NavEx 1.4 Instructions

NavEx makes it easy to move between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer by allowing you to convert your Navigator bookmarks into Internet Shortcuts and vice-a-versa.

Version 1.4 adds a fully-functional Fix Ampersands feature and better support for bookmark files created or editted outside of Navigator or Internet Explorer. NavEx does not run on Windows 3.1, NT 3.5 or the Macintosh.

INTRODUCTION

In the Windows 95 web browsing world, there are two main programs fighting it out for market share: Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Navigator is older and has a much larger share of the market. MSIE is the new kid on the block and its share is growing quickly.

Both programs provide ways for you to store the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses of the places you visit most. Unfortunately, the programs use different methods of storing those addresses.

Navigator stores its frequently used addresses in HTML format in a "bookmarks" file. MSIE stores its frequently used addresses in the "Favorites" folder using the "Internet shortcut" format.

NavEx is used to convert addresses between these two methods.

NavEx refers to the collection of stored addresses as a URL set.

BASIC INSTRUCTIONS

When NavEx starts, it will show where your Netscape Navigator bookmarks file and where the Microsoft Windows 95 "Favorites" folder are located. If you want to convert the bookmarks into Internet shortcuts click the "Make Explorer Favorites" button. To go the other way, click the "Make Navigator bookmarks" button. When you are done, click the "Exit" button.

More Instructions

If you want to work with a different bookmarks file, enter its pathname or click the first Browse button then use the Open dialog box to find a bookmarks file.

If you want to work with a different Favorites folder or a subset of your Favorites, enter the path to the folder or click the second Browse button then use the Browse for Folder dialog box to find a folder containing shortcuts.

The Fix Ampersands option converts "&&" to "&" when translating from Netscape bookmark format to Internet Shortcut format and does the reverse when converting back. This is because some people (me included) have taken to using "&&" in bookmark names so that Netscape shows the item with a single ampersand. Without doing this little trick, an item like "Fun & Humor" appears as "Fun _Humor" due to the way Windows handles menus. This is still true in Navigator 2.0; I wish that Netscape would fix it.

The "Preserve name" feature does not work and is not enabled.

NOTES

Internet shortcuts must have valid Windows 95 file names. Therefore, some characters that may be in the names of some of your bookmarks will be changed. These are: \ ? : * " < > | Likewise, if your bookmark name is too long (over 200 characters) it will be truncated.

BACKGROUND ON BOOKMARKS

Netscape stores all of its bookmarks and sub-menus in a single file using the HyperText Markup Language. The bookmarks can be arranged in any order and you may create any number of sub-menus. The menus may contain a horizontal line to break up a large menu or to group like items.

Navigator 1.0 and 1.1 provide a way to edit this list, but it is nothing short of dreadful. Navigator 1.2 and 2.0 have much better bookmark editors, but they're still not very good.

BACKGROUND ON SHORTCUTS

Microsoft Internet Explorer uses a separate file for each item in the Favorites menu. Just like the regular Explorer, MSIE uses folders to organize and group these files. The whole collection of things is kept in a folder called "Favorites". If you open that folder you may see several different icons. Each type of service (www/http, gopher, ftp) has its own icon.

There is currently no way to add horizontal lines to break up a large menu or to group similar items. And since MSIE always alphabetizes its menus, there is no way for you to pick the order in which items appear in the menu.

QUESTIONS AND BUG REPORTS

If you have bug reports or suggestion, please send them to me at ksb@noc.drexel.edu. If you have a bookmarks file that won't convert, attach it to the mail. Please don't ask me how-to type questions. I'm reasonably busy and don't want to join the ranks of the public consultants.

Good luck,
Ken Blackney

HISTORY

date....  version  comment
96/03/30  1.4      Updated the readme file and released beta 3 as production.
96/03/16  1.4b3    1. Fixed bookmark to shortcut parser to allow NavEx to
                      convert its own bookmark files to shortcuts.
96/03/01  1.4b2    1. Fixed bookmark line delimiter recognition problem.
                   2. Output &-converted folder name to BM file, but open pre-
                      converted folder name.
                   3. Fixed tab order in dialog box.
                   4. Minor code adjustments in several places.  See code comments.
96/02/25  1.4b1    1. Added support for shortcut files with LF-only or CR-only
                      between lines.  It used to require a CR/LF pair to work.
                   2. Enabled "Fix Ampersands".  It now works in both directions.
96/01/15  1.3.1    1. Improved parser robustness.  It's very hard to break it now.
                   2. Now looks for bookmark path in registry and INI files.
                   3. Only look for *.URL files instead of all files.
96/01/14  1.3      Readme file cleanup and release of 1.2 on 
                   "http://mach5.noc.drexel.edu".
95/11/30  1.2      Code cleanup and limited distribution to testers.
95/06/17  1.1b1    Fixed problem with multiple occurrances of "&&" in one
                   bookmark name.  Added shortcut to bookmark conversion.
                   Increased max line length to 1K.  Updated icon and dialog.
95/06/07  1.0a1    Initial coding.