It is one thing to find useful resources on the web. It is entirely a different matter to find your way back to useful resources on the web. Before the arrival of web browsers, finding one’s way back to a file on a distant computer connected to the internet usually involved memorizing or recording a long, esoteric path name. The web browser changed all of that.

The Internet Explorer Favorites List (Netscape uses the term Bookmarks) makes it possible to easily create a link to a location on the web for future reference. Once it has been added to the Favorites List, clicking on the link from the Favorites List is all that is required to return to the exact location of the desired webpage. Navigation on the web couldn’t be any easier.

It is easy to add a webpage to your Favorites List using Internet Explorer. With the desired webpage on the screen, click on the Favorites menu and click on Add Page to Favorites. The next time you click on the Favorites menu, you will see the new Favorite at the bottom of the list. Adding a webpage to the Netscape Bookmarks page is just as easy. With the desired webpage on the screen, click on the Bookmarks menu and select Add Bookmark.

However, if you are like most web users, your bookmarks can quickly become an unmanageable list that scrolls on forever, making it nearly as difficult to find your way back to that wonderful webpage as it was to find in the first place. Fortunately web browsers have some powerful editing features that make managing your web resources a relatively simple matter.

Internet Explorer:

1. Click on the Favorites menu.
2. Move the cursor down to Organize Favorites.
3. Selecting New Folder from the pop-out menu will allow you to add a new folder to your Favorites.
4. You can rename the folder with a subject name (math, reading, science, etc.).
5. You can then drag existing Favorites to the new folders
6. Selecting New Divider from the Organize Favorites menu allows you to add horizontal lines that will help separate your Favorites into categories if you decide not to use folders.
7. Both the folders and separators can be moved just like the Favorites.

The Internet Explorer Help files contain several excellent step-by-step tutorials in the Collecting Favorite Pages section if you need more specific information.

Netscape Navigator:

1. Click on the Bookmarks menu.
2. Select Edit Bookmarks.
3. Click on the File menu and select New Folder or New Separator.
4. You can drag existing Bookmarks to the folders you create.
5. Both the folders and the separators can be moved just like the Bookmarks.

The Netscape Help Files contain several excellent step-by-step tutorials on how to effectively use the Netscape Bookmarks. Click on the Help menu and then on Browsing the Web. Scroll down the list on the right side of the screen until you see the "Bookmarking Your Favorite Web Sites" section.

Time spent in periodically organizing your Favorites List / Bookmarks is well worth the effort!

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