Forum Discussion
Elliot Kirk
Microsoft
Oct 29, 2019Provide different options for sorting favorites - Discussion
You can sort favorites alphabetically today in Edge. To do so, navigate to edge://favorites. Right click in the gray space to access the context menu and click on the "Sort by name". This performs a onetime sort of items in a folder. If a new item is added to the folder, it is placed at the bottom of the list. To have that item sorted into the list, perform the “Sort by name” action again.
We hear your feedback and have plans to make this option easier find within Edge and to add additional options. The Favorites team is always looking to listen to feedback and improve these experiences. Would you like to sort by name in favorites in other parts of Edge? Are there other ways Edge can help you sort favorites?
- GraniteStateColinSteel Contributor
Elliot Kirk, I would like to be able to right click on a folder in the Favorites Bar or an item inside a folder on the Favorites Bar and do the same "Sort by name" option that is now buried in the Organize Favorites page. This has been even in IE for years (click on any item inside a folder in Favorites Bar and select Sort by name). That's it for me.
Other than that, with Favorites, I would like a few nice-to-have features in the Organize Favorites area
- Refresh the Favicons for all Favorites without needing to open each one
- Find duplicate Favorites and show where they are. Don't auto-delete, because I would need to choose which folder holds the one I want, or if maybe in some cases I want to keep both.
- Check Favorites for dead links. Inevitably, some Favorites will expire as web sites shut down. It would be great to have an option to scan all Favorites for these so we can remove the dead ones.
- GraniteStateColinSteel Contributor
Lower priority for me, but I would also like to be able able to set folders to auto-sort based on most frequently used (so they change automatically over time as some Favorites are used most often, but only a per-folder basis, because some folders I want to manually sort) and as several others here have suggested an ability to do a one time sort by Last Used Date, which would just be a one-time sort like the alphabetical sort. This would help both with knowing which one to try if a couple of Favorites look similar and also put the oldest ones at the bottom, which helps me find those to check them for possible removal.
- Deleted
Is no one interested in making the favorites in favorites bar align in the middle instead of starting from the left, no one?
Isn't it good?
- wisnk13Copper Contributor
I'd like to see an automated duplicate finder importing and exporting favorites does all things so you end up with duplicate lists that are dauting to work with Elliot Kirk
- AlisidaCopper Contributor
I have a lo of favorites for both work and personal. I run into several issues and different needs based on work versus personal. For both I like to use the favorites bar exclusively. I find the favorites menu just a pain to use. Part of this is because the across and then down organization work better with my brains ability to remember where things are. The hierarchical down and down requires more scrolling and is something that my brain cannot remember specific links locations as easy. This means I have to actually look and read the list. In my favorites bar the majority of links I use on a daily basis I could get to without really thinking. This is crucial at work where I spend almost all my day working on web applications that I am an Administrator for so there are usually several links to different parts of the system as well as different instances. Finding and opening what I need quickly to either open or share make a big difference in my productivity. For example, I am on my personal computer right now but I could tell you the folder and list sequences of about 20 different links I use regularly.
For Work, I like to organize favorites bar by folders then links primarily by relevance to how I work. This is probably closest to sorted by most frequently used. However, that may not 100% match. I do like to organize some of them manually. There are a few folders I organize alphabetically. For Personal, I like to sort exclusively by Folder then Links then alphabetically.
Below are the features I would like that would help.
- I would like to be able to set them by right click on the level and select the way to resort them. This is like in Internet Explorer. Frankly having to go to Manage Favorites and do this is a pain. Also since Edge did not have this option originally I had to do a web search just find out it was an option.
- Settings for each folder to control how sub-folders and links are sorted in that folder. This would be under manage favorites.
- Sort sub-folders and links the same. For work I like my folders at the top level to be sorted manually but the links I put directly in the favorites bar to be auto sorted.
- No - additional options for the below would appear for the links.
- Yes - should probably the default because I think that is what most people would want.
- Automatically Sort By
- Alphabetical
- Most Used
- Turn Automatic Sort Off
- Same as parent folder - This should be the default for everything except the Favorites Bar and Other Favorites folders.
- Where to place new links. If the folder has an Auto sort set on it then when browsers is either closed or opened it should run the auto sort to move the new links to where they should be. This is because sometimes when I just add a link I want to find it easily to rename it or do something else. If I have auto sort on the folder was placed in then I want it to be auto sorted the next time I open by browser.
- Bottom
- Top
- Auto Sort - would no be disabled if "Turn Automatic Sort Off" was selected for Automatically Sort By
- Favorites Bar View As
- Icon Only - if at Folder would require a color to be set
- Text Only
- Icon & Text
- Sort sub-folders and links the same. For work I like my folders at the top level to be sorted manually but the links I put directly in the favorites bar to be auto sorted.
- Able to set Folder color or background color of Text. I do not do Icons only on folders because you would have no idea what they if the order changed. Color codling them would work/ Color coding is handy in general for Organization to make certain things stand out. So finding regularly used things from a glance instead of reading can be done. For instance I have different colors I associate with the different systems I am the Administrator for that I use for organizing all of my stuff for those systems. Being able to use this color coding system everywhere I have stuff related to those systems would be nice. For links this could be handy to identify links to Production instances versus Test instances to the same system.
- If set on a link an option to use the color as the background of the opened tabs for the site.
- andsavBrass ContributorNot sure if this is the right thread to ask, but why when I press Favorites button I'm shown favorites bar items and "Other Favorites" folder? I already have access favorites bar favorites on the favorites bar (sorry for this expression). Why doesn't Favorites button open my "main" set of favorites, like most other browsers do?
- Mr_C_Copper Contributor
They should really bring back the option to pin the favourites to the side. It is the reason I always stayed with the Microsoft browser because of this. It makes quicker browsing through all your news sites take up less mouse clicks.
- Freddie-ZhangBrass ContributorSorting by alphabetical order in Collections!!!
- MissyQ
Microsoft
Thanks so much to everyone who provided feedback and thoughts around how to sort their favorites! We’ve recently implemented the ability to sort your favorites alphabetically via the . . . menu in the full page experience for Favorites. To do this, you can either click on the star icon in your toolbar and select Manage favorites, navigate to the . . . menu > Favorites > Manage favorites, or you can hold Ctrl+Shift+O to bring up the page.
Once on the full page experience for your Favorites in builds 83+, you will see a . . . menu at the top right. Click that, and you should see an option for Sort by name.
screenshot of the Favorites page, highlighting where the option to sort is in the menu
We believe that this covers one point of feedback for sorting favorites, however we want to know more. Does this sorting option work for you? Are there other sorting options you’d like to see in Edge? Let us know here or by providing your feedback through the feedback tool that’s built into Edge.
- hereforedgeCopper Contributor
MissyQ
I interpreted this feature as a way to sort the list of favorites for searching purposes only and did not expect it to permanently change the ordering of my favorites. Thankfully Ctrl+Z worked to revert back.
I would like to suggest the phrasing be changed to something like "Reorder by name" instead of "Sort by name" to make it very clear that the favorites will be reordered everywhere and not just temporarily on the current Favorites tab.- pneenkoalabearSteel Contributoror even better, a confirmation dialog
- WHG_99Copper Contributor
MissyQ Definitely would like to see an option to sort favorites by Most Frequently Used. Now, when I add a favorite, I have to go back in all the way to the bottom of the list and drag it back up to the top if I want it to be handy. With this sorting improvement, after using it for a while, it would migrate to the top and the less used ones would migrate to the bottom. Thanks!
- Tom_FoxIron Contributor
I previously submitted feedback that you should be able to right click a folder on your Favourites Bar and sort your favourites there as well.
You can drag favourites inside a folder on the Favourites Bar, but after doing so, the folder closes. It would be better if it would stay open so that you could drag multiple items if required.
- RexRockyCopper Contributor
Elliot Kirk GADS WHAT A STUPID SYSTEM. OK, It did the EDGE favorites after I copied the addy and would U BOOK LEARNED IDIOTS GET SMART AND NEVER PUT A PERIOD AFTER AN ADDRESS PLZ. Thanks. Ok Now What you need to do is copy the address and close the mail, open Edge and IF UR Lucky you will see EDGE Favorites in the middle of the screen. If U can, U can DRAG what U want to your FAVORITES FOLDER & just drop it anywhere. Now U have to go to the Little ARROW just left of FAVORITES & Right Click that. U should C SORT BY NAME > This does what we want. Sort of like hijacking EDGE to act like I-E-11
- Could you take a screenshot of the options you're referring to?
- RexRockyCopper Contributor
Elliot Kirk There is no GREY area on my Win.-7-64 Dell Desktop. Do U mean to go to another web page or?