bookmarks fail
Doing Genealogy where all the URL's dragged to the desktop have the same File naming but all have different URL addresses. . If I copy a file to the desktop by dragging and dropping, "1940 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com" is the shortcut name for the URL in the address bar, but coping another Bookmark fails....
First Bookmark for Steve V. Patterson, "https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1940usfedcen&indiv=try&h=59642982&indivrecord=1", Bookmark File on desktop is named "1940 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com"
Then I want to save another URL to the desktop from this page of another linked URL...
Second Bookmark for Paul Ranney, "https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1940usfedcen&indiv=try&h=59642985&indivrecord=1", Bookmark File on desktop is named "1940 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com"
But You can't have a bookmark with the same files name even with different URL's that generate the bookmarks.
A copy file warning appears..... Copy and Replace or Don't Copy If I select the copy and replace, it will not replace it with the Second URL but keeps the old First URL.
Other browsers, IE which I used without problems, will automatically copy that process and make two files as below...... "1940 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com" and "1940 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com(1)" each has the specific URL the made the Desktop. I see no way to solve same Shortcut/Bookmark names to the desktop. Your method fails to solve it with the"Copy and Replace"
Its like the URL gets stuck and will not change for new Bookmarks dragged to the Desktop.
All Replies (3)
In some cases, it is better to save the link to a folder as to not clutter up the desktop. It's also easier to read its name.
Save the link wherever. Check the name and change it to something you can understand.
BTW; If you try saving links for more than one webpage, and the link addresses are the same, there is a problem.
Sorry, I don't think there is a way to change how Firefox deals with duplicate file names in this context.
For some reason the page has the same exact title for both searches. Obviously the best thing would be for the shortcuts to have more logical names. You could edit them by hand after dragging to the desktop, or you could try renaming the page so that Firefox uses the alternate name automatically.
In theory at least you could run a little script to change the page title to "1940 Census - John Doe - Ancestry" if that information is positioned in the page in a consistent way. Such scripts can run automatically (using an add-on), or you can click a button to run them (a button stored with your bookmarks, also known as a bookmarklet).
I don't have an account on the site, so I can't put that together myself, but it's something to consider because I imagine a lot of users on the site would find it helpful. Even if you were just looking at your history it would be nice to have more sensible page titles related to your searches.
Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
By the way, have you considered saving the bookmarks in Firefox?
See: Bookmarks in Firefox
You can export your entire bookmarks collection to a set of clickable links in a web page format (HTML file) as a backup or to bring to another browser. Unfortunately, there's no built-in way to export only Ancestry bookmarks.
See: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks