copy Internet Explorer Favourites (PC) to Safari (Mac)

[Antony]

Hello here,

Continuing with helping a friend on migrating from PC to a new iMac. How do I copy Internet Explorer favourites (Windows XP) to Safari (Mac OS X)?

Thank you.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.0 Firefox/3.6.12

[PaulD]

In IE 8:
File > Import and Export > Export to a file (Next) > Favorites (Next) > (top item selected) Next > (Specify location) Export.
Other IEs: see comment below.

In OS X: (I can pitch; you have to catch.)

Applications on Windows seem usually to have their Import/Export functions either on the File menu, a Tools menu, or buried on an 'Organize'-type sub-menu.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

[Fulvio]

about the same as Paul's

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b7) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b7

[Don_HH2K]

In the event that Safari can't import IE8's exported bookmarks (I don't know the export format but don't know if it's a standard bookmarks.html-esque file), another idea would be to import the bookmarks into Firefox, then copy over the bookmarks.html file from your profile directory, which Safari can import.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101127 Firefox/4.0b8pre

[PaulD]

1. IE8's default export is standard .htm.
2. In Firefox, one would still have to Export to an html. Bookmarks files are .json starting with FF3, in folder bookmarkbackups within the Profile. In prior versions they were in file bookmarks.html in the Profile.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

[richard mitnick]

I think Don has it. I am running 5 Windows PC's. FF is my default on 4 and SM on 1. The best and easiest way for me to transfer bookmarks is to export to the desktop, and then copy that file across my network.
Then if I want to update IE, I import form the desktop file.

But, IE has a different file structure than does any Gecko browser. You can go into WinExplorer and find a Favorites folder, and each favorite will be a file in the folder. You cannot do much with that. But, you can import it into FF, SM, etc., and then make the desktop file.

Depending on how Safari works, and I have had it a couple of times, I think that you can import the file from the desktop. I think that is what I remember doing.

I have used IE only a wee bit more than Safari, so my Favorites files are very out of date. I hope that I am remembering this correctly.

It should not be hard or take very long.

>>RSM

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13 ImageShackToolbar/5.2.4 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C)

[Antony]

Thank you for the help.
It turns out that the friend does not have many favourites on IE. So we didn't bother transferring.

It is good to know some methods.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.0 Firefox/3.6.13