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Why Create New Trails?
If you don't import bookmarks from your browser, then creating new trails is how you organize your links in AntStorm. And even if you do import the bookmarks from your browser, once you start using AntStorm for bookmark access and management, you'll probably want to add and organize links in AntStorm rather than doing it in your browser. In this case, you'll need to create new trails whenever you want to add and/or organize a set of links into a new topic.
Creating a New Trail
Following are instructions on how to create a new trail into which you can add and organize a set of links:
- First go to My Nest by clicking the My Nest link in the upper right corner of any page on the site. If you do not see the My Nest link, then you need to sign in by clicking the Sign In link in the upper right corner of any page.
- Once you are in My Nest, click the Trails tab.
- On this page, click the "Add new" link at the top of the Trails column. A yellow trail editing area is displayed.
- Enter a descriptive name in the first box and a good description of your trail in the second box so other people will know what your trail is about. Make sure the "Publish this trail…" checkbox is checked so that others can see your trail. Then click the Save link at the bottom of the yellow editing area to save your changes to the trail summary information.
- If you have existing links you want to organize into this new trail, then find these links in the Default Trail or another trail.
- Scroll up and down in the Links column to find the links you want to place into the new trail you created. Click on each link and drag and drop it onto your new trail in the Trails column. This will move the link into that trail.
Adding New Links to Your Trail Using My Nest
To add new bookmark links to the trail you have created using My Nest, follow these steps:
- Once you are in My Nest, click the Trails tab, and then find and click on the trail to which you want to add links. The trail is selected, and any links already in that trail are displayed in the Links column.
- Click the "Add new" link at the top of the Links column. A yellow link editing area is displayed.
- Enter a descriptive name for the link in the first box. Copy and paste the URL of the link into the second box. (You will probably need to have another browser window open and viewing the page to be bookmarked in order to do this.) Enter a good description of the link in the third box so other people will know why this link is unique and useful. Then click the Save link at the bottom of the yellow editing area to save the link.
Adding New Links to Your Trail Using the AntStorm Toolbar
Adding new links to trails using My Nest can be a little bit clunky. Adding links using the AntStorm toolbar is faster and easier. To add new bookmark links to the trail you have created using the toolbar, follow these steps:
- If you have not already downloaded and installed the AntStorm toolbar, you'll need to do that first. Please see our help topic that explains how to install the toolbar.
- Now that you have the toolbar installed, you can simply search or browse your way to a page that you'd like to bookmark, using your browser as you normally would.
- When you are viewing the page you want to bookmark, click the AntStorm logo on the toolbar, and a menu will be displayed. Click the Add Link menu command, and a small window will be displayed.
- The first two controls in the window let you choose the trail to which you want to add this link. If needed, click on the Folder drop down list and choose the folder that contains the trail you want. Then click the Trail drop-down list and choose the trail you want.
- The next three boxes are for the link name, URL and description. We do our best to fill these in for you, pulling the information from the page itself. The URL should be fine as is, but you will often want to edit the trail name and description so that they better describe the link and what is unique and valuable about it.
- When you are done editing, click the Save button, and the link is saved into the trail you chose. It will now appear in your My Nest area and in the toolbar menu. And if you are sharing your trail for others to see and use, it will also appear there.
Examples of Well Annotated Trails
The quality of a trail (in terms of its usefulness to users other than you ) is a function of both the breadth and the quality of the links you have found, and how well you describe and explain the trail and its links. If you have a great set of bookmarks on a topic, but you don't annotate it at all, it will look very sparse, and other users won't have a good understanding of its value. Following are a couple of examples of trails that have been well annotated so you can get an idea of what they look like and how the annotations can be helpful to others:
After You Create Your Trail and Add Links
After you have created your trail and added some links to it, here are some other things you can do with your new trail:
- View It. Go to My Nest and click the Trails tab, and then find and click on the trail name link in the Trails column. A menu is displayed. Click the View menu command, and the trail page for this trail is displayed. This is how other users will see your trail when they find it through AntStorm, or using search engines like Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft.
- See Who Uses It. Go to My Nest and click the Reports tab, and then click the Traffic tab under Reports. You can view reports to see how many people are viewing and using your trails. You can also click the Earnings tab under Reports to see how much money your trails are earning for charities.
- Start a Group. Start a group and invite others who you know share your interest in the topic of one of your trails. Get the whole group using and contributing to the trail, and get exposed to great new resources you would not find on your own.
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