I was sitting at my computer yesterday looking for a particular bookmark that I KNOW I have, somewhere. After about 15 minutes of searching through the hundred or so folders I have, I gave up. I just couldn't find it in what I thought was an organized arrangement of places I've been online, web sites I wanted to revisit and tools that make my life and business easier and that I can't live without.
I came to the realization that "I'm not so think as organized I am!"
So I set off in search of the ultimate answer to handling all my bookmarks and favorites.
I popped over to Google and typed in "bookmark organization" thinking this would be my best choice to search by. I quickly realized that it was not. I found all kinds of forum posts telling me how to create folders and sub-folders to organize my bookmarks in Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape but that's what got me in trouble in the first place.
Then I tried, "organize my bookmarks" and as Emeril would say, "BAM!" I found it... what looked like the answer to my uncontrollable bookmarks.
There was a link, in position #4 I believe, that said, "Programs of the Year" and "a better way to organize my bookmarks." So, I clicked it and landed on http://bermangraphics.com/tips/programs.htm. This page offers some nice recommendations for graphics programs and other tools, but the one I was looking for was a software called, Powermarks. The explanation of the program sounded just like what I was looking for but I wanted to do a little more research first.
I found that PC World had a short description of the program and sharewarejunkies.com had an awesome 5-star review, but everything said Win 9X and I'm sitting here with Win XP Pro.
My next step was to visit the makers of Powermarks.
After reading the FAQ's and some of the User's Manual I thought I'd give it a try even though it was going to cost me about $25. Then I read under the Download area, "You may try Powermarks for 30 days before having to decide if it is right for you. Other than the 30 day restriction, Powermarks is completely functional so you can perform a thorough evaluation."
Well, I couldn't pass up the chance to try this since getting my 3,200+ bookmarks in order was the reason I was looking in the first place and the fact that I could try it for free for 30 days was the icing on the cake.
Downloading and installing Powermarks was a quick process, about 3 minute's total. Converting my Netscape and Internet Explorer bookmarks over to Powermarks took all of 2 minutes. And it didn't delete or change my bookmarks and favorites in IE or Netscape. They are still there should I decide to use them instead of Powermarks.
But the fun really began when Powermarks started converting my bookmarks. There is a built in dictionary of keywords and the program tried to associate my 3,239 bookmarks with those keywords. It found 4,471 words that it thought went well with all my bookmarks. At first glance, it looks like it did a great job. I tried typing in a few keywords to see what bookmarks came up and I think it found most, if not all, of the appropriate ones each time. And I can add more keywords to my bookmarks as I think of them with a few clicks of my mouse.
In IE, Powermarks added a very small toolbar that allows me to Run Powermarks, Add a Bookmark without Editing and Add and Edit a Bookmark. I tried adding and editing bookmarks and it worked like a charm. I was able to change the title of the bookmark and associate all kinds of keywords to it.
But until I can really start using the program this coming week, I won't know for sure how organized this, keyword list of bookmarks versus category folders, will make me.
So, to close this chapter of the story, I can say that everything I read about Powermarks makes me believe that this is the answer to my disorganized bookmark days and that installation and use was a snap. But only time will tell.
To be continued...
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Copyright 2005 Angela Smith. All rights reserved.
