Comping tips / Get organised

How to use bookmarks in Chrome and Safari

by Di · Published 22/11/2019 · Updated 22/11/2019

Bookmarks are one of my favourite organisational tools as a comper, and for some time I’ve been meaning to record a YouTube guide on how to make the most of them! In this video and blog post I’ll introduce bookmarks, and explain how to save, edit and file them using Chrome and Safari on both a computer and mobile.

So why should we use bookmarks? They save time, and make it easy to get to websites that we visit regularly instead of having to type in the address, or search on Google. Bookmarks are an excellent way to save your favourite recipes, tips or articles that you want to read later. For a comper, it’s the perfect way to organise resources like Facebook groups, Twitter lists, competition listings sites and regular entry competitions. Bookmarks are also the best way to handle Christmas comping – check out my Tips for Advent Competitions for more advice on this.

Please watch the video below for lots of helpful guidance on using bookmarks!

How to use Chrome bookmarks

If you have a Google account, start by signing in. This ensures your Chrome bookmarks can be synced between your computer, phone and tablet. Check in your Chrome settings that sync is activated!

If you don’t have a Google account, I recommend signing up for one at https://accounts.google.com/. You can join with your existing email address – you don’t need to create a new gmail one, and having an account is essential if you want to make the best use of tools like Google Drive and Google Maps.

Chrome Bookmarks Bar

The Bookmarks Bar appears across the top of your browser, just below the website address, and you can fill it with handy shortcuts and folders which give you quick access to your favourite websites.

The quickest way to show or hide the bookmarks bar is to use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + shift + B (Ctrl + shift + B on a PC). Or click the three dots on the right, and choose Bookmarks > Show Bookmark Bar.

Save a new Chrome bookmark

Navigate to a favourite website, either by typing in the address bar or using Google. There are a few ways you can save this website as a bookmark:

Click on the star
Use keyboard shortcuts – Cmd-D on a Mac, or Ctrl-D on a PC
Use the menu Bookmarks > Bookmark this tab

You’ll be asked what to call the bookmark, and where to save it. By default it will show the last folder you saved into, plus a drop-down list of other recent folders. If you don’t see the right destination, click More…, where you can also create a new folder for it. If you don’t have any folders yet, the new bookmark will appear on your Bookmarks Bar.

You can also add a bookmark if you click and drag on the icon next to the web address, and release it into the relevant folder, or simply onto the Bookmarks Bar. Using this technique you can easily drag and drop your bookmarks from one place to another.

Edit a Chrome bookmark

To edit your saved bookmark, right click on your bookmark and select EDIT. There are a few ways you might want to amend your bookmark:

Shorten the name of the bookmark – or even completely remove all the text (perfect for a recognisable icon such as Facebook or YouTube!) – shorter names mean you can fit more onto your bookmarks bar
Change the web address – simply amend it in the box
Move your bookmark – simply click on the correct folder

Delete a Chrome bookmark

To delete a saved bookmark, right click on your bookmark and select DELETE

Create folders for Chrome bookmarks

If you add bookmarks without organising them, you’ll soon be in a mess! Use folders to keep your bookmarks organised into topics. eg. recipes, banking, shopping, favourite blogs, competitions, etc.

To create a folder, right click on the bar and choose NEW FOLDER, then give it a name
Click and drag to move your bookmarks and folders and change the order – you can drag a folder inside another folder!

Chrome Bookmarks Manager

You might prefer to organise bookmarks using Chrome’s Bookmarks Manager, where there’s also a handy search box to find a bookmark. Here’s a few ways you can open Bookmarks Manager:

Go to chrome://bookmarks/
Go to Bookmarks > Bookmarks Manager
Open with the shortcut Option + Cmd + B (Ctrl + Shift + O on a PC)

In Bookmarks Manager, click the three dots at the top right to create new folders. Edit individual bookmarks and folders by right-clicking on the names, or clicking the three dots to the right of the names.

Chrome Bookmark Tips

If you have a lot of tabs open and want to save them all, use Cmd + Shift + D (Ctrl + Shift + D on PC) – this will also create a new folder to save them in
If you’re switching browsers, import your bookmarks – I moved from Safari to Chrome years ago and I imported my Safari bookmarks, then arranged them into folders in Chrome. In Chrome, go to Chrome > Import Bookmarks and Settings
Opening all bookmarks from a folder in new tabs can be really useful for when you want to enter a set of daily competitions! To do this, right click on the folder name in your menu – then Open All.
Bookmark Google searches, for up to date results. For example, if you enjoy a creative competition, search for creative competition win at www.google.co.uk. Filter your results to the last week and the UK. Then bookmark this search and visit every week for a new set of results.
To tidy up your folders, add in a ‘separator’. Go to https://separator.mayastudios.com/index.php?t=horz then just drag the icon across into a folder to add a horizontal line. Then edit the line to whatever you want (see my example below).

Use bookmarks to help older family members, who might struggle typing in web addresses – add Amazon, banking websites, and their favourite sites to the Bookmarks Bar. My mother in law loves to see friends’ Instagram photos but she doesn’t have a smartphone, so I created a Bookmarks folder of her family and friends’ Instagram profile links so she can see their latest photos.
Set up multiple Google accounts and use different bookmarks for each – for example I have accounts for Hove Park Colts Football Club. When I switch accounts, a new browser window opens up with the relevant bookmarks on the bar.
In Bookmarks Manager, click the three dots and choose Sort By Name to alphabetise your bookmarks – this can be handy for bookmarks starting with a date, such as competitions saved from the MSE site.

Using Chrome bookmarks on your phone

To access Chrome bookmarks on your mobile, tap the three dots at the bottom of the screen, then Bookmarks. You can access all the links and folders from your Bookmarks Bar, but there’s also a folder you can use to save Mobile bookmarks too.

To save a bookmark, tap the three dots and scroll down to BOOKMARK (star with + icon) – it will save into the most recently used folder. Tap EDIT on the bar at the bottom of the screen to move it to another destination
To edit a bookmark, tap and hold until a menu pops up then tap EDIT BOOKMARK
To delete a bookmark, swipe to the left and tap DELETE

How to use Safari bookmarks

On Safari there are both Favourites and Bookmarks. Favourites appear across a bar at the top of your browser – like the Bookmarks Bar in Chrome. Safari also has a separate Bookmarks folder.

To show the Favourites bar, use the shortcut Cmd + shift + B (Ctrl + shift + B on a PC)
To show Bookmarks in the Safari sidebar, click the icon at the top left of the browser

Save a Safari favourite or bookmark

Use a keyboard shortcut – Cmd-D on a Mac, or Ctrl-D on a PC
Right-click the plus sign in the address bar, and choose whether to save as a favourite or bookmark
Click and drag on the web address, and release it either onto the Favourites bar or into a folder
Go to Bookmarks > Add Bookmark on the menu bar

Edit or delete a Safari bookmark

Go to Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks in the top menu then right click on the bookmark
Right click directly on a bookmark or folder in the sidebar or on the Favourites bar

Create folders for Safari bookmarks

Right click on the Favourites bar to create a New Folder in your Favourites
Right click in the side bar to create a New Folder in your Bookmarks

At the bottom of a Favourites folder, there’s an Open in New Tabs option to open all the bookmarks at once.

Using Safari bookmarks on your phone

To save a bookmark in Safari, long press on the book icon and choose where to save it by tapping location. You can also bookmark all open tabs in this way.

To access a list of your bookmarks on your iOS device, tap the book icon at the bottom of the screen. On this list: