Import Bookmarks from Opera 12 to 25

billp1832

billp1832

There is an "Imported Bookmarks" link in the Bookmarks tab, but no mention of how to import them!

I've done the opera://flags/#first-run-import, but that doesn't work either.

If it is true that after 10 updates there is still nothing as basic as a bookmark importer, I find that appalling. Here's an idea: quit working on flashy stuff (Stash, Discover, etc.) until you get the basics done!

And if there really is a way to import bookmarks, why is there no mention of it in the Help system or on the Opera site???

A Former User

All three guys, was your Opera set set as the "default browser" pror to the "update"?

bonusopera

bonusopera

Seems as if the importer (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera 12.x) is part of Opera 26, see http://www.ghacks.net/2014/10/07/bookmark-importing-now-easier-in-opera-browser/

Me too I have quite a large collection of bookmarks in Opera 12.17, with nested folders, so I'm hoping for the best.

A Former User

All three guys, was your Opera set set as the "default browser" pror to the "update"?

Sorry, I'm with Firefox now:

All three guys, was your Opera set as the "default browser" prior to the "update"?
is the right spelling.:)

billp1832

billp1832

"All three guys, was your Opera set set as the "default browser" prior to the "update"?"

I had both Opera 12.17 and 24 installed.

Opera 24 was updated without any notice to 25.

Apparently Opera 24 was set to the default browser and that carried over to 25. So no, 12 was not set as the default before the unannounced update. 12 had been having problems displaying some newly revised websites, so I used it for some things (working with my bookmarked sites, and used 24 for other things.

And after I reset 12.17 to my default browser and went to opera://flags/#first-run-import and enabled the first run import, it obviously doesn't work.

So Opera CAN import the bookmarks but ONLY if the user has ESP and knows in advance of the update and in advance of the first run that they have to set their preferred browser to be the default browser.

And now, even though the ability is there, it's too late and we have to wait (months?) for the next update.

How does that make any sense? Why should the user have to have expected that?

simontewsg

simontewsg

All three guys, was your Opera set set as the "default browser" pror to the "update"?

Opera 24 was set as my default browser, Opera 12.17 wasn't as I basically just use it to organize my bookmarks these days.

A Former User

You could back up your 25s' profiles, uninstall/delete them, check your 12s as defaults and then install your 25s anew.
("I can do it all the day!" :party: :scared: :jester: )

simontewsg

simontewsg

You could back up your 25s' profiles, uninstall/delete them, check your 12s as defaults and then install your 25s anew.

Yeah, I figured I'd have to do that. I think I'll have to wait for a few more versions before it'll be worth doing though. From what I've seen over the last few hours the Bookmarks Manager isn't really ready for the big time. To me it looks slick but it has the functionality of Windows 1. Once it's got the functionality of File Explorer in Windows 3 then we'll be talking.

Funnily enough, the Bookmarks Bar manager seems to have all the functionality I could want in a bookmarks manager. Except that the Bookmarks Bar can't handle the number of bookmarks I have (tried it and found it takes between 10 and 15 seconds to render each time I want to get at a bookmark - too long). To me it would make more sense to swap the new visual Bookmarks Manager with the Bookmarks Bar manager.

A Former User

What is in the .adr file?
Is it possible to rewrite it so that it contained items in the HTML links format, even to include previews possibly using your "thumbnail" files, open it with the blink and save in a major place there - your own bookmarklet!

simontewsg

simontewsg

I was thinking along similar lines: Parsing the 12 adr file and converting it to the Blink JSON format. I think your idea of an HTML file would work better as the Blink Bookmarks Manager is just too clunky to deal with deeply nested folders (deepest I've got is 11 folders deep). Having to open each folder in the tree one by one in the Bookmarks Manager to get to something at the bottom level would be just too time consuming.

However, there would still be the issue of managing the bookmarks, since I update them frequently. I can't see any easy way of updating an HTML bookmarks page without using 12. If I'm going to be using 12 to manage the bookmarks anyway I'm willing to continue working the way I have for several months: Having 12 open on one monitor and Blink open on the other, browsing my bookmarks in 12 then copying and pasting any URL across to Blink to view it. (I guess I'm a die hard Opera fan who will put up with a year or two of irritation about bookmarks rather than move to a different browser. While the bookmarks thing is a bit of a PITA at least the browser works much better than it did in the days of Opera 4)

A Former User

What if there were a program that, being called on with a shortcut, would open the Bfile (probably within itself), insert the opening tag and whatnot, shoot a screen, create a thumbnail, save it and put it as a code there, get your open active page's address and title and fill it all by itself, close tag, save, oops?

simontewsg

simontewsg

I'm probably the wrong person to ask about bookmark capture functionality that includes screen captures. I'm not a fan of thumbnails as they take up room on the screen and in the bookmarks file. When looking at bookmarks I prefer a simple text view with favicons (as in the Opera 12 bookmarks manager), rather than thumbnails, so I can see more bookmarks on the screen. And the bookmarks file size: The Opera 12 bookmarks file is about a concise as a bookmarks file could be and mine is still 2.3 MB in size so I'd hate to think how large it would be with thumbnails.

Also I really like a hierarchy of bookmark folders so wouldn't want anything automatically creating bookmarks without me being able to decide which folder it would go in.

For now I'm ok with having both Opera 12 and Blink open, and just copying the URLs from 12 to Blink as I need them. If it all gets too annoying I could always move to a bookmarks extension, such as the ones mentioned in this post. The reason I haven't is I'm still holding out hope that one day I'll be able to import my Opera 12 bookmarks into a fully functional Blink bookmark manager.

A Former User

Maybe the future is really for a standalone bookmarks app?
Do you believe in clouds? :rolleyes:

simontewsg

simontewsg

Now that sounds like a really good idea. Wonder why none of the browser vendors have thought of it?

Perhaps I should look at Delicious. I had a brief play a few years back, when it was still Delicio.us, but didn't think it was for me. Probably time to revisit it.

blackbird71

blackbird71

Bookmarking in the cloud... ah, yes. I'll bet the data-mining outfits will absolutely love that. It's a nice end-run around tracking-cookie blocking for bookmarked sites.

bbildman

bbildman

I already have the Imported Bookmarks in my opera://bookmarks/ page, but what I Really want is the ability to access the bookmarks from a dropdown menu like we had in Opera 12.17 "File Edit View BOOKMARKS" etc

For me to have to add a few clicks to the tab that includes my bookmarks when I could have a dropdown menu, like Opera 12.17 AND Internet Explorer etc etc.

Just WHY can that not be enabled??

A Former User

Bbildman, maybe it can - I don't know. Though as long as/if it can not, your way is to "Suggestion box". Know where?

superknown

superknown

I didn't realize I would have to become an IT expert to get my bookmarks into 25. Their opera links do not even have my updated bookmarks or speed dials. Whats up with these monkeys

Deleted User

Deleted User

@superknown Opera 26 BETA (the next Stable) has easy bookmarks import, may work for chimpansees or gorillas or dummies like you.