Can I put bookmarks in alphabetical order?

Q Is there a way to organise my bookmarks in Internet Explorer 8 so they appear in alphabetical order, without having to manually drag them to another location? I would prefer that whenever I bookmark a site it automatically sorts the list in alphabetical order.

Terry Dowd

A It’s easy to sort your bookmarks once but not so easy to set Internet Explorer to do it automatically.

Click the yellow star on the left labelled Favorites to display your bookmarked websites. Right-click on any entry in the list and click Sort By Name to sort them into alphabetical order. It lists folders first, then loose bookmarks. However, if you add a site to your Favorites, it adds it to the bottom of the list and will not sort entries automatically.

You may find an online bookmarking tool, such as Delicious, helpful. This stores all your bookmarks online and can be used to access them using any PC or browser. It inserts a new bookmarks pane in Internet Explorer and Firefox which can automatically sort bookmarks into alphabetical order.

Delicious is owned by Yahoo and you will need a Yahoo account to use it. The photo-sharing site Flickr is also owned by Yahoo, so if you have a Flickr account, you can use the same Yahoo ID for Delicious.

If you do not have one, click the green Join Now button to create an account. Click the link in the bottom right to sign up for Yahoo and fill in your details, including a unique Yahoo ID and password. Yahoo also provides a free email address for everyone with a Yahoo ID.

When you have entered your details, click Create My Account at the bottom.

You also need to install a plug-in for Internet Explorer to take advantage of the Delicious side bar. It adds a set of buttons to the Internet Explorer toolbar: one to tag a new bookmark and add it to your Delicious profile, one to view your profile and another to make the Sidebar appear.

The sidebar bookmarks can be sorted by clicking on the dropdown menu in the top right and selecting Sort A to Z.

There is a lot more to Delicious than just sorting bookmarks though – read our guide to Delicious.

It is a good idea to back up your bookmarks every so often. Log in to the Delicious website and click on the Setting link at the top right. Click on the ‘Export / Backup Bookmarks’ link. Leave the options as they are and click on the green Export button. This will download a web page containing all your bookmarks.

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