Bill D -

I think you nailed Foolestroupe:

If it is that you don't LIKE the standard way ...

He's "asserting his independence."

Windows, and Office programs, are generally well adapted to the use of lots of links in places where "normal" people might not think to use them.

It's quite common to see the instruction to "save on the desktop" in "how to download" advice, where the "desktop" is used essentially as a temp space. As he's indicated, a shortcut thats' dropped onto the desktop can be dragged into a folder where it will appear as a shortcut file. Double clicking the shortcut filename in WinExplorer will open the target, whether it's a program on your own computer or a web page on the internet. As a temp space for retrieving an object address, the desktop is, essentially, just another folder (or directory, as Robin may prefer).

For web pages that I might want to go back to, I don't find any real problems with just putting the link in favorite/bookmarks in the browser. If I save information from a site, I do want to record how to get back to the site where I stole the info. If the site offers a "printable view," I usually use the print view, but copy and paste to Word. I usually put a document name on the top line in "filename format" since Word will automatically use the first line as it's suggested filename when you save, and I put the link copied from the browser address bar immediately after the title.

Some things that one downloads, especially pdf files, almost never contain a source-site identification, and aren't editable for you to put the site ident in the saved article. A few things are technically editable, but not easily enough to be worth the effort. My solution for those is a Word document (weblog.doc) with a shortcut on my desktop, where I just past the links from the addy bar with the filename(s) of anything I save immediately adjacent, or sometimes with just a "descriptive comment" if I don't save anything. The document has lots of trash in it, but it's searchable in Word, and if I've saved the filename, in WinExplorer a slow two clicks opens the filename for edit, Ctl-C copies the filename, Ctl-F in Word opens the "Find" box, Ctl-V, pastes the filename in "what to find," and Enter takes me directly to the right link.

Foolestroupe apparently(?) is making a separate folder for each item/object saved, and putting a link, as a shortcut file, in the same folder with the object. The desktop location is just a temp space for holding the link until it can be moved to a location that associates it with the saved object - I think.

John