Importing and Exporting Bookmarks/Favorites in Internet Explorer/Firefox   

by Dak

Ever wondered how to make a backup of your bookmarks in Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3? Saving all your favorite bookmarked website links can be an important part of the computer backup process. Or maybe you would like to export your priceless list of bookmarks from one of these browsers to the other?

Here's how to import and export your bookmarks/favorites quickly and painlessly.

Exporting Bookmarks from Firefox

Open Firefox, and on the Menu bar, select the Bookmarks tab. You'll get a drop down menu - select Organise Bookmarks.

Now you'll get a new window called Library. Select the Export HTML option.

For this tutorial, I'm choosing to export to a folder called Tutorials, which I have placed on my Desktop. I'd suggest somewhere a little safer, though, as its a good thing to keep this file in case of emergency!! I have a folder in My Computer called Backups for important little goodies such as these, as nothing will ever get 'accidentally' deleted from there, but its still easily accessible.

Just click Save and you're done! You have saved your bookmarks in HTML form. This file will include all folders and subfolders in your bookmarks.

I still have Firefox open, so I'll move on to importing bookmarks in Firefox. This is what you'll need to do if you have just installed Firefox, or you have had issues with it and uninstalled and reinstalled it.

Importing Bookmarks into Firefox

I've already demonstrated above how to get to the Library page, so I'll just skip straight to here. This time, I'll select Import HTML.

Now we can see options, and whoa... Internet Explorer is listed! If you want to import your Internet Explorer Bookmarks into Firefox, you've just discovered how to do it ! All you need to do is select Internet Explorer instead of the HTML file option, click next, and Firefox will find and add your Internet Explorer bookmarks automatically. It happens in a second or two with no fanfare - it just says its successfully imported your bookmarks, and if you open bookmarks now on your Firefox Menu, you'll see that they are already there.

If you want to restore your old Firefox bookmarks though, you can use the HTML file we just made. Select the HTML option and click next.

Navigate to your HTML file, click open, and you're done! Firefox won't send up any fireworks, it will just add it and close the browse window, but if you now look in your bookmarks, they will all be there, good as new!

Exporting Internet Explorer Favorites

Open Internet Explorer, and click on the File option on the Menu bar. Select Import and Export from the drop down menu.

You'll be asked how you want to import or export your settings. Since I'll be exporting first, I'll select Export to a file, and click next.

Now you'll be asked what you want to export. This is a bookmark tutorial, and Favorites are bookmarks, so I'll select Favorites, and click next.

I need to choose which folder I want to export my Favorites from. All of my important bookmarks are in the Bookmarks Menu, as I don't use the Favorites bar, and I have no interest in the Microsoft website bookmarks. If you have more than one folder you want to back up , you are going to have to repeat this whole process for each of those folders (being sure to use a different name for the file each time, or you'll overwrite the previous one!). I'm just going for the Bookmarks Menu folder here....

Where to save it? Once again, I'll use the tutorial folder I have on the desktop. Once again, I'll suggest a different place would be a safer option. After browsing to my tutorial folder, I click save.

Now I'm asked to confirm my selection. I'll do that by clicking export. After clicking on export, I'll get one more window (no screenshot here, as I don't think its necessary), which simply says I have succeeded in exported my bookmarks, and I'll click Finish. That's it ! I've now exported my Internet Explorer bookmarks to the folder Tutorials, named as bookmarks.htm

Import Firefox Bookmarks into Internet Explorer

Now I'll import Firefox bookmarks into Internet Explorer. This is very simple. Open Internet Explorer and select File>Import and export

This time, I'll choose Import from another browser.

Firefox is an option, so I'll select it. I'll click on Import, and I'll get another window confirming my success (no screenshot supplied). My Firefox bookmarks are now in Internet Explorer Favorites!

Now all I have left to demonstrate here is how to import the Favorites file I exported from Internet Explorer earlier.

Import saved Bookmarks back into Internet Explorer

Using the same File> Import and Export path I took before..

I'll choose Import from a file.

I only exported Favorites, so that's what I will import.

I'll now get a browse window, and I will navigate to my tutorial folder where I saved the exported Internet Explorer Favorites earlier.

Again, I'll get a confirmation dialog..

I'll just highlight Favorites as a destination folder, and click Import. The next window once again will be a window which tells me I have succeeded( no screenshot supplied). My saved Favorites are now in Internet Explorer!

I hope you've found this tutorial clear and easy to understand. If you have more questions, feel free to visit our FORUM and we'll be happy to help.

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