Unit two

Researching an essay

Unit contents

Bookmarks

Every web site and every web page is identified by a unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A  URL is a kind of address. The URL for this page is:

http://ec.hku.hk/writing_turbocharger/research/bookmarks.htm

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, you should be able to see this URL now in the Address box above this window.

The URL of the home page of the Writing Tubocharger is:

http://ec.hku.hk/writing_turbocharger/

A bookmark is a reference to a URL that is kept on your computer. The purpose of bookmarks is to help you to find web pages that you have visited before without having to remember or write down their URLs.

This page will help you to:

• Make bookmarks using Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Organize your bookmarks in folders

Making bookmarks with Microsoft Internet Explorer

• To create a bookmark for the page that is currently displayed on screen, open the Favorites drop-down menu and click Add to Favorites.

• In the Add Favorite dialogue box, click OK. If you want to, you can also change the name of the bookmark by typing in the Name box before you click OK.

• Another way to open the Add Favorite dialogue box is to right-click on any part of an open web-page (but not on a link or graphic) and select Add to Favorites from the drop-down menu.

There are two ways to get to a web site using the bookmark you have created.

• Click on the Favorites menu and then click on the name of the bookmark. Notice that your bookmarks are displayed in alphabetical order. If you have a lot of bookmarks, you can use the arrows at the top and bottom of the Favorites menu to scroll up and down.

• Click on the Favorites button. This will create a window on the left hand side of the screen to display the Favorites menu.

• When you click on a bookmark, the web page you are looking for will display in the right-hand window and the Favorites menu will remain in the left-hand window until you close it, either by clicking again on the favorites icon, or on the "X" on the favorites side bar.

Note: Because web designers frequently reorganize their web sites, it is a good idea always to bookmark the home page of a site, rather than a page within a site.

Organizing bookmarks in folders

When you create a bookmark in the way described above, it will be stored in the 'Favorites' folder, which is a sub-folder of the 'Windows' folder on your C: drive. You can also create sub-folders within the 'Favorites' folder just as you created sub-folders for your university work.

The easiest way to create sub-folders in the 'Favorites' folder is to do it at the same time as you make your bookmarks. In this example we will make a bookmark to a history site and create a sub-folder called 'History' to put it in.

• With the page you want to bookmark displayed in Internet Explorer, select Add to Favorites from the Favorites drop-down menu.

• Instead of clicking OK, click the Create in... button.

• This will expand the Add Favorite dialogue box. Click New Folder.

• Type in the name of the new folder (in this case "History") and then click OK.

• Back in the Add Favorite dialogue box, click OK to place your bookmark in the new folder.

If you want to add more bookmarks to the 'History' sub-folder, follow the same procedure, but instead of clicking New Folder in the expanded Add Favorite dialogue box, open the 'History' sub-folder by double-clicking on its name in the list of folders. Then click OK to add the bookmark to the folder.

To use bookmarks stored in subfolders, just click on the appropriate sub-folder on the Favorites drop-down menu and select your bookmark from the list displayed.