Adding a website to Chrome bookmarks saves you having to remember the URL and it makes returning to the site a simple point and click process. Now sort Chrome bookmarks into order.
Bookmarks are great and it is hard to imagine how we would cope without them, but if you have ever used them you will have seen that the more you add, the more of an untidy mess they become. Chrome bookmarks can be sorted into order, but it is not obvious.
Bookmark websites in Chrome
There are several different ways to create a bookmark from the current web page you are viewing:
- Go to the menu button and select Bookmarks, Bookmark this page.
- Click the star icon at the right side of the address box.
- Press Ctrl+D to bookmark the current website.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+D to bookmark all tabs.
- Click and drag the icon at the left side of the address box, often a padlock, and drop it on the Bookmarks bar.
View Chrome bookmarks
There are several ways to access bookmarks in Chrome:
- Press Shift+Ctrl+B to show the Bookmarks Bar
- Go to the menu > Bookmarks > Show bookmarks bar
- Press Ctrl+Shift+O to show the Bookmarks Manager
- Go to the menu > Bookmarks > Show bookmarks manager
Use Chrome bookmarks bar
There are several ways to organise bookmarks and the bookmarks bar is a useful place to put them, provided there are not too many. Press Ctrl+Shift+B keys all at the same time to show the bookmarks bar. When you create a bookmark you have the option to place bookmarks on this bar.
A great time saver is to drag URLs from the address box and drop them on the bar. Actually, you must click and drag whatever is to the left of the URL, which is usually a padlock icon these days. Drop it on the bookmarks bar.
The bar quickly fills up in no time and it might seem like a poor way to store bookmarks because only half a dozen will fit. However, you can create folders on the bookmarks bar and these act like menus.
Right click an empty part of the bookmarks bar and select Add folder. Bookmarks on the bookmarks bar can be dragged and dropped into a folder, creating a menu. This is a useful way to organise bookmarks and a folder can be used like a category, so you could create News, Sports and Social folders for example. (Ignoring my own advice, I have folders called 0 and 1.)
A useful trick with a folder of bookmarks is to right click it. There is an option to open all the bookmarks it contains, which opens them in tabs, or you can open them in new windows or incognito windows. This is very useful for a group of related bookmarks like news sites for example.
Bookmarks are often too long because they are created from the title of the web page. To shorten an overlong bookmark, right click it in the bookmarks bar and select Edit on the menu that is displayed. Change the name to something shorter.
Sort the bookmarks bar
Bookmarks can become a disorganised muddle on the bookmarks bar, but they can be manually sorted into order by clicking and dragging them around the bookmarks bar and the folder menus.
Just click and hold on a bookmark, then drag it up or down to wherever you want it.
Chrome bookmark manager
The bookmarks bar is useful, but there is another place to store bookmarks - Other bookmarks. This can be seen at the right side of the bookmarks bar.
Press Ctrl+D to bookmark a web page and click the Folder drop-down menu. On it is Other bookmarks and when you select this, it is added to Other bookmarks at the right side of the bookmarks bar. This is a special folder that contains all the other bookmarks that are not on the bookmarks bar.
The methods of organising bookmarks discussed so far, clicking and dragging, are fine for quickly sorting one or two bookmarks, but when you have a lot, it are slow and tedious. The bookmarks manager is a useful tool for making large organisational changes. Go to the menu button and select Bookmarks, Bookmark manager.
A new tab opens that looks a bit like Explorer. There are folders on the left and bookmarks and folders on the right. Right clicking a bookmark or a folder shows a menu with items like cut, copy, paste, rename and delete. You can just select a bookmark or folder and hit the delete key to remove one and press Ctrl+Z (the universal undo key) to bring it back if you deleted it by accident.
Bookmarks and folders can be clicked and dragged to sort them into order.
There is a better way. Select a folder of bookmarks in the left panel, then go to the three dots menu at the right side of the blue bar and select Sort by name. This sorts the selected folder, only that folder, of bookmarks into alphabetical order. It is much easier to find a bookmark when they are in order.
Only the bookmark names are displayed, but if one is clicked, the URL appears.
Right click a bookmark to access useful functions like Edit, Delete, and Open in tabs or windows.
Clean and simple
A well organised bookmarks bar can be shown or hidden with Ctrl+Shift+B. It also appears when you open a new tab too. With the bookmarks sorted into folders and the folder contents in alphabetical order, you will find it easier to locate a bookmark when you need it.
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