If you’re looking for a simple setup which lets you see your saved searches and bookmarked lists in a tree view… and you’re not up to figuring out text expansion app Hotkeys, then this post is for you.
We’re going to be taking a look at WorkFlowy bookmarks and bookmarklets, which require no more than a drag and drop to your browser’s toolbar. I’ll be throwing a couple of rawbytz’s incredibly useful one-click bookmarklets into the mix. I’d also like to show you a way to view a WorkFlowy-only set of bookmarks whenever you need them.
Look what the cat dragged in
Did you know that you can save any WorkFlowy list or saved search as a bookmark in your browser toolbar? Here are some plusses:
- They’re accessible while in any of your WorkFlowy lists
- They stay wherever you put them, in the order you put them
- You can organize them in tree-based folders
- You can rename them to whatever you like
- They’re good to go in any browser of your choice
All you do is drag any WorkFlowy URL to your toolbar to create a new one. In the following GIF you’ll see an example of how to create a saved search bookmark: I search from my home page for all of the changes made to my account within the last minute, using the “last-changed:” operator. I then drag the resulting WorkFlowy URL to my browser toolbar and edit the name of the bookmark:
Last-changed:1 use case
No matter where I am in WorkFlowy, when I click on the newly created bookmark above, it will search from my home page for all changes made in the last minute. And, pray tell, why might I want to search for all changes made within the last minute from my home page??
Rawbytz put me on to this. And it’s really smart. I always have lists that I want to relocate from my home page to somewhere (much) deeper. Look at how I add an empty space to both my target and destination list. Both lists show up when I hit my new bookmark, making it a cinch to transfer my target list:
Growing pains
If you like the idea of quick-access bookmarks, you’ll probably start racking them up. So how to keep them organized – and your toolbar clutter-free? The obvious recourse would be to pop all of your WorkFlowy bookmarks into a WorkFlowy folder in your toolbar. But what if you want an easy-to-reach WorkFlowy-only space for WorkFlowy bookmarks? You’ll want to take a look at this…
Neater Bookmarks
Here’s a nice little discovery: There are dozens of bookmark browser extensions/ add-ons available for whatever browser you hang out in. The example I’m giving below is a Chrome extension called Neater Bookmarks.
- This allows you to keep your bookmarks toolbar collapsed, while you activate your extension via a keyboard shortcut.
- You get a popup panel with a tree-view of your bookmarks, expanded and collapsed just the way you last left them.
Above you can see, once again, how I make use of my last-changed:1 saved search bookmark.
rawbytz’s WFcount bookmarklet
Another great thing about the setup in this post is that you can now group your bookmarks and bookmarklets together in one place. A bookmarklet is like a bookmark that contains JavaScript code that acts upon the tab you currently have open.
Here’s rawbytz’s WorkFlowy Count bookmarklet in action. What I’m getting is a count of how many books I’ve sold in week 27. (WFcount can also count time!)
rawbytz’s WorkFindy bookmarklet
There is a chrome extension for WorkFindy, but rawbytz has also created a bookmarklet which you can take anywhere. This is what it does: No matter where you are in WorkFlowy, when you activate this bookmarklet, a popup window will appear where you can enter your search phrase – for which it will search WorkFlowy globally.
In the below GIF you will see that if you highlight a tag, word or phrase before activating WorkFindy, WorkFindy will jump straight to the search from your home page:
Everything in moderation
Now I wouldn’t recommend that you go bookmark crazy. I’d reserve this setup for but a few specialized lists, saved searches and bookmarklets. Otherwise you’d be missing out on putting some other great navigational dynamics into practice. One such example: List Title Tags.
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