Internet Explorer Favorites Center - Pin and Unpin to Left Side

Staying on top of things I see! This will be a great help as well as timely for those who are now just going for the new version of IE 9.

I had forgotten about finding the green arrow option for seeing the IE Favorites moved over to the left when running the RC until seeing the guide here.

It did not take you long to do this fine tut. Thanks Shawn. Just today I was giving the people in my computer club first instructions about IE9. But that one I did not know. I will use it next Wednesday - with your permission.

Thank you guys. It was from helping another member with this issue that had me think that this would be helpful to others with the same issue.

The one thing you will be able to count on is people asking about the new version's change in layout with everything moved to the right side. This will be a useful reference to point them to in order to clear things for them.

I like to propose a completely different solution to the problem that I use and found to be very practical:

!. Install Rocket Dock, right click on the dock and autohide it. When you "bump" the cursor to the top of the screen, it will appear.



2. Place your Favorites folder into the Rocket Dock (just drag a folder shortcut from the desktop into the dock.). To get at the folder, type Favorites into start/search and it will show up. You can delete the shortcut on the desktop once it is in the dock.

3. When you look for a website URL, open the Favorites folder from the dock. It is a lot easier to deal with that (set the folder view to List) than rolling the bar down - especially if you have a gezillion folders and files like me.



4. An added advantage is that you can search in the Favorites folder if you do not remember where you stuck the particular website that you are looking for. Many of my folders have up to 25 entries (subfolders and URLs) and I often forget where I put things.

Note: The Rocket Dock is particularily handy because you can always easily access it. But you can also put the Favorites folder shortcut into the taskbar, Toolbar or even the Start menu. But that always needs an additional click to get at it.

Hello Wolfgang,

Thank you, but I'm not sure what problem you are referring to though.

If it's with the Favorites Center, then I suppose that you could just use Favorites on the Menu bar in IE9 instead.

Brink said:

Hello Wolfgang,

Thank you, but I'm not sure what problem you are referring to though.

If it's with the Favorites Center, then I suppose that you could just use Favorites on the Menu bar in IE9 instead.

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I am not referring to any particular problem. I was just following up on the left/right discussion for the favorites in IE9.

The way I describe my use of Favorites has the advantage that you see all your Favorites on one page and that you are able to search in the folder in case you do not remember where things are.

This may not apply to people who have few favorites or a good memory. But once you have over 1500 files in the folders, it is sure handy. And I never liked the way you search for a link in the IE Favorites - left or right.

PS; The favorites on the menu bar are the worst interface in my book. I hate those fly-outs.

Okey doke.

Instead of the need to pin any folder you can simply open the menu bar>View>explorer bars and click on the favorties item there to them open up on the left and stay open. Click the X or the Favorites icon to the right of the address bar to close.

That ends up being a three step process however. Plus not everyone runs RocketDock being a 3rd party addon. The guide here works for those who run without any addons. This shows how the Favorites work when using the Favorites icon itself.

Hey Shawn have you digg(ed) this and the other IE 9 guides you have ready? I meant to ask that one!

Night Hawk, this is perfect if you like the Fly-outs (which I hate) and have few favorites. But if you have 1500 files like me (sometimes stacked 4 deep), it is more cumbersome. And what do you do if you do not remember where you hid a particular website? That happens to me half of the time - and then I can search in the folder.

And the Rocket Dock I use because for one I have it anyhow (could not operate without it) and because it provides the fastest access to the Favorites folder. But you can stick the folder shortcut anywhere (Start, Toolbar, Taskbar). It only requires extra clicks to get there.

I would say I've had some experience with the RocketDock toolbar! :roflmao: I may not have 1,500 links to go through but I still manage to collect a never ending amount as time goes on at the same time.

You run it! I run it! But... what about all those who don't? That's the purpose of having a guide like this to begin with.

I'm glad to see Shawn jumped on this one promptly when people were discussing how the Favorites are now seen opening up on the right side and how to see them pinned over to the left as seen with previous versions of IE since people often need a good reference when changes to "all too familiar" layout.

It's just an observation but a guide like this is intended to show how to use what already comes included in IE 9 not something you addon separately.

As for mounting folders on RocketDock and other mods a better place for that would be a new discussion thread under Customizations or Browsers & Mail since that involves a 3rd party app. A good title for that may be "how to mount your IE Favorites on the RocketDock toolbar" where you could go into details on how to do that. And considering writing a guide for that could be useful for previous versions of IE not just IE 9 only.

Maybe we should open a new thread on "How to deal with the IE9 - tips and tricks" to keep this tutorial thread on topic.

http://www.sevenforums.com/browsers-mail/151497-how-deal-ie9-tips-tricks-ie9-we-find.html

The problem with the IE9 favourites center is that it can't be permanently pinned to the left side, if you want it on the left you have to keep it open, thus taking up desktop real estate, close the center on the left and it reverts back to the right hand side, which is kinda dumb, I'm sure there will be a registry hack to address this in time

Hello Nikev,

I'm not sure what you mean. The Favorites Center stays permanently pinned to the left side of IE9, even when you close and open IE9, until you close the Favorites Center.

Hi Brink what I mean is that when I close the favs center it reverts back to the right side of the screen. If I want to place the favs center on the left hand side of the screen permanently, ie open and close it from the left I can't. I think people who have been using their favourites column on the left hand side for many years will want this feature.

nikev216 said:

Hi Brink what I mean is that when I close the favs center it reverts back to the right side of the screen. If I want to place the favs center on the left hand side of the screen permanently, ie open and close it from the left I can't. I think people who have been using their favourites column on the left hand side for many years will want this feature.

Click to expand...

Nope can't do that.

You'll have to either leave it open for it to stay open on the left side, or get use to it on the right side.

it's only a minor annoyance, I found that if you have the menu bar displayed clicking on "favorites" opens them up on the left hand side

Well when clicking on the Favorites item on the menu bar it opens over towards the left but not all the way. When going into the View>explorer bars that will open it up on the far left but keep it open while unless you pin it to the left when using the star icon it will close as soon as you click the web page you are presently on at the time.

Minor annoyance? Yes! Major difficulty? Naaaa......!!! Maybe at some point there will be a way to see the Favorites automatically open on the left with a workaround found possibly a reg mod. But for now the green arrow or one of the menu bar options will work.

Shawn,

Well, it doesn't stay pinned or act normal. Like when u click a fave, it just stays open - huh?

And anyway you close it unpins it.

What i'm looking is moving the Star itself back to the left with the ie8 behavior, eh?

Regards,

Max ^_~