Get a jump-start on spring cleaning

by Gayle Picken

If you've been putting off cleaning up your Favorites list, it's time to enlist the help of Internet Explorer 5 for extra scrubbing power. In no time at all, you can dust off the cobwebs and clear up the clutter by removing shortcuts you no longer use and filing others away in folders.

Pull out the mop and broom
The new and improved Organize Favorites dialog box has everything you need to get started, and you won't even need rubber gloves. Click Organize Favorites on the Favorites menu to gather your tools. Or, if you are using the Favorites bar, click the Organize button. Then get ready to sift through the list.

Sort through the mess
The first step is to get rid of the clutter that you don't need. Use the Delete button to dump old shortcuts into the trash. This will free up some room in the list for new Favorites and will also free up valuable disk space.

Next take a look at what's left. A long list of shortcuts with unintelligible names is just about as useful as a rack of spices without labels. If you see an item that you don't recognize, check it out and then use the Rename button to give it a name that will be more helpful.

Even if each item is clear, you can waste a lot of time searching through a list that's too long. Try grouping your shortcuts and putting them in folders. Use the Create Folder button to add a folder to the list. Then select items you want to move and click the Move to Folder button. Or, save a step and use your mouse to drag the item to the folder you want to put it in.

Start fresh
After you've done a thorough cleaning, you can enjoy finding your Favorites with ease. For a quick touch-up, you can skip the Organize Favorites dialog box and polish the Favorites list directly. Just right-click a shortcut that you want to remove or rename. And drag any item to a new place in the list or into a folder.

A clean browser is a happy browser. With the help of Internet Explorer 5, you may find yourself spring-cleaning more than once a year.

Gayle Picken can use all the help she can get when it comes to staying organized.