Getting Started with Diigolet

The Diigolet

There are a few reasons why you would use the Diigolet instead of its more full-featured relatives: the Firefox toolbar, and the Chrome extension.

·         The Diigolet works on most browsers.

We recommend using a modern, standards-compliant browser like Firefox or Chrome whenever possible, but we recognize that some of you may not have that option for whatever reason.

·         The Diigolet is there when you want it, not there when you don’t.

We recognize that not everyone wants to install something that will affect their browsing across all pages. The Diigolet can be opened easily at will, and closed just as easily. It offers main-feature functionality from the pop-over toolbar and that is where its interaction with your browser ends.

·         The Diigolet is simple.

With just a few options and no overlapping functionality, it is simple to learn to use the Diigolet.

Get the Diigolet

The Diigolet is simply a bookmark with special functionality. As such, in order to use it you need to add it to your browser’s bookmarks. Follow the instructions here to get the Diigolet added to your bookmarks.

Note: For later versions of Firefox, the method for showing the bookmarks bar has changed. There is now a bookmarks menu to the right of the search box. The first option on the menu is to show the bookmarks bar.

Bookmark

Bookmarks are probably familiar to most people, but Diigo bookmarks are a whole other animal. With Diigo you can add information to a bookmark. Instead of simply being a link to the web page, a Diigo bookmark can store important things from the page. Follow along and I’ll describe a common use-case to demonstrate the features of Diigo using the Diigolet.

The Scenario: Researching a recipe that all family members can eat.

So we look for a recipe that looks good, searching as we normally do. I came across a recipe for “Pineapple-Coconut Sheet Cake with Rum and Chocolate Glaze”. Sounds delicious, right?

Now that we have found a recipe we like, we bookmark it to Diigo. First, click the Diigolet bookmark in your bookmarks bar. Wait for the Diigolet to load, and then click “Bookmark” on the Diigolet. The “Save Bookmark” pop-up opens. If the default title isn’t very descriptive, you can change it in the pop-up to something you’ll remember. Add a description if you want. You can also add tags.

Tags help you find and organize your bookmarks by letting you select all of your bookmarks with a certain tag or combination of tags. Quickly add relevant tags to a bookmark by clicking on any of the recommended tags that appear under the description field on the “Save Bookmark” pop-up.

When you are satisfied with the information in the “Save Bookmark” pop-up, click the “Save Bookmark” button.

Now a link to the page is stored in your Diigo library, and the information you entered is stored with it.

Highlight

Highlighting lets you denote important information on a page, just like highlighting in a book, but with Diigo, the highlighted text will be conveniently saved to your library as well.

There are some important things for me to denote on my recipe. My wife doesn’t like pineapple, my grandfather can’t have eggs or chocolate, and I don’t like coconut very much, so I highlight those items on the recipe to let me know I need to deal with them.

Highlight by clicking “Highlight” on the Diigolet. Then select the text you want to highlight. The text will be visually highlighted and the text is now stored in your library. It’s that easy. Click the button again to exit highlighter mode.

You can also change the color of a highlight by clicking the downward-pointing arrow next to “Highlight” and choosing a color. Colors are useful for differentiating different types of highlights. I will use a different color for each of the different people I need to consider.

Sticky Note

So I have the important/problematic parts of the recipe highlighted. Now I suddenly think of when I might prepare this recipe. I want to save this information with the page so I don’t forget. With Diigo I can put a sticky note on the page to remind me.

Just click “Sticky Note” in the Diigolet to add a sticky note to the page. You can drag the sticky note icon wherever you want, and you can move the text input window as well. Just type up your note and press “Post”.

We just created a “floating” sticky note (one that is floating on the page). There is another kind of sticky note, one that is tied to specific highlighted text. With this kind of sticky note we can make notes on our important highlights.

To add a sticky note to a highlight, simply move your mouse cursor over a highlight. When the little pop-up tab with the pencil on it appears, move the cursor to it and a menu will appear. Choose “Add Sticky Notes”. Now you can type and post a sticky note just like before, but this time it will be tied to the highlighted text.

I am going to add sticky notes to the problematic ingredients to save possible solutions for the problems.

So now we know when we’re going to use the recipe and how we’re going to make it work for everyone, and all that information is in our Diigo library in one place. Just move your cursor over “Diigo” in the Diigolet and choose “My Library”.

Your library opens in a new tab. You’ll see your new bookmark at the top of the items list with a number to its right that represents the number of notes and highlights on the page. If your highlights aren’t showing, just click the arrow to the right of the number.

Your information is saved and organized right there.

Read Later

Another feature of Diigo you will find useful is the “Read Later” option. You may come across a page you find interesting, but you don’t have the time to read it because you are working on something else. With Diigo, you can just open the Diigolet and click “Read Later”.

You can then safely close the page, knowing that you will be able to read it later.

When you want to read your unread bookmarks, just go to your library and click the button in the gray bar above your library items that says “Filter: All” then choose “Unread”. All of your unread pages show in a list.

That’s it!

Have fun using Diigo to make your work more productive and your life more organized.