able to have specific drive letters not assigned (W: and X:) so that you can create aliases. | |||
The above usage implementation suggestions should not conflict with the use of user defined keyword shortcuts of portable:, presentation:, presentation:b, which when used as keyword shortcuts have a space immediately after the shortcut. The use of colons in all my keyword shortcuts has proved very advantageous to me. | |||
== Meta Description == | == Meta Description == | ||
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The output of these screenshots would appear perhaps when a bookmark is hovered over or in the '''Manage Bookmarks...''' window. | The output of these screenshots would appear perhaps when a bookmark is hovered over or in the '''Manage Bookmarks...''' window. | ||
Alternatively, the page itself could be saved as an html file instead of an image. This will not only serve the purpose mentioned above, but also allow access to the text on the page(for copy/paste etc). I often bookmark pages because they contain some useful snippet of information and not because I plan to visit them repeatedly. Having a saved copy of the page gives the user offline access to the contents on the day the page was bookmarked. This would be some kind of a simplified archival system. | |||
=== Color in bookmarks === | === Color in bookmarks === | ||
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== Automatic Grouping of Bookmarks == | == Automatic Grouping of Bookmarks == | ||
I would love to see a system that would allow | I would love to see a system that would allow automatic grouping of similar bookmarks, being too lazy to keep my ever growing bookmarks properly categorized. | ||
In another section someone has suggested tagging for categorization. I have situations where a site | In another section someone has suggested tagging for categorization. I have situations where a site I visit is both a source of news and a source of reviews for instance. How cool would it be if you typed a bookmark tag into the address bar and it opened, in tabs, all the bookmarks that had that tag? | ||
How about mozilla learning how you | How about mozilla learning how you categorize your bookmarks? Say you have a bookmark folder of all your css design tips. After a while, mozilla would smarten up, and the next time you bookmark a similar site, it would offer to automatically put that site into your css design tips folder. Could this be done with some bayesian filtering? | ||
== Search Behavior == | == Search Behavior == | ||
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* The user lost track of the original bookmark, making redundant bookmarks | * The user lost track of the original bookmark, making redundant bookmarks | ||
(no doubt this list can be expanded) | (no doubt this list can be expanded) | ||
:: The GNOME Epiphany browser detects when a link has moved and offers to update the bookmark location. That's pretty handy. | |||
:: [[User:Mikelward|Mikelward]] 03:14, 7 June 2007 (PDT) | |||
Eventually it becomes easier to Google for the links anew rather than hunt through the unweildy bookmark list. Faciliating management of these issues would be very helpful for maintaining a streamlined, functional list. Some possibilities: | Eventually it becomes easier to Google for the links anew rather than hunt through the unweildy bookmark list. Faciliating management of these issues would be very helpful for maintaining a streamlined, functional list. Some possibilities: | ||
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Having a keyword for a bookmark is great. Sometimes however, there are sites for which multiple keywords would make sense, and I can never remember the one that I actually used. It would greatly help if the Keywords field would accept multiple keywords, perhaps separated by a space or a comma. | Having a keyword for a bookmark is great. Sometimes however, there are sites for which multiple keywords would make sense, and I can never remember the one that I actually used. It would greatly help if the Keywords field would accept multiple keywords, perhaps separated by a space or a comma. | ||
[New "I"] A feature that I would find useful would be a cross-referencing indexing system-- Keywords would be entered for each bookmark (or Tag). The bookmark would be added automatically to folders titled with each keyword. For example-- if a bookmark had keywords of {photos, winter, camping, cooking}, it would appear in folders Photos, Winter, Camping, -and- Cooking. | |||
This would NOT duplicate the bookmark, but just add it to an additional index. That way, a change under one folder would appear under all folders. [Yes, I've just designed in a database.] And deleting one entry would remove it from all folders it appeared in (with a suitable warning about removing an entry from multiple folders). | |||
Within each folder I could sort the accumulated entries according to any attributes of the original entry. | |||
== More on sorting == | == More on sorting == | ||
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== | == Temporary/Time Based Bookmarks == | ||
I | I think many of us frequently need to save websites we wish to return but don't want to keep them bookmarked forever. For instance when I comment on blogs I often like to return to reply to the discussion later but if I kept every article I'd commented on in my bookmarks it would rapidly grow unwieldy. An earlier contributor uses bookmarks for keeping a 'to visit' list and would like to be reminded about the contents of the list when non-empty. Similar use cases would be remembering items you are comparing to purchase, funny pages you want to show friends, long articles you are reading, remembering conferences or other events that will lose relevance shortly, and remembering stories to write a blog entry about. | ||
The | In firefox 2 this sort of use is very cumbersome. With 'add bookmark here' bookmarks can be added efficently enough but every time one wants to remove bookmarks you need to go to the manage bookmark's screen. Some more efficent means of removing temporary bookmarks is needed, perhaps several. The following features all seem good: | ||
1) Expiration times for bookmarks, when created you can specify a date on which the bookmark will be deleted/become invisible. | |||
2) Folder based expiration times, particular folders could time out bookmarks when they age past a certain date. | |||
3) Most recently used display with bookmarks disappearing after they fall below some threshold. | |||
4) The above but at the user's request. | |||
5) Easy option to delete without entering the organize bookmarks page. | |||
Of course all of these really need appropriate sort option. | |||
:: How about a special tag called "temp" that only keeps things for one or two days? | |||
:: How about a tag "new" that is removed as soon as you click on it? | |||
:: How about per-tag expiry rules? | |||
:: [[User:Mikelward|Mikelward]] 03:12, 7 June 2007 (PDT) | |||
== POST bookmarks == | == POST bookmarks == | ||
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== Offline readable == | == Offline readable == | ||
In the bookmark properties dialog, I'd like to see a check box asking me if the page should be offline readable. This would be similar to the "Select this folder for offline use" option in Thunderbird. As far as I know, other browsers like IE (sorry) have had this feature for quite a while. | In the bookmark properties dialog, I'd like to see a check box asking me if the page should be offline readable. This would be similar to the "Select this folder for offline use" option in Thunderbird. As far as I know, other browsers like IE (sorry) have had this feature for quite a while. | ||
This option should not only be present in the properties dialog of an individual bookmark but also in the properties dialog of a bookmark folder. | |||
== Personal Toolbar Folder / Bookmarks Toolbar == | == Personal Toolbar Folder / Bookmarks Toolbar == | ||
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== Favorites on the Start menu == | == Favorites on the Start menu == | ||
Since a part of firefox's appeal is | Since a part of firefox's appeal is its ability to run on older OSs, it would be nice if Firefox bookmarks could be put into the Favorites menu on the start menu. | ||
== Copying bookmarks to pasteboard == | == Copying bookmarks to pasteboard == | ||
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It would be nice if Firefox warned you about adding a bookmark that matches one with the same URL. | It would be nice if Firefox warned you about adding a bookmark that matches one with the same URL. | ||
I have a large list of bookmarks, | I have a large list of bookmarks, e.g. 200+ with 30+ folders. Sometimes I bookmark the same page more than once (mainly by accident). it should deal with this intelligently, e.g., don't just add another entry, but preferably add any new description/tags to the old location, so that you don't have the same page bookmarked multiple times. | ||
Added thought: It would be nice to have a "duplicate bookmark | Added thought: It would be nice to have a "duplicate bookmark | ||
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An interesting read is this blog entry: | An interesting read is this blog entry: | ||
http:// | http://www.contentious.com/archives/2005/04/20/furl-delicious-almost-perfect-together | ||
which discusses one user's method of tagging and sharing. It has some good usages that should be considered for a new system. | which discusses one user's method of tagging and sharing. It has some good usages that should be considered for a new system. | ||
== Extend %s Hack == | == Extend %s Hack == | ||
Currently, the %s hack provides a tremendous degree of freedom for customization and is | Currently, the %s hack provides a tremendous degree of freedom for customization and is extremely powerful. But it could become more flexible when it would respond to the three cases: | ||
# keyword only = empty string (and not %s) and it should be optionally possible to supply a different URL for this case | |||
# keyword with option = option string, and | |||
# keyword only but marked text in the website = marked text (the option string should have a higher priority than marked text). This should be optional by checkbox. This would extent all the wonderful search options to the text within the website so that copy and paste can be avoided. | |||
== Dynamic Bookmarks Search -- LiveFolders == | == Dynamic Bookmarks Search -- LiveFolders == | ||
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The menu's purpose is fast access to frequently visited websites, also referred to as FAVORITES. In principle, its function is similar to program menus or to sidebars with a small number of items. In contrast to the function of favorites, there is a large number of bookmarks that have been saved because they were interesting or valuable. This personal WEB INDEX is a "permanent history" of marked websites. Searching this INDEX can provide pre-selected information very quickly. Tagging seems a perfect tool to categorize these bookmarks for the WEB INDEX in a very flexible, quick, and simple way. | The menu's purpose is fast access to frequently visited websites, also referred to as FAVORITES. In principle, its function is similar to program menus or to sidebars with a small number of items. In contrast to the function of favorites, there is a large number of bookmarks that have been saved because they were interesting or valuable. This personal WEB INDEX is a "permanent history" of marked websites. Searching this INDEX can provide pre-selected information very quickly. Tagging seems a perfect tool to categorize these bookmarks for the WEB INDEX in a very flexible, quick, and simple way. | ||
For more details please see: http:// | For more details please see: http://pubnotes.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/rethinking-bookmarks-ui/ | ||
== Machine-readable/processible bookmarks == | == Machine-readable/processible bookmarks == | ||
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Also see a need for a Bookmarks Documentation bookmarklet with the ability to do the same working from a selection within bookmarks.html to extract source to | Also see a need for a Bookmarks Documentation bookmarklet with the ability to do the same working from a selection within bookmarks.html to extract source to | ||
the clipboard. | the clipboard. | ||
== Old style netscape bookmarks == | |||
Bookmarks should be displayed in multiple columns side by side like the old netscape used to. Or at least there should be an option to do so. I have like, 2000 entries in my bookmark file. I don't sort them, nor group them. That way I always can go to the bottom of the list and reconstruct a chronological order. So if I want to know when I visited a site, I can do so. It is very time consuming to have to scroll down through all of these. In the old netscape 4.1 they would be displayed in columns like the program list is in windows 2000. That is my single biggest gripe about firefox. How do you make firefox do this? | |||
== Integrate bookmark backup into Firefox == | |||
After reading enough reports in mozilla.feedback, bugzilla, etc., it is clear to me that it would be useful to incorporate some sort of bookmark backup within the browser. This needs to be something fairly simple - just an easy one touch way to backup their bookmarks so that all is not lost in the event something happens during update, etc. As bookmarks are the lifeblood of many users, I think this is a useful thing to consider. And I realize there are extensions available to do this, but many users either do not know about them or aren't willing to go the extra length to install an extension. | |||
== Sort entries in a live bookmark alphabetically instead of chronologically == | |||
I use live bookmarks to display my bookmark collection from a social bookmarking service. However inside a single live bookmark, moazilla displays the entries (each entry being a different bookmarked url) in the order in which I added them on the social bookmarking service. I would like the option to make them appear sorted alphabetically, instead of sorted by time of addition. | |||