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If you often bookmark Web pages that you want to return to later, you've
probably accumulated a wealth of information in your Web browser's
Favorites or Bookmark folder. But if your hard drive were to crash, you would
lose all that information and end up back at square one. If your bookmarks are
important to you, then you should back them up regularly. Fortunately, this is
a relatively easy task.
If you use Internet Explorer, you simply open the program, click on File
from the menu at the top of the page and select Import and Export. A Wizard
window will appear to walk you through the process. When you select Next, you
will be asked to choose what you want to do. You can import or export favorites
and cookies. Make your choice by highlighting what you want to do.
Exporting means making a copy and sending it to another location. Importing
means accessing a copy and bringing it into your computer. To backup your
Favorites, you will want to choose Export Favorites.
The next window will ask you to choose the folder from which you want to export.
If you want to export all of your Favorites you will choose the main folder
that is called Favorites. If you choose a sub-folder, the wizard will only copy
the Favorites in that folder.
Next the Wizard will ask you the location to which you want to export your Favorites. You
will usually use the "Export to a File or Address" choice. The
default location completed in the box is the "My Documents" folder.
You can accept that location or use the Browse button to choose another
location.
Now you simply click Finish and a copy of your Favorites will appear in the
specified location. If you look in the folder that you specified, you will see
a file called "bookmark.htm" which now contains your Favorites. You can copy this file to a floppy disk, CD, or flash drive to backup the file or to prepare for transfering your Favorites to another computer. To
get your Favorites onto another computer, use the Import Wizard to bring the
contents of the "bookmark.htm" file copied onto the disk, CD, or drive to the
other computer.
If you use Firefox, Opera, or an Internet browser other than Internet
Explorer you can search their help menu for instructions on importing and
exporting their Favorites. You will find that the processes are fairly similar between browsers. Remember that some browsers use the term Bookmarks instead of Favorites.
To backup up the Bookmarks in Firefox, choose Bookmarks from the main menu,
then Manage Bookmarks, then select Bookmarks Manager and click on File to find
the Import and Export functions. Opera also uses the term Bookmarks rather than
Favorites. In Opera, the Import and Export functions are listed separately in
the main File menu. Once you access the Import and Export functions, both
Firefox and Opera operate similarly to Internet Explorer in how the import and
export functions work.
If you are switching browsers, Firefox and Opera both
make it easy to export your Favorites from Internet Explorer into their
respective programs. In both Firefox and Opera you simply choose File from the
main menu, then Import, then select the browser from which you want to import.
Firefox even has an easy-to-follow wizard that will walk you through the
process. |
