How to print your bookmarks

Question: I would like to know how to print, or save and then print, a list of my Internet Explorer 5.5 (for Windows) Favorites list. –H.C.

Answer: You can do this the hard way or the easy way. One involves creating a file called bookmarks.htm using Internet Explorer, messing with folders, and some mind-numbing procedure.

The other way is to muster a little trust for a company you know nothing about,
and push a button and upload your Favorites to the web for safekeeping and, if you want, printing.

First, the easy way. Go to www.backflip.com and sign up for a free account. The system will walk you through a registration
process that will automatically upload your bookmarks (another word for your Favorites) to its server where they are indexed and turned into a private web page accessible only by you, unless you choose to share your bookmarks with others.

This page can be printed using the Print command under the File menu in your web browser. It works with both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

There are similar free and paid bookmark manager services. Here is a free one; Compass Manager and a software version that is commercial; Slidemarks.

If uploading your bookmarks to the web is not for you, then here’s the slightly harder way.

There’s an import/export function in Internet Explorer 5.5 under the File menu
that allows you to convert all your favorite web addresses into a web page that can be printed. These can also be exported to or imported from Netscape, if you choose.

Select the File menu and choose Import/Export and follow the instructions. You’ll be presented with the option to Import or Export your bookmarks, called Favorites by Microsoft Internet Explorer.

If you choose Export you’ll be prompted to choose a folder of Favorites. If you’ve previously sorted your Favorites into subfolders, then you be presented with a list that has “Favorites” at the top as well as and all the subfolders you’ve created. If you pick “Favorites” from that list, all of your bookmarks will be exported. If you pick one of the subfolders, only the bookmarks in that subfolder will be exported.

The program will then create a web page out of your bookmarks. Don’t worry – the web page will not be put on the internet. It’s just created on your hard drive so a web browser can display the bookmarks and make them clickable for you. This file is named bookmarks.htm by default. Be sure to specify a folder to put that file in, one you can remember so you can find the file later.

The best bet is to save the file to your Windows Desktop. In most cases, files
on the desktop are located at c:windowsdesktop. If you click the Browse button to specify a folder, you can quickly go to the desktop folder by clicking the desktop icon, which looks like a tiny blotter with a pencil on it. It’s located at the top right of the dialog box that pops up when you click Browse. In Windows ME, this is bigger and is displayed at the left side of the Browse box.

Once this file is created, open it with Internet Explorer. In most cases, double-clicking on the file will open it. You can also open the file using the File menu in Explorer, selecting Open, and then navigating to where the file is located. Once it’s open, simply choose Print from the File menu. You can also save the bookmarks manually, by accessing the Favorites file in the folder c:/windows/favorites and copying the actual file to a floppy disk.
Netscape Navigator automatically stores all its bookmarks in a file called
bookmark.htm. Use the Find (or it may say Search) function on your Start menu to locate this file, and double-click on it to open it. In most default installations, it is located in this folder: c:/program files/netscape/users/default.