Overview of Rons WebLynx
- Rons WebLynx
What is Rons WebLynx? How does Rons WebLynx work? What are the most important features? These are the questions that we are going to answer, in order to get you started with WebLynx, so that you can make the most of the application. Features are going to be briefly explained and the ones that deserve more detailed explanations will have a own dedicated article to which we will make a reference.
A Brief Introduction
Rons WebLynx is a bookmark manager for Windows that is installed on the desktop, providing therefore a more secure and private environment as it is not integrated to the browser or cloud-based. The application can store great amounts of links that can be sorted into folders with a familiar tree lay-out. Many tools are provided within WebLynx to organize and categorize the bookmarks, making them easy to access and view their information. Certain features such as a WebLynx extension, a task bar tray, and a RSS feed reader make it easy to get URLs in. Discover Rons WebLynx tools and features by reading this guide further.
Opening a WebLynx File
You have just downloaded Rons WebLynx and you are opening it for the first time. If you are running it without a pro license, it is important to note that a maximum of 500 links can be saved and that an advertising banner is displayed. Don't hesitate to activate the 15-days pro trial situated on the application Start Page. It will remove the limitation and the banner: a great way to try WebLynx properly. Note that the trial can only be activated once. After 15 days, the application will revert to the lite version with its limitation and advertising banner.
Rons WebLynx is file-based allowing you to separate different areas of interest into separate files and have more than one file open at the same time for flexible usage. Files are saved with a .linker extension and can be accessed both within WebLynx and your File Explorer.
1. Opening a File for the First Time
We have created a One-Click Start way, aimed for first-time users, in order to get you started as quickly as possible. Choosing this option means that a file is immediately created and saved in "My Documents", and that your browser(s) bookmarks are all automatically imported in Rons WebLynx. A few example folders are also created.
2. Opening a File the Standard Way
To create a file, simply click on New... on the Start Page. Then, type in a name for this file and choose a location. Save. Your file opens up in WebLynx. On the left side of the screen, we have already created for you a few folders with random names, some including a few links from our own website. We decided to put them there as an example but feel free to delete them.
3. Opening a File by Importing
A new file can also be created by importing links from the Clipboard (the Clipboard temporarily stores content that has just been copied), from a Web page, from a file, from a Directory, from an Outlook folder or from Web Browsers. Simply click on New from Import... and select where the links should be imported from.
4. Opening a File with a WebLynx Exchange File
Select New from Exchange File... if you would like to import an existing WebLynx Exchange files. Exchange files are files that can be created within WebLynx and that contain links with their folders, tags and notes attached. These files can be created and used to backup, e-mail, and generally move links between WebLynx files. They also come very handy when sharing some links with someone who uses WebLynx too without having to send the whole file. WebLynx Exchange files have a .lnkxch extension.
5. Opening Recent Files
Any file that you create is saved or open recently is automatically displayed in the Recent File area on the start Page (see picture above) so that it can be found easily the next time you open WebLynx.
Getting Links into WebLynx in your open File
There are several ways to get links into WebLynx that are described below. Note that new added links are always highlighted in green. It allows to distinguish easily recently added links from older ones. The darker the green color, the newer the link is. With time, the color fades and eventually disappears.
1. Copy & Paste, Drag and Drop
Simply copy and paste links into the application anywhere in the middle section, which could be opened from a Folder View or from a Tag View. Just throw these links in! Don't hesitate to select and copy a whole web page and paste it in! WebLynx will paste in all the links it can detect from that page and ignore the rest. Or simply select links and drag and drop them in. You can even drag and drop a word document and WebLynx will extract all the URLs it can find. For more information on the latest see the following article: How to Extract Hyperlinks from a Word Document.
2. Add
Select a folder and click in the middle section. This activates the Add option in the top Folder Menu and opens its window when clicked on. A link can be typed in or pasted in there. Once WebLynx has recognized it, many details can be added to the link, the name can be edited, information can be added at the site or page level, Notes, tags and folders can be defined.
3. Quick Add
Open Quick Add from the top ribbon Menu (View Section) to open a window below the middle section where you can type in URLs directly and add them in.
Quick Add doesn't have the editing options that the Add section has.
4. Import...
Once a file has been created, the same Import options as the ones offered on the Start Page can be found in the Management Top Ribbon section: from the Clipboard, from a Web page, from a file, from a Directory, from an Outlook folder, from Web Browsers or from a WebLynx Exchange file. In addition to these, it is also possible to import links from CSV files and complete websites. For more detailed information about importing and exporting bookmarks check the following article: Importing and Exporting Bookmarks.
5. RSS Feed Reader
Rons WebLynx is also a very handy as a RSS Feed reader and a great way to get links in automatically. To receive RSS articles, create first a normal folder and name it (BBC News Technology as an example - See Picture). Then, click on Add/Edit in the Active Folder section of the top ribbon menu. The Edit Active Folder window opens. Turn the Active Type from None to News Feed. Type in a RSS Feed address. A RSS Feed address looks like this: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/business/rss.xml (BBC News Technology).
Save and Close and the folder icon will change into an Active Folder icon with a green tick marking it, and you should already see the latest news feed articles displaying in your new RSS folder.
The Left Section: Storing Bookmarks into Folders or Tags, Views and Search
1. Folders
Links are stored in Folders organized in a tree arrangement style in a similar way as in Windows Explorer. They can be easily manipulated with options such as Edit, Move, Merge, delete, etc. that can be found in the top ribbon Folder Section or on the mouse right-click menu. As explained above, folders can also be turned into Active Folders to receive RSS Feed articles.
2. Tags
Links can also be sorted by Tags. Tags are used to add some specific information to bookmarks and they can also be used as an additional way to view them in an organized way. For example, random links organized in several folders could be tagged with the name "Kids" with a purple color (for these bookmark would be interesting for kids). All the Kids tagged links could then be gathered into their own view in the Tags View section in the left side.
3. Groups
While bookmarks can be organized in folders and by tags, and folders and tags can also be organized in Groups.
Groups can both be viewed and created in the Groups left side section. As an example (see picture) we have created a new Group called For the Kids which contains four folders grouped together: Animals, Books, Environment and Museums. When selecting the group, all the links of these four folders are displayed together in the same view.
4. Views
Use the View section to find specific bookmarks like the recently added ones (New),
the ones with RSS Feed (Page with Feed), the Expired,
Redirected, Missing, Errored,
the ones that are duplicated in several Folders (Multiple Folders),
the No Folders or No Tags ones and finally, the
Deleted ones (very useful as a last chance to recover).
To
know more about how to deal with duplicate Bookmarks, check this article:
Dealing with Duplicate
Bookmarks.
5. Search
In the Search section, you can search for URLs using keywords, that are either applied to the current view or to all the links stored in the file.
You can add some additional filters under Advanced Search Options, such as tags to include or exclude or the number of stars.
Note that there is a box that can be marked next to Search: When the box is marked, it means that, when exploring around, the search is applied to all the views. That way you can explore, for example, the folders and view only the filtered links instead of all the links contained originally in the folders. A flashing "Links Filtered" is there as a reminder that the Search filter is active. At any point, removing the click from the box deactivates the filter and all links can be seen again.
A quick search panel that can be activated or deactivated in the same way is also available at the top of the middle section.
The Middle Section: The links Display
The middle section is the area where the links are displayed from a selected view.
Next to the Quick Search bar, you can Sort or change the Layout of the bookmarks to Single Line, Medium, or Extended either to make it easier to view or to display more or less bookmark information.
Clicking on the title of the link will immediately open the bookmark in the browser of your choice.
Much of the links information can be found, added or changed by editing the link. You can open and edit a link by selecting it and clicking on Edit in the Edit section in the ribbon menu or just by selecting it from the right mouse menu. This open the Edit Link window.
Quite a lot can be done in the Edit Link Window: the name of the link can be changed and descriptions can be added at the site or page level and star rating at both level can be added. This is also the place where you can set up the browser you would like that specific link to open automatically with.
Site Information can be found, notes added, folders can be moved or duplicated and added to other folders, Tags can be added and finally the link and Icon can be refreshed (if this is not set up to be done automatically in your settings).
Finally, when one or more link are selected from that middle section, the corresponding information will be displayed in the eight Side Panels.
The Right Section: The Side Panels
Here are the eight Side Panels: Link Information, Link Tags, Link Notes, Link Page, Link Content, Quick Links, Landing Zone, and Automatic Filing.
1. Link Information
Information concerning the link, its path, whether it is an RSS Feed active site, icon and Image link information and finally link history in WebLynx.
2. Link Tags
This is the area where you can see the tags connected to the link and where you can create them. For a better general color match, open the Color Control down the page and play with the different functions until you find a gradient that you like.
3. Link Notes
This is the area where you can create Notes and Secure Notes. In order to use the Secure Notes a password must be created. Very Important: if the password is lost, it simply cannot be recovered.
4. Link Page (Browser View)
This is the browser view. Note that you cannot browse it.
5. Link Content (Reading View)
This is the browser view... cleaned. No publicity, just the simple content with the most important pictures. This view can be useful if the content needs to be exported into a word document for example.
Note that while we do our best to obtain the best reading view, this all depends on the website page and how it has been written and designed and protected.
6. Landing Zone
The Landing Zone is an area that is shared between all Rons WebLynx files to make it easy to share between them.
The Landing Zone works together with the Rons WebLynx browser integration and allows to keep links that were sent directly to WebLynx from the internet while browsing. Sorting and organizing can be done later.
Rons WebLynx Browser Integration
This is also the area where links that were saved from the internet with the Rons WebLynx extension ultimately land. Indeed, when you browse the internet and decide to keep and store a few links, it is possible to do so without opening WebLynx so that your browsing is not interrupted. This is possible after downloading and installing the Rons WebLynx extension.
That way, the next time you open a Rons WebLynx file, you can go to the Landing Zone to find the bookmarks you discovered and decided to keep while browsing, and from there, you can move them into your file folders, and organize them the way you like.
7. Quick Links
This is the side panel where you can drag your favorite bookmarks in order to have them displayed in the Rons WebLynx tray that you can see bottom right of the computer screen on the windows task bar.
The Tray displays these WebLynx files of your choice to make them easily and quickly accessible even when Rons WebLynx is closed. Recent files are automatically displayed there too.
8. Automatic Filing
WebLynx contains a very powerful feature specifically designed to remove a large amount of work from organizing links, especially when those links come from chaotic sources such as web pages, search results or PowerPoint presentations. The feature is called Automatic Filing and is easily accessible from the side panel as shown below. Automatic Filers can be created and set up, using rules and keywords, to move automatically bookmarks into folders, tag them or delete them as desired.
The Automatic Filing section deserved a dedicated article to help with setting up the rules: Automatic Link Filing.
WebLynx Options
A quick word about general WebLynx Settings.
If you are going to use Rons WebLynx in a regular manner or intensively, we advise you to have a look at the settings. Rons WebLynx obviously contains a lot of information that need to be refreshed regularly, however, you may want to control the times when the links are checked. This can be done in General Settings under the Application section in the top menu, at both application and current file levels.
This is also the area where you can find the Appearance Settings and choose whether you would like to have WebLynx in dark or light mode and where you can choose the color theme of your application.
Wrapping up
The goal of this article was to provide enough information to get you started and make the most of Rons WebLynx. We think it's both a very fun and useful application for anyone who works regularly with internet, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we do. Don't forget to send us your feedback!
