Internet Tips

Have Bookmarks, Will Travel

I recently purchased a notebook computer and would like to sync it with my desktop machine. Is there a way to copy my desktop's Internet bookmarks and address book to my notebook without having to retype them?

Jack Serrano, Floral Park, New York

Yes, and it's not as hard as you might think. You don't say which browser or mail program you use, so I'll provide steps for the most recent versions (as we went to press) of both Netscape Communicator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

First we'll look at the procedure with Communicator. To move your Navigator 4.7 Bookmarks to another PC, start the program, press Ctrl-B to open the Bookmarks window, choose File, Save As, browse to a floppy disk, and click Save to create a copy of the file using the default name of bookmark.htm. (You could also browse to a folder on the other computer if the PCs are linked by a network or other connection.) If you copied the file to a floppy disk, insert the floppy into the destination machine's drive, launch Navigator on the system, press Ctrl-B, choose File, Import, and browse to the bookmark.htm file that you just saved.

To copy your address book, press Ctrl-Shift-2, or select Communicator, Address Book to open the Address Book window, select File, Export, browse to a floppy disk or folder as described above, enter a name for the file, and click Save.

Now all you need to do to finish the process is to move to the destination machine, open Address Book, choose File, Import, select the LDIF file (address book) option, click Next, and select the file in the Import LDIF file window.

Here's the same procedure for IE 5: choose File, Import and Export to start the Import/Export Wizard, and click Next. Highlight the Export Favorites option in the following screen and click Next again. Select the Favorites folder in the next screen and click Next yet again. Then select Export to a File or Address, browse to the floppy drive or folder on the destination machine, and click Save. Then click Next and Finish to complete the job. To import the file on the new machine, start the Import/Export Wizard, click Next, select Import Favorites, click Next, select Import from a File or Address, and browse to the file you exported. Click Save, Next, then Next, and finally Finish. At this point you may want to ice down your aching index finger and send your mouse in for its 10,000-mile maintenance service.

Transferring your address book is a bit less click-intensive: Open Outlook Express, choose File, Export, Address Book, select Text File (Comma Separated Values), and click Export. Browse to the proper location, type in a file name, and select Save, Next. Select the data fields you want to export and click Finish. To import the file, open Outlook Express on the destination machine, choose File, Import, Other Address Book, select Text File (Comma Separate Values), and click Import. Browse to the file you saved previously, click Next, and then click Finish.