Create Firefox Smart Bookmarks

Martin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:40:04 +0000

Firefox 3 changed the bookmarking system from using html files to using sqlite databases. One benefit of using databases is the possibility to run custom queries. Three of the so called smart bookmarks are already available after installing Firefox3: Most Visited, Recently Bookmarked and Recent Tags all make use of database queries to provide the user with dynamic results.

So what’s possible with this technique besides the three default dynamic bookmark folders? Users could display all bookmarks that are tagged with a specific tag, display the latest ten pages that they visited on a specific domain or to list the least visited bookmarks. Many additional possibilities exist and it is just a matter of defining the database query correctly to achieve them.

The basics first. Database queries are added as normal bookmarks and placed in the location field instead of the usual url. The name can be selected freely. Database queries use the place:query syntax. Let’s take a look at an example:

The above query is “place:queryType=0&sort=8&maxResults=10″ uses the filters queryType, sort and maxResults.

queryType=0 will return an URI for each result
sort=8 will sort the bookmarks by visit count
maxResults=10 limits the results to ten bookmarks.

The guys at the Mozillazine forum did a good job of listing the relevant queries and it would be redundant to simply copy and paste their work here. Just head over to the forum and take a look at the queries. If you want to have a specific query and cannot get it to work let us know in the comments and we try to build it for you.

Tags: firefox 3, firefox 3 bookmarks, firefox bookmarks, firefox database, firefox sqlite, firefox tips, places, smart bookmarks

Edit the Windows Places Bar

Martin — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:07:12 +0000

The so called Places Bar is a sidebar on the right side of Open and Save dialogs in Windows and Office that provide the user with a way to access specific folders faster. It shows My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Documents, My Computer and My Network Places by default and there is no apparent way to change or edit the default places with some that make more sense. A user without a network connection would probably like to see a different folder in the Places Bar instead of the My Network Places link.

Users can either edit the five quick links in the Windows Registry which is not as trivial as it sounds or use a application like Places Bar Editor (via Lifehacker) to edit them comfortably. The software is compatible to Windows ME, 2000, XP and Windows Vista and supports the (different) Places Bar of Microsoft Office, or precisely Microsoft Office 2007, 2003, 2000 and XP, which is different from the standard Places Bar.

The software displays the five places that can be changed in tabs. One for Windows and one for Microsoft Office. The user has the choice to pick a system folder, like Desktop, Send To or Printers or chose a folder from his system that will be placed as a quick link in the bar. Please note that all five locations will change even if you only edit some of them. By default all are shown as Desktop links and you could end up with one custom link and four links to your Desktop if you changed only the first quick link manually.

Tags: microsoft-office, office, places, software, Windows, windows tips

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