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Shelf Web Pages Instantly (and Get Back to Work) with ReadItLater
Posted by Gina Trapani at 5:00 AM on September 6, 2008
Surely you come across web pages during the workday that are completely unrelated to actual work, but that you'd love to save for later—and the previously mentioned (and award winning) Firefox extension ReadItLater does just that really well. Once ReadItLater is part of your everyday workflow, it's super-easy to park long articles or interesting tidbits you want to look at over lunch or at home in a "staging area" that's available as an RSS feed, in your regular bookmarks, and even on other computers. ReadItLater may appear unnecessary to power bookmarkers who keep a "later" folder or tag, but on closer inspection it does offer features that make hitting the snooze button on a link much easier.
The Killer Feature: One-click Park
Without ReadItLater, to save a web page in your bookmarks in a "read it later" folder or tag, it takes a couple of steps. (Even with Firefox 3's one-click bookmarking, you still have to tag or file the link.) With ReadItLater installed, Firefox gets a checkbox in the address bar next to the regular bookmark star icon. Click on that checkbox to automatically add the current web page to your ReadItLater list in one click. That's it. Now you can get back to work.
Alternately, if you don't even want to open the tempting link but want to save it for later, right-click on a link and choose "Read This Link Later" from the context menu.
If you're want to add a bunch of links on a single page to your reading list even more quickly, then activate "Click to Save" mode (Alt+M by default, or click the ReadItLater icon in the status bar). When you do, clicking on any link doesn't open it, it adds it to your reading list. This feature is especially good for shelfing several items of interest you might find on link-heavy pages like the Digg or Lifehacker front page.
Check Your Reading List
Once you've added a few pages to your ReadItLater list, you can click on the ReadItLater dropdown on the right of Firefox's search box to expand the list of items you've parked there. ReadItLater conveniently sorts the links by oldest added (by default, you can change this), so you see the stuff that's been hanging out there the longest at the top. You can quickly filter the list by tag, page name, site, or URL, too.
See that handy number 10 on the ReadItLater toolbar button? That's the number of unread items you have. This feature isn't turned on by default, but it's nice to instantly see how many items are in your reading queue. To turn it on, in ReadItLater's options, under Appearance, check off "Show number of unread items on the toolbar button," as shown.
Read Your Pages
Now that you've built up a reading list, you're eating lunch at your desk and want to do some personal browsing. Click on any link from that list dropdown to visit a page. All done? Simply click the ReadItLater checkbox to mark the item as read and immediately take it off your list. If you want tor permanently save it on your boomarks service of choice, hit the dropdown on that checkbox and pick your bookmark poison.
Syncing Your ReadItLater List
One of the really cool features of ReadItLater is that it automatically saves links to your Firefox bookmarks in a folder you specify. So if you're already syncing your bookmarks across computers with the likes of Foxmarks, your reading list goes to other computers even if you don't have the ReadItLater extension installed on them (but you don't get its neat interface).
ReadItLater has a syncing mechanism built in, too. You set up an RSS feed of your reading items, and then log in with your feed ID and a password to get your list on other computers with ReadItLater installed. Visit ReadItLater's Options dialog, under RSS/Syncing, to set that up.
Keyboard Shortcuts and Offline Reading
If clicking around Firefox ain't your bag, baby, ReadItLater has you covered. Customise your keyboard shortcuts for even faster access to your queue in the Options dialog.
ReadItLater also can save web pages you want to read on an aeroplane, for instance, to your hard drive for offline access. From the ReadItLater list dropdown, while you're online, click on the "Read Offline" link to make ReadItLater save local copies of the pages on your list.
Check out this three minute video demo to see ReadItLater in action.
How do you save links of interest to read later? Let us know in the comments.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
danlowlite
Posted 5:27 AM 6/9/08
I have a del.icio.us tag called "toread." I remove the tag when done. I do use the extension for del.icio.us...
Actually getting to read that stuff is another problem.
danlowlite
kartal
Posted 5:26 AM 6/9/08
I use Scrapbook to cache and save pages. It saves local copies so even if the content changes you would have the content of the time of your visit. It is easy to use. Alternatively you can use to store images in local database.
[amb.vis.ne.jp]
kartal
PhilHut
Posted 5:22 AM 6/9/08
Irony alert: I don't have time to read the entire article about this tool, yet I want to remember it. So, I need this tool to remember it.
Aw crap, I'm stuck in an infinite loop.
PhilHut
neil2121
Posted 5:09 AM 6/9/08
I love using this extension but it seems like the sync loses some of my bookmarks at times when I open up Firefox at work or home, etc. I can recover the pages when I click on the "Access Anywhere" link and then look at my "read" list but it's still a bit of a hassle.
neil2121
Cripesonfriday
Posted 5:52 AM 6/9/08
I use instapaper and sync the articles to my ipod touch before I leave work in the morning.Really helps the morning commute fly by.
A free app is in the app store and there is a pro version too although it is a wee bit overpriced in my opinion.
Cripesonfriday
asingingsmile
Posted 5:48 AM 6/9/08
@danlowlite: I do the same thing! "toread" on del.icio.us with the Firefox extension... then when I get home, I pull them up.
asingingsmile
Asian Angel
Posted 5:41 AM 6/9/08
I have been using this extension for a few months now and absolutely love it. ^__^
Read-It-Later is definitely an essential must-have extension. ^__^
Asian Angel
Giannicolus Jones
Posted 5:31 AM 6/9/08
I just use GMailThis and changed the sendto: to always be to me and set up a filter to tag the message in a read later Label in my Gmail
Giannicolus Jones
qrius
Posted 5:30 AM 6/9/08
ooh, i just bought a used tablet pc, and this would be perfect for it!
I'm looking forward to reading a lot of ebooks and offline websites on my downtime as soon as my tablet comes.
qrius
Jack
Posted 5:57 AM 6/9/08
I've been using this since the awards post here on LH, and I'm loving it so far. It's great way for me to sync only certain bookmarks between my work and home.
Jack
Dronak
Posted 5:56 AM 6/9/08
I've been using the Google Notebook extension to do this kind of noting web pages for later reading.
Dronak
BluegrassGeek
Posted 5:52 AM 6/9/08
I use the Delicious plugin and a "readinglist" tag for this. However, the one-click approach appeals to me. I'd like to figure out a way to do a one-click button to save a link/article to my "readinglist" tag in Delicious....
BluegrassGeek
SA
Posted 7:14 AM 6/9/08
@Jack: Me too. Why did it take us so long to hear about RIL? I have no idea how I went so long without it. It's quickly becoming my favorite extension right after Ad-block and Gina's Better Gmail.
SA
Gina Trapani
Posted 6:55 AM 6/9/08
@Everyone who isn't seeing the button on your toolbar: right-click your toolbar and choose Customize. Then, drag and drop the ReadItLater button onto the toolbar.
Gina Trapani
chuckiemac
Posted 6:52 AM 6/9/08
I'm a master of procrastination, but I've been trying lately to get it under control and be more productive (not very successful at this exact moment, obviously). After reading about this extension a few weeks ago on this site, I installed it and immediately fell in love with it. Any time I catch myself clicking a link that's going to distract me from my work, I just right-click and choose Read it Later. Talk about saving me time.
I do seem to have found a bug of some sort, though: the icon on the menu bar isn't working for me. I don't know why yet - could be anything: conflict with another extension, too many open windows, too many open tabs, the location on the menu bar, etc. When I get a chance, I intend to figure it out and file a bug report...
chuckiemac
bashobuddha
Posted 6:19 AM 6/9/08
the plugin is buggy for me - i cannot get the button to display next to my search.... oh well.
bashobuddha
Mecha-Shiva
Posted 6:18 AM 6/9/08
I have a folder on the far left side of my toolbar, and just drag the link or the favicon to that folder. Then right click and delete (or move elsewhere) once I've read it.
Mecha-Shiva
baker2gs
Posted 7:36 AM 6/9/08
Since I usually browse a majority of my web articles through Google Reader, I usually just "star" it and then go back to it later.
baker2gs
mrbenn
Posted 7:32 AM 6/9/08
i use a mixture of Scrapbook and toread.cc to make a lovely index of webpages, all of which instantly searchable with Google Desktop
mrbenn
metalmarious
Posted 9:29 AM 6/9/08
I just have a 'read it later' bookmark folder in my bookmarks toolbar, where I drag tabs I want to read later
metalmarious
twodumbdogs
Posted 11:56 AM 6/9/08
I think the headline should read "Shelve Web Pages..." instead of Shelf. A shelf is an object while shelve is an action. Interesting tool either way.
twodumbdogs
fenster
Posted 3:10 PM 6/9/08
Being somewhat old-fashioned, I used slogger for many years, and I now use "shelve" to achieve the same goal. I simply save the web-pages to a dedicated folder and then sync the pages between devices/drives using unison.
fenster
UmitTullus
Posted 4:35 PM 6/9/08
I use FF extension "Taboo" for this, but you need to visit the link in order to "save" it for later. On the other hand, it remembers the entire history for that tab, which is useful sometimes to see how you got there in the first place.
UmitTullus
jsmorley
Posted 4:58 PM 6/9/08
This is interesting indeed. At first blush I thought it was another solution without a problem. A single click of the yellow star in the URL bar adds a page to the special folder "Unsorted Bookmarks" which can be used as a temporary holding area for things you want to get back to but are either not sure where to file or may not want to keep. Firefox 3 solved the problem, no need for an extension.
However, the added features with this make it a strong tool.
If you are doing research and want to line up a bunch of links on a page for reading later, without even going to them now.
You remember that you had saved a site on Monday to get back to but can't remember the name, only that you did it on Monday.
I like the small nice features too, like a reminder of how many unread items you have on the button.
Nice find...
jsmorley
WickedGirl
Posted 5:08 PM 6/9/08
Greatest web research and reading tool ever for me is Zotero. I don't have time to explain it at the moment, but I stumbled on it one night while Googling for something to help me with creating bibliographies for my school papers. I quickly realized that it is a fabulous way to better track and organize any interesting data that I come across on the web. Love it! [www.zotero.org]
WickedGirl
trekkie4christ
Posted 6:25 PM 6/9/08
I've been using RiL for a couple of weeks now and I absolutely love it. I can surf using my portable Firefox at the university computer lab and mark articles on Lifehacker and (especially) Gizmodo for follow-up when I get back home. The sync has never failed to transfer my list from college to home. I just wish I had it over the summer when I needed the same thing for marking articles I found during my workday. I just sent them to my Gmail account with a certain hex number in the body of the message so that I could filter it out of the rest of my mail. RiL streamlines the same sort of process for me.
trekkie4christ
Jennifer
Posted 10:35 PM 6/9/08
I had a bit of trouble finding the toolbar button at first. I'd rearranged my toolbars pretty heavily and the "navigation" bar was hidden - the button was there.
I've yet to find a way to make the sync remember the username I created to replace the default, but other than that, I really like this extension.
Jennifer
iheart
Posted 1:14 AM 7/9/08
I use toread.cc , to send everything I want to read, to my gmail inbox.
iheart
basalganglia
Posted 12:58 AM 7/9/08
Thanks soooooo much Jennifer - I've been trying to find this button for a while now!
basalganglia
iamww
Posted 2:28 AM 7/9/08
I also use Instapaper or a "toread" tag in Delicious. Most of the time I stick to Instapaper because I can use the iPhone app to read things while on the go.
iamww
orlo
Posted 3:19 AM 7/9/08
As others have said please correction the the title to "shelve".
orlo
Loodac
Posted 4:54 AM 7/9/08
"Taboo" works better for me.
[addons.mozilla.org]
Loodac
jupiterthunder
Posted 5:44 AM 7/9/08
RIL is a godsend for someone like me that is easily distracted by that link to another great article or something that might be good for that other thing I'm working on. It has been the best tool I've used to keep myself on task while on the web because of it's efficiency. I can quickly mark something to read later and don't have to think twice about having the need to reorganize my favorites again later.
jupiterthunder
jupiterthunder
Posted 5:40 AM 7/9/08
@metalmarious:
RIL creates this same bookmark folder so instead of drag and drop you can just click and get it there. Then you've opened up other options for quick access to the list without creating any additional work for yourself.
jupiterthunder
Condalmo
Posted 11:02 AM 7/9/08
Just downloaded it. Already can't live without it.
If there was a way to integrate it with Google Reader, that would perfect it. (I can't use the star option; already using that to feed interesting items over to an area of my blog.) Any ideas?
Condalmo
cheesebubble
Posted 6:04 PM 7/9/08
@WickedGirl: Thanks for mentioning [zotero.org] ...it looks pretty cool!
cheesebubble
zizukabi
Posted 11:53 PM 6/9/08
I've been using Instapaper. Very simple and Just needed only email ID to use
zizukabi
robindwilliams
Posted 9:15 AM 6/9/08
e@baker2gs: Yeah, I do the same with Google Reader, but often I click-through to a web-site linked from a feed and could do with starring that as well! Plus, I always forget to go back and read starred items in GR.
Shame RIL isn't available for Safari (on the Mac - do any Lifehacker readers use Safari on Windows?! I find it unlikely). Yet another great extension for Firefox that draws me in, until I remember how often I've been there before and still switched back to Safari...
Oh, and not to be pedantic, but is 'shelf' really a verb? I think you mean 'shelve' Gina ;-) Unless it's completely unrelated as a verb.
robindwilliams
TerrenceWenal
Posted 6:57 AM 6/9/08
I use the RSS link for RIL and have a separate folder in my Google Reader dedicated to it. Since I can't do the sync option due to limitations at work I've renamed the RSS feed names in gReader to have one from (work) and one from (home).
TerrenceWenal
StanfordKablamy
Posted 6:44 AM 6/9/08
@Bashobuddha Try the instructions at the bottom of this page: http://www.ideashower.com/read-it-later-installation/ If you still have problems shoot me an email at RIL@ideashower.com and I'll help get you sorted!
StanfordKablamy
brownte
Posted 5:37 AM 6/9/08
I have a lower-tech approach to the same thing - I open up a "reading list" of links in separate tabs in Firefox, and close the tab as I read it. For those that get deferred, I use the "Bookmark All Tabs" option
brownte
LoneWolf008
Posted 12:33 AM 8/9/08
@Condalmo: If you open up the RiL reading list (Alt+Q)and click on the RSS Feed tab, it will automatically create a RSS feed for you. Just subscribe to this feed in Google Reader and there you go. Another cool thing is that you can subscribe to unread, read or all items
LoneWolf008
Condalmo
Posted 1:15 AM 8/9/08
@LoneWolf008: I was thinking of the opposite direction - adding items already in my Reader to the list, rather than adding the list to Reader. (If that makes sense.)
Condalmo
mcv2
Posted 2:07 AM 8/9/08
Obviously this has proved to be very popular for many readers but I seem to be only the second person to get on fine with just using the star in the URL box to file pages in Unsorted Bookmarks. Everything I bookmark worthy of keeping is filed so this folder only contains items to read later.
Besides, I've already cut back my extensions from 38 to 26 so I'm trying not to add any more! However, glad it is useful for so many people.
mcv2
LoneWolf008
Posted 8:30 AM 8/9/08
@Condalmo: Yeah I think I kinda do understand what you mean...something like sending all your unread items in Reader to RiL? Sounds like a tough task. Maybe you can use one of those programs that make customized feeds? I think there were a few mentioned on LH but I can't recall any off hand. As for getting them into RiL automatically...no clue.
LoneWolf008
WomanWithManyHats
Posted 10:13 AM 8/9/08
@PhilHut: Hah! I think that the developers may have a really big problem with potential users stuck in infinite loops.
WomanWithManyHats
rolltimer
Posted 7:31 AM 9/9/08
Readeroo [[www.monsur.com]] has this covered for me. Has a toolbar button that quick saves to delicious under "toread" or you can change the prefs to save to any tag you like. I use the tag "readlater".
rolltimer
velascomike
Posted 9:30 AM 7/9/08
I've been using Read it Later for some time now and I love the extension. It is easy and intuitive to use and get the job done.
Also the developer actually listens to user suggestions and improves with each release.
If you don't have it, you should at least try it.
velascomike
BrownStudy
Posted 4:16 AM 11/9/08
I also prefer Readeroo, as I use several different computers in different locations. I like having the links collected under my delicious banner, they're out of sight till I'm ready to read them, and they're not cluttering my FF bookmarks.
Readeroo's skill set is limited, but it does exactly what I want.
I also use toread.cc but those are for pages that I want to keep in my Gmail for archive purposes; most stuff I want "toread" are ephemeral and not for archiving, mostly.
BrownStudy