Quick and Dirty URL Storage by caiseal

Thanks to caiseal for this tip!

For various reasons you may be one of the many web users who switch between web browsers throughout your day/week/life.

For example, I use iCab for personal use (because it's very tweakable) but if I'm with a client I'll use MSIE (because it's more attractive to look at.)

Now, I don't want to keep up with making sure a new URL added to my iCab Hotlist gets added to my MSIE Favorites later, so I don't use either application's list. I use the OS's Web Page Location files instead.

Almost everyone knows about text clipping files...drag a little morsel of text to the Desktop, and you get a clipping. However, not everyone knows that you can also do this with URLs and Email addresses to get special little files giving you access to those links later.

I have built on that usefulness to make managing URL files much less of a headache than keeping several proprietary lists within the browsers themselves--or use any third party URL management applications. Here's how:

* Things to understand before reading any further:

Initially, this method requires more work than using a third party application to manage or convert URL files, but in the end you'll find it a much better option.

This tip also requires that the browsers you use support drag and drop from the "location" text field. As I mentioned, I use it with iCab and MSIE. I haven't used Netscape in years, so I can't speak on its compatability, but I can tell you that it doesn't work with Opera yet...though at the developer's web site, drag and drop is listed as one of the features that will be added to the browser in a future release.
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Also helpful is the use of either BeHierarchic, FinderPop, or something similar. Although the hierarchical menus option in the Apple Menu will work, you probably use one or both of the mentioned applications already (if you don't use them...start.)

Lastly, if you keep your browser windows zoomed to full screen (taking up every last pixel) you'll have to break that habit for this to work. You'll need a little bit of screen real estate to drop the links on.

If none of these statements gives you reason for pause then read on. If they do...well, just hit your "back" button and choose from one of the other great tips here at SuperMatt's site.

Still with me? You're so smart...

1. Make a folder, in the location of your choice, to store all your links in. Also, make additional nested folders within this folder to help in organization (just as you would in your Favorites menu.) One of the nested folders should be named "unsorted," "to sort," or something along those lines. Put an alias of your "root" URL folder in your Apple Menu, in your FinderPop Menu, or whathaveyou. This last step will give you quick access to your links from within ANY application, as these menus are not proprietary.

2. Open your "unsorted" folder, and move its container window to the lower right corner of your Desktop. As this will be your drag and drop target for links throughout your browsing session you should keep it open while browsing. (I recorded an AppleScript that opens this folder and iCab. I then made that script a target for one of my Function Keys.).

3. Now, when you come across a web page you'd like to keep a link to, just select the text in the "location" text field, and drag it to your target folder in the corner. When using MSIE, be sure to drag only the text--not the link icon to the left of the text field. You'll get a completely different file if you drag the icon...an MSIE specific file. Which, for reasons I'll explain shortly, you don't want.

That's it! Now, when you wish to access a link navigate to your URL folder (using the handy hierarchical menu of your choice) and choose a link. This will open the link in the browser you've chosen as the default in the Internet Control Panel. This is a key point...if you had dragged the icon next to the text in MSIE then you'd have a link that would ONLY open in IE. By dragging the text itself you end up with a link that will open in the browser selected as the system default in the Internet Control Panel. Getting tired of MSIE? Choose iCab as the new default in the control panel, and continue to use your links with no more of a bother. No conversion...no merging...no headache.
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Now, here's where the "more" work I mentioned above comes in:

1. You have a mass of Favorites already sorted and renamed to your specifications in MSIE's list, right? Well, just like any other link, they need to get visited and then dragged to the target folder. I would suggest a slow change over. Use the target folder for new links, but continue to use your Favorites to access old links. As you visit your older links, drag the ones you wish to keep over to the target folder and incorporate them into your new stash. Eventually, you'll have all your Favorites transferred over and you can stop using the browser's list. Or you can just take a sick day and spend the afternoon doing it all in one bash. (Now, some of you are saying, "Hell, I can just open up the Favorites window and drag links, or even entire folders, out to my target folder and be done with it!" True...if you want all the links to be MSIE specific. And, unfortunately, you can't just change the type and creator codes of the MSIE link files to match the non-specific link files. They won't work, because of internal format differences in the shortcut files. If you open them in a text editor you will see:

Format for IE bookmarks:
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://macintouch.com/

Format for Netscape bookmarks: http://macintouch.com/

Format for OS bookmarks: NONE! ;) No text appears in the text file, because the format of OS bookmarks is stored within the file in 3 resources, one defining it as a dragged text bookmark (clipping file, which you can drag into emails and text files just like you can a normal text clipping! But you can't do this with an IE or Netscape bookmark file.), the second defining the text of the URL itself, and the third defing it AS a URL that will open in your default browser when you double-click the file.

So, while you can change the entire IE Favorites file into a Netscape bookmarks file and vice versa, as another tip here states, you can't change individual bookmark files by simply changing the type and creator.

2. iCab Hotlist links are easier. Just open the Hotlist and drag the links out. They'll be the right type. You can't drag out the folders though (they'll end up as text clippings of all things) so there's still some work to be done sorting the files out into folders.

3. As you're browsing, and dropping links into your target folder they'll be left with a name reflecting their actual URL. For example, the "Most Popular Recipes" page at the Epicurious web site will drag out as "www.epicurious.com/run/recipe/…" Not very pretty--or descriptive. But, I can change that to "epicurious.com | most popular" and be saved from any confusion in the future. Of course, you have to keep up on this. If I follow several links on the "Most Popular" page, and subsequently drag out those links, they'll have equally nondescript names like "www.epicurious.com/run/recipe 1," "www.epicurious.com/run/recipe 2," and so on. Imagine a weekend's worth of link dragging! My solution is to rename links rather quickly after I drag them out--while they're still fresh in my mind. I've got a dial-up connection, so rather than watching a web page load I rename any new links, if need be. But even if you let it go for a while and have no clue what a link could be, it's easy enough to just click the link and go there for a refresher.

It's a bit of work, but not hard--certainly not too high a price to pay for a URL list that you can easily access from any application, backup, share, and even print out (using ListFiles for example.) Now is it? ;)
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