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SyncURLs (VERSION 1.0)
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
Written by Gregory A. Wolking
First Published in PC Magazine, US Edition, January 6, 1998.
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About SyncURLs:
SyncURLs imports your Netscape bookmarks and/or MSIE
"Favorites" into a single "Bookmark Library". You can rearrange
your bookmarks within SyncURLs, then export them back out so 
both browsers contain the same bookmarks and folders. 
Or you can save your Bookmark Libraries to disk for easy 
transport to another computer. SyncURLs is a 32-bit application 
that runs under either Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0.

Usage:
When you launch SyncURLs, it automatically imports and merges
all of your existing bookmarks and displays them in a tree. 
Note that you don't have to worry about the physical locations 
of these files and foldersSyncURLs looks them up in the system 
Registry.

Think of this tree as a "virtual workspace". Changes you make 
within SyncURLs do not affect your current bookmarks unless 
and until you tell the program to update your browser(s) using 
the commands on the Export menu. The Save command does not 
affect your browser configuration, either. It simply saves the 
current workspace in SyncURLs' own format. These files, called 
"Bookmark Libraries", are named with the .BML extension and 
can be used to transport your bookmarks from one machine to 
another. SyncURLs automatically registers this new file type 
with Windows Explorer.

Each item in the Bookmark Library tree is marked by one of 
three icons. A padlock icon indicates a folder that exists on 
disk as part of your MSIE Favorites tree. To avoid possible 
conflict with other applications, SyncURLs does not allow you 
to move, rename, or delete these folders directly. A folder icon 
indicates a bookmark folder (either imported from Netscape or 
created within SyncURLs) that does not have a matching 
physical folder on disk. These folders can be moved, renamed, 
and/or deleted as you see fit. A page corner icon indicates an 
individual bookmark. You can move bookmarks to any folder 
(locked or not), rename them, or delete them as you desire.

Each folder has a checkbox next to it that lets you select which 
folders will be exported. All folders are selected automatically 
when you start the program or load a Bookmark Library. 
When the selection box contains an "x" on a white background, 
that folder and all of its "children" (the files and folders 
beneath it) are selected. If the box has a gray background, the 
folder and all the files beneath it are selected but one or more 
of its child folders is not. To change a folder's selection state, 
just click on the box. Selecting or deselecting a folder 
automatically selects or deselects all of that folder's children.

While importing, SyncURLs records its progress, including 
any adjustments or errors, to an ASCII text file named 
IMPLOG.TXT that is stored in the same directory as 
SYNCURLS.EXE. If appropriate, it presents a message box to 
let you view the log to see exactly what happened during 
import. Note that the log is not cumulative; SyncURLs 
rewrites the file every time it imports bookmarks, so you 
don't have to worry about it consuming ever-increasing 
amounts of disk space. On most systems, the log file will 
rarely be larger than a few kilobytes.

SyncURLs supports drag and drop for rearranging your 
bookmarks and folders. Click on the item you want to 
move with the left mouse button, drag it to the desired 
destination, and drop it. The Expand All command on the 
View menu will open all folders in the tree, making all items 
accessible for the drop operation. Dropping an object 
directly on a folder places the object within that folder. 
Dropping an object on a bookmark places that object 
within the same folder as the bookmark. In either case, 
the item you drop will be inserted in sorted orderthe 
tree is sorted by name, folders first, then bookmarks.

 If the desired destination is not visible in the window, 
drag the mouse pointer beyond the window's boundaries 
to scroll the tree in the corresponding direction. 
The Scrolling Speed command on the Options menu lets 
you control how fast the window will scroll. On most 
machines the default setting (maximum speed) will be fine, 
but on very fast machines you'll need to slow it down 
a bit. Otherwise, the window will scroll so fast you'll reach 
the end of the document before you have a chance to react. 

There are some limitations to the drag-and-drop operation. 
Locked folders cannot be dragged, and folders cannot be 
dragged to their own children. If you want to drop an object 
into a folder that already contains an object with the same 
name, you must first rename the object. To rename a folder 
or bookmark, start by selecting it. You then have four options. 
You can click again anywhere within its name, pick Rename 
from the Edit menu, press Ctrl+R, or right-click on the object 
and pick Rename from its pop-up menu.

Whichever method you use, the item's name will change to 
an edit box so you can edit the name as desired. If you 
change your mind, press Alt+Backspace to undo your 
editing and restore the original name. To complete the 
operation, click anywhere outside the edit box. If the new 
name is invalid, the program will present an appropriate 
error message and restore the original name.

If you change your mind and want to cancel a drag 
operation, you have three options. You can drop the 
item you're dragging back on itself, click the right-mouse 
button before releasing the left mouse button, or move 
the mouse pointer outside the window's boundaries 
before releasing the left mouse button.

To delete a selected object, choose Delete from the 
Edit menu, press Ctrl+Del, or right-click on the object 
and select Delete from the pop-up menu. You cannot 
delete a folder unless it is completely empty. Because 
deletions cannot be undone, by default the program 
presents a confirmation prompt before it deletes any 
object. You can disable the confirmation prompts for 
folder and/or bookmark deletions via the Options 
menu or the toolbar.

To eliminate multiple bookmarks that point to the 
same URL, use the Weed Duplicates command on 
the Edit menu. This command scans the entire library 
and locates all bookmarks that point to the same URL, 
regardless of their names or in which folders they reside, 
and lets you decide which of them you wish to keep. 
The program will present a dialog box containing a list 
divided into sections, each section beginning with a 
heading showing one URL. Beneath each URL you'll 
see the names of the bookmarks that point to it, with 
check boxes beside them. Check the box next to the 
bookmarks you want to keep, then click the OK button. 
If you don't check at least one bookmark for each URL, 
SyncURLs will present a warning prompt in case that's 
not what you intended.

The Find and Find Next commands, also on the Edit 
menu, let you locate a bookmark based on text 
contained in its name, its URL, or both.

To view detailed information about a bookmark, either 
select the bookmark and choose Properties from the 
View menu, or right-click on the bookmark and choose 
Properties from its pop-up menu. The resulting dialog 
displays the name of the bookmark and it's URL, as well 
as the date the bookmark was created, modified or visited. 

Finally, you can create new, empty folders using the 
New Folder command, either from the Edit menu or from 
an existing folder's pop-up menu. The new folder will be 
created with a default name, already selected for editing. 
Edit the name as you desire, then click anywhere outside 
the edit box to complete the operation.

For more detailed information on SyncURLs, see the 
online Help file, which provides full documentation 
for all features.

Note: The file Sync_src.zip contained in Syncur.ZIP is the 
source code for SyncURLs.  This will only be of interest 
to you if you are a programmer, and can be discarded 
if you choose.

Support for SyncURLs:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine can be 
obtained electronically in the discussion area of PC 
Magazine's Web site. Go to the URL 
http://www.pcmag.com/discuss.htm/ and select the Utilities 
area. You can also access the Utilities discussion area from the 
utility's download page. The authors of current utilities 
generally monitor the discussion area every day. You may 
find an answer to your question simply by reading the 
messages previously posted. If the author is not available and 
you have a question that the sysops can't answer, the editor of 
the Utilities column, who also checks the area each day, will 
contact the author for you.

Jeff Prosise is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.
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