Copylink Bookmark Manager

Current version: 2010.4.7.1
Developer: Justin (me)
Get it here.

Copylink is a portable bookmark manager for Windows. This well designed utility can easily bring your bookmarks together into a single file, which you can easily transport between computers and your flash drive. Importing or exporting bookmarks is a snap. Never worry about dealing with browser bookmarks again, and end the days of searching Google for that link you use on a regular basis.

I'm releasing an update already? Afraid so...

This next day release fixes a bug where muli-edits may be applied to the wrong set of bookmarks. Opps!

Feedback and other comments on the new program? I'd love to hear them!

1.0.2 released. Fixes an icon that caused Copylink to have problems loading correctly in Windows XP.

Anyone interested in keeping tabs on development as it is happening can check out Copylink's new development update topic here.

Jake, have you had a chance to try it yet? I'm pretty far along in development for the next release. I think the imports working great but any other suggestions you might have I"m all ears.

Nope, sorry.
I'll try it right now though in XP, and get back to you ASAP.

Or not...
I just tried to get into XP and was asked to activate my copy of Windows.
I now remember a couple of months ago or so, I was having problems with XP, so I did a repair install and other stuff too. But I still couldn't get into that copy of XP, so I then reinstalled another XP to the same partition, without trashing the first one, because I had hopes of getting into the other one again, which still had all my programs and settings. I've backed up all my stuff already.
Unfortunately, now both copies of XP are giving me the same "activate your copy of Windows", which I can't do for one reason or another.

So I regret to inform you that testing Copylink in XP will have to wait until I get a change to wipe the XP partition and do another re-install, which will be a pain, but oh well.

Yeah, your XPs seen better days by the look of it. You could just call into MS but I think a fresh install might be better.

Copylink 2010.4.7.1 finished

• When you are editing a bookmark, the protocol drop down automatically updates with edits to the address field and vice versa.
  
• Ability to automatically select the currently viewed bookmark group when you are adding a new bookmark (you can turn this feature on or off in settings)
  
• Ability to auto-save changes to bookmark files on exit without prompting the user (you can turn this feature on or off in settings)
  
• Ability to not prefix addresses opened in the browser with the default protocol if address protocol is missing, unique from the list of available protocols, or invalid.
  
• Bookmarks must be double-clicked in the list now in order to perform the defined bookmark behavior. This is to allow the user to more easily select/unselect bookmarks for operations that effect multiple bookmarks.
  
• On double-click of a bookmark all bookmarks are unselected. This is to prevent accidental selection of bookmarks from being modified/deleted in operations that effect multiple bookmarks.
  
• Export of bookmarks containning illegal filename characters is now supported. In this case, the offending chars are removed from the final filename.
  
• Export of bookmarks without a protocol is now supported. Because Windows internet shortcuts require a protocol, Copylink prefixes the address with the default protocol (http).
  
• Selection of, editing of, and deleting of bookmarks have been moved to a single "Select Options" menu.
  
• Group navigation buttons added to jump between bookmark groups without having to use the group dropdown in bookmark view.
  
• "Visit Website" link removed and added to the logo at the top.
  Options in side panel split into two new side panels: "File Management" and "Bookmark Tasks"
  
• Highlighting of buttons on the side panels match that of other buttons throughout the program for consistency.
  
• Group count removed from "Manage Groups" page.
  
• New calculator/Bookmark Stats button added to bookmark view to display file stats such as the amount of bookmarks/groups.
  
• Ability to import HTML bookmark files (for support with browsers other than Internet Explorer)
  
• Ability to export HTML bookmark files (for support with browsers other than Internet Explorer)
  
• Default protocol (http) is selected for new bookmarks.
  
• Default protocol (http) is selected when editing multiple bookmarks.
  
• Search box added to bookmark view. Start typing and the first found match is selected. Successful matches are stored in a dropdown for later use, however, the dropdown is cleared if another group is selected for viewing (so no matter what stored searches are always valid to matching bookmarks from the list).
  
• Colored bookmark list for easy reading
  
• Added McAfee and Web Of Trust site safety providers
  
• New "Check Website Safety" page added. Addresses no longer need to be added to check a site's safety. In addition you have the option of picking which site safety provider you want to use.
  
• Auto-type ability added. You can have Copylink type just the address or the address in URL tags for sites like forums and blogs.
  
• Added auto-type address click behavior.
  
• Removed "Copy Description to Clipboard".
  
• Default bookmark behavior is now open in browser
  
• Auto arrange imported bookmarks from a folder into bookmarks groups enabled by default
  
• Removed new folder option when importing a folder of bookmarks.
  Side panel headings have a diferent color to distingush them from buttons.
  Ability to rename existing bookmark groups
  
• Address field is considered invalid if it just contatins a recognized protocol (no address).
  
• When a field is enabled for editing in multi-edit mode, the field gets the focus.
  
• Versioning switched to date format: yyyy.dd.mm.build#
  
• Various new keyboard shortcuts added for quick operation.
  
• Added some task/option icons.
  
• Added irc and mailto protocols

Ok. I have a few suggestions/complaints about Copylink to make:

1. There appears to be no way to put selected bookmarks from an imported html bookmark file in groups.
2. It would be nice if after selecting some bookmarks in one group, then switching groups in the drop-down menu, then going back to the previous group you selected bookmarks in, would result in the ones you selected being still selected. Since its not really all that clear that that drop-down menu is for the viewing of groups and not for putting selected bookmarks into another group (though I suppose I should have guessed that), I made the mistake of selecting bookmarks related to booting, then using the drop-down menu to select the "Booting" group which I created, which of course resulted in all the bookmarks that were selected being de-selected.
3. I didn't particularly like the fact that there isn't any one button on the sidebar you can press to go back to the main page where you see all the bookmarks, and instead have to press an "Ok" button on some of the pages to do so. I guess I'm not really used to seeing "Ok" and "Cancel" buttons in the main window of programs, and am used to seeing them in dialogs only. Also, on the "Import or Export" page, you force the user to use one of the options on that page, rather than allowing them to switch to another page if they decide they don't want to import or export and instead want to do something else.

Just a few minor points to make. Other than those, I really like Copylink.

And your reply slips me again. I wish forumotion would provide feeds

I have considered some of those issues. Let me explain my ideas for why those are issues to some. I may consider changing things though.

1. I'm aware of this. It has to do with Mozilla's crappy formatting. It was a PITA just to write the code to extract the URLs. I may add some detection for IE formatted files which are organized nicely enough where I could support bookmark groups on import.
2. The idea is to work on a single group of bookmarks at a time. If you need to work on bookmarks from multiple groups you can use "All Bookmarks" group to make your selections. I know this could be quite annoying if you have many many bookmarks. I'll look into adding that feature.
3. Copylinks supposed to allow you to work on one thing at a time. If you're on the import/export page and decide you don't want to do anything, just select an action and than cancel in the resulting dialog. Copylink automatically takes you back to your bookmarks. I considered adding a back button anyway, may still do that...

Again, sorry for the late reply. I've started school again and have been super busy.

Justin wrote:And your reply slips me again. I wish forumotion would provide feeds

What? You can use Actions!->Watch this topic for replies, and you'll be subscribed to this thread and will get an email each time a new reply is made. You can also set the option in your profile to automatically subscribe to all threads you post in or start.
I would have guessed you'd have already found that feature by now.

I have considered some of those issues. Let me explain my ideas for why those are issues to some. I may consider changing things though.

1. I'm aware of this. It has to do with Mozilla's crappy formatting. It was a PITA just to write the code to extract the URLs. I may add some detection for IE formatted files which are organized nicely enough where I could support bookmark groups on import.
2. The idea is to work on a single group of bookmarks at a time. If you need to work on bookmarks from multiple groups you can use "All Bookmarks" group to make your selections. I know this could be quite annoying if you have many many bookmarks. I'll look into adding that feature.
3. Copylinks supposed to allow you to work on one thing at a time. If you're on the import/export page and decide you don't want to do anything, just select an action and than cancel in the resulting dialog. Copylink automatically takes you back to your bookmarks. I considered adding a back button anyway, may still do that...

Again, sorry for the late reply. I've started school again and have been super busy.

Ok.

1. I still don't see why you can't put imported urls from an html bookmark file into groups. How does the "groups" feature work anyway internally in the program?
2. Well, I know the idea is to work on a single group at one time. The point I'm making is, if you don't make it that clear that that drop-down menu is for selecting the bookmark group to operate on, other users may make the same mistake I did, and assume that its for putting selected bookmarks into another group, hence running into the same problem I did, i.e. when going back to the original group after figuring out the real purpose for the drop-down menu, all the bookmarks that they selected being de-selected, which can be a pain if you happen to have a lot of bookmarks (like I do).
3. Yeah, I understand that. I just don't think that that's the best way to do things. I'm saying if a user goes to the import/export page either just to check out the available options (like I did) or if he/she actually wants to use one of those options to accomplish said task, then (in the first case) wants to go to another page to view its options or whatever, or (in the second case) changes his/her mind about wanting to import/export, and wishes to do some other task with the program, then they learn they can't just jump to another page like it would seem would be the natural thing to do. Instead, they must select an option to import or export, then cancel it on the dialog that pops up to go to the main page, and only then can they select another page to go to. Some users may get discouraged at this, and stop using the program altogether. First impressions are important. I think you should make it as easy as possible to navigate your program. That's all I'm saying.

I just recently turned on e-mail notifications so I wasn't subscribed to this topic until I posted yesterday. I'm not really a fan of e-mail notifications (don't want a couple hundred msgs in my inbox) but whatever, I have that filtered now anyway.

The ideal case for group import would be to have bookmarks automatically organized into groups as they are when you import a folder. You may have noticed this done on folder name. so if theres a sub-folder named "Shopping" within the folder you selected with all your shopping bookmarks in it they end up in a "Shopping" group. Simple enough for me to code up and still useful. Now for HTML files, this isnt the case. Mozilla may have thrown some tags in here and there to identify groups of bookmarks, but its formatting is absoutley horrible, no way in a million years I can extract the URLs and keep them in their groups. I had to make my code generic as possible, so it would work with HTML files from any browser/other bookmark program.

That being said, I think a "Recently Imported" group should be automatically used for these imports, which I well go ahead and add in the next release. While this doesn't automatically organize the bookmarks, it well give you a group you can go to view and work with the bookmarks you've just imported without having to go through your whole bookmark collection.

As for the selection request I've made up my mind on supporting preservation of selections between group changes. I well have this in the next version.

I think the one operation at a time is the simplest approach for an easy to use program. I well add a back button to the import/export page and a link back to bookmarks elsewhere though.

Justin wrote:I just recently turned on e-mail notifications so I wasn't subscribed to this topic until I posted yesterday. I'm not really a fan of e-mail notifications (don't want a couple hundred msgs in my inbox) but whatever, I have that filtered now anyway.

Ahh, ok. I see.

The ideal case for group import would be to have bookmarks automatically organized into groups as they are when you import a folder. You may have noticed this done on folder name. so if theres a sub-folder named "Shopping" within the folder you selected with all your shopping bookmarks in it they end up in a "Shopping" group. Simple enough for me to code up and still useful. Now for HTML files, this isnt the case. Mozilla may have thrown some tags in here and there to identify groups of bookmarks, but its formatting is absoutley horrible, no way in a million years I can extract the URLs and keep them in their groups. I had to make my code generic as possible, so it would work with HTML files from any browser/other bookmark program.

What you're talking about here is completely different than what I was talking about. Yeah, I think it would be nice if bookmarks from an imported html file would automatically end up in the groups they were in in Firefox when you import them into Copylink, but I was simply saying that it would be nice if you added a feature for putting imported bookmarks into a new group created in Copylink after the import has been accomplished, i.e. so that say I wanted to import my bookmark file from FF into Copylink and then wanted to sort the bookmarks similiar to the way they are in FF by putting similiar bookmarks into a category which would encompass them. For example, I have bookmarks related to booting. I wanted to create a group in Copylink called "Booting" and then move all the imported bookmarks from my FF bookmark file into that group called "Booting". This way, even though FF bookmark file's formatting sucks, the user can still sort the bookmarks the way he/she wants to after importing.

That being said, I think a "Recently Imported" group should be automatically used for these imports, which I well go ahead and add in the next release. While this doesn't automatically organize the bookmarks, it well give you a group you can go to view and work with the bookmarks you've just imported without having to go through your whole bookmark collection.

Yeah, that's a good idea too, but I still think you should take my previous suggestion under consideration and give the user the option to put imported bookmarks into the groups they choose.

As for the selection request I've made up my mind on supporting preservation of selections between group changes. I well have this in the next version.

Awesome.

I think the one operation at a time is the simplest approach for an easy to use program. I well add a back button to the import/export page and a link back to bookmarks elsewhere though.

Great. Thanks.

Just an update. I still intend on working on a release, but it well be done in my free time. I want to work on my blog a bit, and get some pages up for these projects there (or start a Google site to host it). I have jumped on the Dropbox bandwagon as well and might consider distributing that way via sharing if interested.

Downloads moved to the new blog here