Transfer of favourites and interface

[Garce]

I'm not technical so here goes. I've just (in the process actually) swapped from AOL to IDNet and I'm so used to AOL's front end (interface) that with IDNet it's all a bit strange. So one of my questions is what do members here use to open up the front page? Can it be set up in preferances etc? I've not used Internet Explorer for a long time now! My real question is how to I access or transfer my favourites from AOL? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Philip]

  Garce, you've made the right move By front page do you mean your start up page? I use the BBC as my start up page.

Choose your start up page, then go to tools > internet options > and on the general tab click use current, then click apply. As for transferring favourites from AOL I've no idea but I'm sure an ex-AOLer will be able to help you.

[Sebby]

Just follow Philip's advice and you can change your homepage.

There's also a possibility that if you uninstall AOL's software (highly recommended!) it will put the default IE settings back in place.

[Rik]

Hi Garce

Welcome to the forum.

IIRC, the AOL software is based on Netscape, so see if you have an option to export your bookmarks?favourites.

You may also want to consider using Firefox as an alternative to IE. That has an import facility from Netscape (according to the help file).

[Garce]

Thanks for the advice and welcome! I've been using AOL for almost 10 years and it provided its own front page (formerly Netscape driven I think) which was fine which is why I feel a little lost now but I'll try your advice. As for deleting AOL I can't do this until I've made sure what will happen to mine and other users' favourites. So far I've copied them onto my pc as seperate .pfc format files. Is there anyway I can import that into my favourites in IE?

[Rik]

IE doesn't specifically mention AOL, but implies it can import direct from the programe:

Sharing favorites
Favorites, also known as bookmarks, are a convenient way to organize and link to webpages that you visit frequently.

If you use Internet Explorer on several computers, you can easily save your favorites on one computer and import that list onto another computer. If you use both Internet Explorer and another web browsing program, you can keep your favorites synchronized by importing them between programs.

To import or export favorites

Open Internet Explorer.
Click the Add to Favorites button , and then click Import and Export.
Follow the instructions in the Import/Export Wizard.
By default, the Import/Export Wizard creates a standard HTML file named bookmark.htm and saves it in the My Documents folder. When you use the wizard to import your favorites, it will look for that file.

Notes

To Share or move favorites from one computer to another, export or copy the Bookmark.htm file to a disk or flash drive. You can then import your favorites from the disk or flash drive to the new computer.
To print your list of favorites, open Bookmark.htm in Internet Explorer and then click the Print button .


Firefox can directly import from IE (as can Opera).

[Baz]

I have my start up page, Home Page, as blank. Just like to get straight into browsing the interweb thingy  as soon as I can, dont want to have to wait for a home page loading.

[Rik]

Me too, Baz, though maybe I should make it this place.

[Sebby]

What, you don't have IDNetters as your homepage?

[Rik]

Home page, yes, startup page, no.

[Sebby]

Ah, touché.

[Baz]

home page/start up page  whats the difference.

couldnt you just call your home page a favourite and make it into a bookmark or favorite, whatever Bill calls it

[Rik]

A startup page will be loaded when you open the browser, Baz, whilst a home page is where you go when you hit the home icon. I generally arrive by bookmark iac.

[Niall]

I have my start up page, Home Page, as blank. Just like to get straight into browsing the interweb thingy  as soon as I can, dont want to have to wait for a home page loading.

Surely setting it to a page is quicker, as you don't have to go into your favourites and select a site.

[Rik]

I prefer to do it manually, old habits I guess...

[Baz]

yeah maybe Niall might save a few clicks. its like Rik says....old habits.

I think mine stems from the days of dial up when having a home page did take a long time to get going, slowing the browsing down, so I made mine blank.

thinking about it now I probably do have a home page sometimes as in that I will leave some pages open while in use, using tabbed browsing in Firefox I can just switch tabs and I'm home

[Ted]

I use session manager in Firefox so i start where i left off last time, great when you have a lot of tabs open (which i usually do). As a homepage i just use Google

[Rik]

yeah maybe Niall might save a few clicks. its like Rik says....old habits.

I think mine stems from the days of dial up when having a home page did take a long time to get going, slowing the browsing down, so I made mine blank.

Same here, Baz. Plus I don't always want to go to the same page... OK, 99.999% of the time I do come straight here, but...

[Garce]

Thanks for the advice. I tried to import the .pfc files (which are the AOL favourites copied to a local drive) but IE would not accept them. Not surprised really as they are yet another example of AOL's idiosyncrasies. Thanks again.

[Simon]

I have my browser start with a blank page too, as sometimes you just want to open it without going to a website, or need to do something else before coming to your Home page.  My Home page is PC Pals, but I have IDNetters in my Links bar, so it's easily accessible with one click.  This also goes direct to the Unread Posts page, so I don't have to navigate from the Index.

[Sebby]

I think a blank page is a good start page. It's nice to get that quick start!

[drummer]

I've always found BookmarkBridge a nifty little tool for this type of thing.

http://bookmarkbridge.sourceforge.net/

[Rik]

Useful link, thanks, Drummer.

[Colin Burns]

im lazy so i just leave my computer and browser on though i do tend to pop on the internet at random times during the night when i cant sleep.

though i think the not sleeping is just the fear of waking up to a foot in the head off my brother

[Rik]

As a group, we do tend to have a high incidence of insomnia.

[Lance]

I'm glad to say it's not something I suffer from! The trouble I have is getting up in the mornings!

[Rik]

I'm more in the "I hate having to go to bed at night" camp.

[Sebby]

I have that problem too, Lance.

I also hate going to bed!

[Lance]

When I was younger, and only had college the next day, I would sometimes be up all night playing online games with my clan. That got rid of both the going to, and getting up from, bed problems! I couldn't do it these days with having to go to work!

[Rik]

Youth has its advantages.

[madasahatter]

Youth has its advantages.

The vast majority of which you don't appreciate at the time 

[Rik]

This is painfully true. You think it will always be this way when young. Your brain may still think it is... your body tends to say it isn't. 

[madasahatter]

I'm starting to learn that pretty quickly 

[Danni]

My body is pretending to be about 40. I am fed up of doctors telling me that some of my medical problems normally only happen to older people.

I want my body to work properly *growls*

[Rik]

My body is pretending to be about 60, Danni, but my mind is still 22. Unfortunately, checking the mirror suggest my body may be more aware.

[Danni]

No idea how old my mind is, as how young or old I feel depends on lots of things, like what I'm doing and how much pain I'm in (I always feel old when in pain).

[Rik]

Strange, pain doesn't affect how I feel, or how old I feel - I don't get grumpy or irritable etc, maybe a bit quiet, bit then pain is very personal, both in perception and tolerance. Now, I really can't stand being sick, that makes me absolutely wretched and miserable.