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I want my bookmark sidebar back

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isw

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May 16, 2012, 2:35:55 AM5/16/12
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I finally got so frustrated with Firefox's ever-more-sluggish
performance and memory-hogging ways that I took a friend's advice and
gave Chrome a try. Mostly, it's OK, and it is a lot more responsive,
especially with lots of tabs, but it's bookmark handling "capabilities"
are a joke -- at least for me.

I want a sidebar, with *all* my bookmarks in it, visible *all the time*;
that's the way browsers are supposed to be (IMO, of course).

Googling around seems to indicate that Chrome cannot be coerced into
doing that, and probably will not ever be able to, because the folks who
built it don't *want* there to be one (hey Googleguys -- ever hear about
*optional*?).

So, is there some sort of plugin, or third-party bookmark manager, that
I could get that would behave the way Firefox's or Safari's bookmarks
behave? I want a sidebar, and I want it to be there all the time,
showing all my bookmarks. Is that too much to ask?

Isaac

dorayme

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May 16, 2012, 6:29:49 AM5/16/12
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In article <isw-A3F977.23355515052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
If you want all bookmarks to show and you have a very great many,
perhaps it is a bit much to ask.

Safari seems quite a good browser and its bookmarks seem very capable.

--
dorayme

Paul Sture

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May 16, 2012, 9:48:50 AM5/16/12
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At one point I had a huge number of bookmarks in Safari, laid out like
the OP describes and it worked fine.

The only problem was that at the time Safari didn't have the capability
of sorting the bookmarks (I haven't looked - does it have that now?).

My answer was to do a one off sort, then take care to place new bookmarks
within that order.

I came across various utilities which would do this, but they all cost
money and offered other features I wasn't particularly interested in. I
did my one off sort using XSLT.

Footnote: For the last couple of years I have been working on a variety
of platforms in different locations. I ended up with a private web site
where I can stash URLs of interest, and no longer maintain a
comprehensive set of bookmarks. This has the advantage that I can get at
it from anywhere, at the cost of each entry taking more time to add than
bookmarking.

Now that we have Dropbox and similar offerings, can anyone suggest
suitable apps which could be used to maintain bookmarks external to
browsers?

--
Paul Sture

Suze

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May 16, 2012, 10:41:56 AM5/16/12
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In article <isw-A3F977.23355515052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
isw <i...@witzend.com> wrote:

This is not the solution you're asking for but it works for me:
I use the Safari bookmarks BAR and put organized bookmark folders in the
bar.
Then just click any given folder in the bar and all of the bookmarks in
that folder will be visible. I find this works well for my purposes.
YMMV of course.
--
Live every day like it's your last--someday you'll be right.

TaliesinSoft

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May 16, 2012, 11:41:45 AM5/16/12
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On 2012-05-16 13:48:50 +0000, Paul Sture said:

> At one point I had a huge number of bookmarks in Safari, laid out like
> the OP describes and it worked fine.
>
> The only problem was that at the time Safari didn't have the capability
> of sorting the bookmarks (I haven't looked - does it have that now?).

For as long as I can remember Safari allowed one to rearrange the
bookmarks. You would select the "Show All Bookmarks" from the menubar
and then drag and drop a menu to where you wanted it.

--
James Leo Ryan - Austin, Texas

Barry Margolin

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May 16, 2012, 11:53:25 AM5/16/12
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In article <a1i05p...@mid.individual.net>,
He means a way to alphabetize the bookmarks automatically, rather than
having to arrange things by hand.

--
Barry Margolin, bar...@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

Paul Sture

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May 16, 2012, 2:23:53 PM5/16/12
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On Wed, 16 May 2012 11:53:25 -0400, Barry Margolin wrote:

> In article <a1i05p...@mid.individual.net>,
> TaliesinSoft <talies...@me.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2012-05-16 13:48:50 +0000, Paul Sture said:
>>
>> > At one point I had a huge number of bookmarks in Safari, laid out
>> > like the OP describes and it worked fine.
>> >
>> > The only problem was that at the time Safari didn't have the
>> > capability of sorting the bookmarks (I haven't looked - does it have
>> > that now?).
>>
>> For as long as I can remember Safari allowed one to rearrange the
>> bookmarks. You would select the "Show All Bookmarks" from the menubar
>> and then drag and drop a menu to where you wanted it.
>
> He means a way to alphabetize the bookmarks automatically, rather than
> having to arrange things by hand.

Yes, that's exactly what I did. There were really too many to do that
manually, but once I'd sorted them automatically, it was easy to maintain
alphabetical order for new items.



--
Paul Sture

Erilar

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May 16, 2012, 5:00:31 PM5/16/12
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I've been doing that for years 8-). I keep my bookmarks in folders within
folders and rearrange them the same way. A few really-often-used bookmarks
are in my menu bar up top.

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist with iPad

dorayme

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May 16, 2012, 7:29:01 PM5/16/12
to
In article <2rnc89-...@news.sture.ch>, Paul Sture <pa...@sture.ch>
wrote:

> Footnote: For the last couple of years I have been working on a variety
> of platforms in different locations. I ended up with a private web site
> where I can stash URLs of interest, and no longer maintain a
> comprehensive set of bookmarks. This has the advantage that I can get at
> it from anywhere, at the cost of each entry taking more time to add than
> bookmarking.

This is a very good idea for those able to do this. If you have your
own domain or even if you just have webspace somewhere. You can then
open it in a tab in any browser and all your bookmarks are organised
exactly as you have personally organized. If you use different
browsers, you avoid having to coordinate bookmarks between them. You
can even tell browsers to open with this page when firing up.

You can mark it up how you like and style it how you like, in simple
scrollable lists under different headings or probably better if it is
for personal use, in drop-down menus.

Of course, this is not quite what the OP wants, it is not always
visible and certainly not all bookmarks he might want. He could
achieve closer to what he wants if he opens such a window of a private
page, html and style it so it can be thin and down scrollable and keep
it on his desktop. When browsing other sites, just open a separate
window and use the normal tab system in that. The first open window
will have all the bookmarks visible.

The downside is that it initially requires more attention. In most
browsers, including Safari, you just click on the + and say where you
want the bookmark when visiting a page. But this can quickly become
hard to manage behind the scenes. To be useful, you need to show all
bookmarks and cull and organise every now and then anyway, a task we
all probably put off for 'one day'.

What you can do is this, Safari as example: use the "add bookmark" to
add to a single file. In other words don't bother to organise into
folders on the browser facilities, just have one big one. And when you
get around to it, grab the urls and put them into your own HTML page
in your preferred manner and upload to a server, it will then be in an
organised form in a tab.

The advantages of this are quite considerable, you can annotate the
links in your private web page of your bookmarks, have tooltip hints
about the nature of the destinations. You can search the page for
keywords and so on.

--
dorayme

dorayme

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May 16, 2012, 7:30:46 PM5/16/12
to
In article <barmar-090886....@news.eternal-september.org>,
Barry Margolin <bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> In article <a1i05p...@mid.individual.net>,
> TaliesinSoft <talies...@me.com> wrote:
>
> > On 2012-05-16 13:48:50 +0000, Paul Sture said:
> >
> > > At one point I had a huge number of bookmarks in Safari, laid out like
> > > the OP describes and it worked fine.
> > >
> > > The only problem was that at the time Safari didn't have the capability
> > > of sorting the bookmarks (I haven't looked - does it have that now?).
> >
> > For as long as I can remember Safari allowed one to rearrange the
> > bookmarks. You would select the "Show All Bookmarks" from the menubar
> > and then drag and drop a menu to where you wanted it.
>
> He means a way to alphabetize the bookmarks automatically, rather than
> having to arrange things by hand.

Yes, quite. And that is why making your own page is such a good idea,
there are all sorts of sortable functions when making pages, BBEdit
has such.

--
dorayme

Suze

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May 16, 2012, 9:50:30 PM5/16/12
to
In article <dorayme-A2FED4...@news.albasani.net>,
dorayme <dor...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> In article <2rnc89-...@news.sture.ch>, Paul Sture <pa...@sture.ch>
> wrote:
>
> > Footnote: For the last couple of years I have been working on a variety
> > of platforms in different locations. I ended up with a private web site
> > where I can stash URLs of interest, and no longer maintain a
> > comprehensive set of bookmarks. This has the advantage that I can get at
> > it from anywhere, at the cost of each entry taking more time to add than
> > bookmarking.
>
> This is a very good idea for those able to do this. If you have your
> own domain or even if you just have webspace somewhere. You can then
> open it in a tab in any browser and all your bookmarks are organised
> exactly as you have personally organized. If you use different
> browsers, you avoid having to coordinate bookmarks between them. You
> can even tell browsers to open with this page when firing up.

I have done my work bookmarks in MS Word using hyperlinks, and then I
just save it as an htm file, open it in my browsers and bookmark the
file to my bookmarks bar. You can drag the htm file back into Word to
edit if you need to and then re-save. And you can add whatever info you
need for each bookmark. This is nice if you don't change the bookmarks
often and use a specific set.
--
Good judgment results from experience, and experience results from bad judgment.

isw

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May 17, 2012, 12:51:13 AM5/17/12
to
In article <dorayme-54B358...@news.albasani.net>,
Firefox doesn't seem to strain on bookmarks -- just on everything else
...

> Safari seems quite a good browser and its bookmarks seem very capable.

Well, it's annoyed me every other time I've tried it, but I may have to
give it another chance.

I miss CyberDog.

Isaac

isw

unread,
May 17, 2012, 12:52:58 AM5/17/12
to
> In article <a1i05p...@mid.individual.net>,
> TaliesinSoft <talies...@me.com> wrote:
>
> > On 2012-05-16 13:48:50 +0000, Paul Sture said:
> >
> > > At one point I had a huge number of bookmarks in Safari, laid out like
> > > the OP describes and it worked fine.
> > >
> > > The only problem was that at the time Safari didn't have the capability
> > > of sorting the bookmarks (I haven't looked - does it have that now?).
> >
> > For as long as I can remember Safari allowed one to rearrange the
> > bookmarks. You would select the "Show All Bookmarks" from the menubar
> > and then drag and drop a menu to where you wanted it.
>
> He means a way to alphabetize the bookmarks automatically, rather than
> having to arrange things by hand.

No, I (OP) didn't. I just want them all to show up in a list that never
goes away unless I dismiss it.

Isaac

dorayme

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May 17, 2012, 2:50:07 AM5/17/12
to
In article
<replytome-1D6E3...@news.eternal-september.org>,
I am sure that works well for you. Others might want the flexibility
of their own designed HTML/CSS template.

--
dorayme

dorayme

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May 17, 2012, 3:00:52 AM5/17/12
to
In article <isw-F34330.21511316052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
Never quite understood this but I guess I do very little actual
browsing compared to many other folks. It has always seemed fine to me
and when it is not on rare occasions I just fire up other browsers.
There is a thread on website making usenet group about how chrome is
the only browser that works well to deliver particular beach cam
images. My attitude is you will never ever be rid of cross browser
trouble so fire up Chrome already for this and don't worry. Use the
one browser that works well enough for most sites and jump for the
occasional this or that.

The beauty of Sture's idea of bookmarking is the fabulous portability
of it being on a public server so it does not matter what browser you
use or where you are as long as you have internet access.

One nice thing Safari has is a neat webarchive system (Command S when
on a webpage). Firefox's is better from the developer's point of view,
it splits up the files in a logical manner, but Safari is neater and
simpler from the surfer's. At least that is how it was last time I
looked.

--
dorayme

Barry Margolin

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May 17, 2012, 10:57:32 AM5/17/12
to
In article <isw-3339CD.21525816052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
Then what did you mean by "Safari didn't have the capability of sorting
the bookmarks"?

Paul Sture

unread,
May 17, 2012, 12:13:11 PM5/17/12
to
No, I made that comment (I wasn't the OP).

--
Paul Sture

isw

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May 17, 2012, 12:44:45 PM5/17/12
to
In article <barmar-3BF82F....@news.eternal-september.org>,
Barry Margolin <bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> In article <isw-3339CD.21525816052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
> isw <i...@witzend.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <barmar-090886....@news.eternal-september.org>,
> > Barry Margolin <bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > In article <a1i05p...@mid.individual.net>,
> > > TaliesinSoft <talies...@me.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > On 2012-05-16 13:48:50 +0000, Paul Sture said:
> > > >
> > > > > At one point I had a huge number of bookmarks in Safari, laid out
> > > > > like
> > > > > the OP describes and it worked fine.
> > > > >
> > > > > The only problem was that at the time Safari didn't have the
> > > > > capability
> > > > > of sorting the bookmarks (I haven't looked - does it have that now?).
> > > >
> > > > For as long as I can remember Safari allowed one to rearrange the
> > > > bookmarks. You would select the "Show All Bookmarks" from the menubar
> > > > and then drag and drop a menu to where you wanted it.
> > >
> > > He means a way to alphabetize the bookmarks automatically, rather than
> > > having to arrange things by hand.
> >
> > No, I (OP) didn't. I just want them all to show up in a list that never
> > goes away unless I dismiss it.
>
> Then what did you mean by "Safari didn't have the capability of sorting
> the bookmarks"?

I didn't say that. Maybe I got confused on who was replying to whom
about what ...

Isaac

Barry Margolin

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May 17, 2012, 1:23:07 PM5/17/12
to
In article <isw-89471F.09444417052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
I think you can see it above in the quotes. Someone said that Safari
couldn't sort bookmarks. Someone else then said that it does allow you
to rearrange bookmarks. I then pointed out that he (the one who
complained about sorting) was talking about doing it automatically.

Not sure why anyone would have thought that I was referring back to the
OP -- that's the whole point of snipping quotes down to just the
relevant parts.

Yes, I lost track when you replied, probably because it didn't occur to
me that you would have thought I was talking about you if you weren't
the one who wrote the quoted passage.

Nick Naym

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May 23, 2012, 3:53:14 AM5/23/12
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https://agilebits.com/products/AllBookmarks

A freebie that sits in the menubar. Not sure how it works in Lion.

--
iMac (27", 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) • OS X (10.6.8)

isw

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May 23, 2012, 4:25:14 AM5/23/12
to
In article
<1kkj3yi.c25g01n07sdgN%nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid>,
Looks interesting, but their download seems to be broken.

> Not sure how it works in Lion.

Well, Lion doesn't work for me, so that's not a problem. I'll try the
site again later.

thanks

ISaac

Suze

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May 23, 2012, 9:50:44 AM5/23/12
to
In article <isw-1565F2.01251323052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
isw <i...@witzend.com> wrote:

> > https://agilebits.com/products/AllBookmarks
> >
> > A freebie that sits in the menubar.
>
> Looks interesting, but their download seems to be broken.
>
> > Not sure how it works in Lion.
>
> Well, Lion doesn't work for me, so that's not a problem. I'll try the
> site again later.
>
> thanks

Try this page, they've somehow hidden the download links but I
downloaded the top link with no problems.
https://agilebits.com/allbookmarks/versions

isw

unread,
May 23, 2012, 1:06:49 PM5/23/12
to
In article
<replytome-50714...@news.eternal-september.org>,
Suze <repl...@thenewsgroup.com> wrote:

> In article <isw-1565F2.01251323052012@[216.168.3.50]>,
> isw <i...@witzend.com> wrote:
>
> > > https://agilebits.com/products/AllBookmarks
> > >
> > > A freebie that sits in the menubar.
> >
> > Looks interesting, but their download seems to be broken.
> >
> > > Not sure how it works in Lion.
> >
> > Well, Lion doesn't work for me, so that's not a problem. I'll try the
> > site again later.
> >
> > thanks
>
> Try this page, they've somehow hidden the download links but I
> downloaded the top link with no problems.
> https://agilebits.com/allbookmarks/versions

Thanks. Even if I had run across that page, I probably wouldn't have
pulled the file down, because the info makes you think that it's just
the release notes. If you click the big blue "Download Now" button,
nothing happens.

Anyhow, by clicking on "Version 4.0.1", I got a folder containing a
folder containing ... five levels deep, with, mirable dictu, the app
inside!

thanks

Isaac

da...@goodlab.co

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Nov 1, 2014, 7:36:50 AM11/1/14
to
Hi everyone,
Wanted to let you know that I'm in the same boat. Got really frustrated by Chrome's lack of a bookmark side bar so I created one. Here is the link to the chrome store extension.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sidecar-bookmarks-sidebar/lbnegejhdjianfmbancpeflnkbfollfi

It behaves much like firefox's sidebar. It stays open while you browse, has a tree view etc. We are more than willing to continue developing it if the community tells us what they want improved.

da...@goodlab.co

unread,
Dec 11, 2014, 1:36:43 PM12/11/14
to
ISW,
We had the same problem so we built and extension for chrome that adds a sidebar with bookmarks. Check it out if you like.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sidecar-bookmarks-sidebar/lbnegejhdjianfmbancpeflnkbfollfi?gclid=COHP9svPvsICFSgV7AodMCoA_w


Dave

da...@goodlab.co

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Jan 26, 2015, 9:33:36 PM1/26/15
to
isw,
I had the same problem. Got tired of waiting so I developed a chrome extension called sidecar. It gives you a bookmark side panel much like firefox. You can see it here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sidecar-bookmarks-sidebar/lbnegejhdjianfmbancpeflnkbfollfi

Hope you like it.
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