Breathing a Sigh of Relief with Diigo

Diigo

Creating Organization

Since discovering Diigo, I have become a very frequent user.  What with all of the blogs, Twitter posts, websites, podcasts, journal articles, etc. that I have been reading, I feel like Diigo allows me breath a sigh of relief and say goodbye to the disorganization that previously haunted my bookmarks.  I finally have the opportunity to have some organization in the midst of a very chaotic online world.  I am so impressed with all of its features as well as how user friendly it is.  

One of the most important features is that I can use it across my devices (iMac, iPhone and iPad) and my bookmarks can be organized into one unified system.  When I bookmark a site on my iPhone, almost instantaneously I can access it on my iPad or iMac.  

Unfortunately, when I use Diigo on my iPhone it lacks the highlighting and sticky note features.  Since I prefer to read on my iPad screen anyways, it hasn't caused too much of an inconvenience.

Step by Step

The bookmarklet that I setup on my iPad is my most used feature of Diigo.  It allows me to use all of my favorite features conveniently from within my Safari webpage.  It took me only a few minutes to setup by following the instructions on the Diigo website Web Highlighter for iPad Safari.  Once it was installed I was able to get started right away.

Here are some views of how I use Diigo on my iPad:

I put the Diigo bookmarklet link on my Bookmark Bar so that it is always easily accessible.

 

The one drawback that I find is that the Diigo bookmarklet takes a while to load.  I'm not sure if that is standard or if it is just because I have my iPad so full and overused, but in my experience it takes longer than I would like for the toolbar to load.

Once it opens up, the bookmarklet displays all of the features that are available on the desktop version of the bookmarklet and is definitely worth the wait of loading.
 

Once the bookmarklet is open, I can select text on the webpage, press the highlight button and it will highlight just like on my desktop version.  I find the highlighting function is extremely important for when I look back at webpages.  Sometimes I bookmark a webpage for a particular reason but when I return to the same webpage I have no idea why it is in my bookmarks.  This feature allows me to keep track of all those important features of a webpage that I want to remember for next time.




The other feature that I enjoy from the bookmarklet is the ability to use sticky notes.  Not only can I highlight the important parts but I can type in my own thoughts and reminders and post it anywhere I choose on the page so that I don't lose those thoughts when I return to the page next time.  It also gives the opportunity to choose when the sticky note will be public or private right from the same pop-up screen.

Finally, the bookmarklet also lets me save my bookmarks without having to load a new webpage.  It is really convenient to have it all accessible without having to load separate webpages especially since I am frequently using my 3G services instead of WiFi.

Since I am learning how to keep my online life organized as of late, I also really appreciate the ability to add tags right away.  This allows me to categorize my bookmarks before saving them into Diigo.  This way, when I return to Diigo to access a webpage, they are easy to find which causes less stress on my part when I am trying to find things.

Not only can I categorize my bookmarks by tags, but I can also add them to lists.  I can either add it to a list that I have already created or create a brand new list, and again, all of this happens without navigating to a new webpage.  This further categorization makes it extremely easy to find the webpages that I am saving for later.  Plus, combined with all of the other features I can remember why I saved them and keep track of my own thoughts on the idea presented on the webpage.


 


The last feature of the bookmarklet is the accessibility to my Diigo account.  If I want to view my bookmarks it only takes a simple click.  I can also turn on or off highlighting that I have left on previously bookmarked websites, view my lists, etc.

When I do access my Diigo account, I can then see the full bookmark, categorized by list and tags, with highlighted portions and sticky notes that I created all listed in my bookmark library.

Personal & Professional Implications

Since beginning to use Diigo and the bookmarklets for iPhone and iPad, I have been able to create a unified system to organize my bookmarks for both my personal and professional life.  When I find a creative art project or math lesson that I would like to try with my students, I save it to Diigo with my highlighting and/or sticky notes to refer to later and have no problem returning and implementing it later.  In my personal life, I am able to organize my recipes, photography links, etc. that I find and want to return to at a later date.  Overall, it has given bookmarks meaning and they have now become a major resource for both my home and school lives.