A bookmark manager for your projects, beside the notes they belong to

Browser bookmarks pile up in one long list, far from the work they are for. Barside is a bookmark manager for your projects: every workspace and every note has its own bookmark bar, so links sit next to the notes they belong to. Save browser tab adds the page you are looking at in one click, with no extension, and you can note which account you use on each site. Your browser's own bookmarks stay exactly as they are.

This guide covers the two kinds of bookmark bars, saving tabs on Windows, Linux and Mac, account labels, the desktop bar and search.

Why use a bookmark manager for your projects

Every project has its links: the brief in a shared document, the design file, the analytics dashboard, a competitor's pricing page. In a browser they sit in one tree with everything else you ever saved, and finding the right one means remembering where you put it.

In Barside, those links live in the project's workspace, and a note can keep its own sources. Open the project and its links are there. Finish it, and they stop crowding everything else.

Two kinds of bookmark bars

• Workspace bookmarks sit above a workspace's notes, in the workspace's color, for the links the whole project uses. The bar has Save browser tab, a star for saving with an account, and Add link.
• Note bookmarks sit at the top of every note, above the toolbar, for links that belong to one note: the sources for an article, the tickets for a bug, the documents for a meeting.

Both bars use groups. New group makes one, like Research or Launch. The bar then shows All links, each group, and Ungrouped. Select a group before you save, and the new link goes into it. To rename a group, double-click it, or select it and press …; Remove group (keep links) deletes the group and keeps its links as ungrouped.

The Bookmarks view in the sidebar gathers everything: the bookmark bar of every workspace that has links, and every note that has links, with up to three of them on each card.

How to save the tab you are looking at

1. Open the page in your browser. On Windows, keep it on the same monitor as the Barside window.
2. In Barside, go to the workspace or note, and select a group if you want one.
3. Press Save browser tab. Barside reads the page's address and title and saves the link, and a short message names the browser and the page it saved.

If Barside cannot read the address, it says why and opens the Add link form, so you can paste it instead.

How it works on each system:

• Windows. Barside reads the address bar of the frontmost supported browser on that monitor through Windows accessibility (UI Automation). It never switches tabs, types into the browser or touches your clipboard, and it runs only when you press the button. It also fills in the full address when a browser shows a shortened one.
• Linux. Browsers on Linux do not share their address with other apps, so Barside selects the address bar and copies it (Ctrl+L, then Ctrl+C) with xdotool, then puts your clipboard back. Install xdotool with sudo apt install xdotool, or your distribution's package manager. Without it, copy the page's address in your browser first, and Barside takes it from the clipboard.
• Mac. Barside for Mac asks the frontmost browser for its address and title through Apple Events, without touching your clipboard. macOS asks you once per browser to allow it. If you said no, Barside tells you where to turn it on: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation.
• Browsers. On Windows: Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi, Opera, Arc and Zen. On Linux: Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, Firefox, Zen and a few more. In Barside for Mac: Safari, Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera. Firefox and Zen do not share their address on a Mac, so paste it with Add link.

Add, edit and remove links by hand

Add link on a workspace bar, or + (Add bookmark manually) on a note's bar, opens a small form: Web address, an optional Name, the Bookmark group, and an optional Account. Save bookmark keeps it.

Each bookmark has a … button that opens Edit bookmark, where you can change any field or choose Remove link. Click a bookmark to open it in your default browser.

Remember which account you use

When you have two accounts on the same site, like a personal and a work login, the hard part is remembering which one a project uses. The star next to Save browser tab, Save browser tab with account, saves the page with that account:

• On Windows, Barside looks at the page's visible account menu and suggests the email it finds. You confirm it; Barside never assumes that an email on a page is yours.
• Accounts you saved before for the same site are offered too, for you to confirm.
• On Linux, and in Barside for Mac, Barside does not read the page's account menu, so you type the account, or pick one you saved before for that site.

The label shows under the bookmark's name, can be edited later, and is searchable. As the form says, it is a reminder of which account to use: it does not sign you in or store a password. For the password itself, use Barside's built-in password manager.

Bookmarks on the desktop bar

The desktop bar keeps your bookmarks one click away from any app. See the native desktop app at the edge of your screen.

• Each workspace button opens a menu with a search box (Find a note or bookmark…), the Workspace bookmarks and the workspace's notes.
• The bookmark button saves the page open in your browser to the workspace (Bookmark the current page in this workspace), and each note in the list has its own (Bookmark the current page in this note). The star saves the page with an account.
• The pencil renames a bookmark or edits its account (Enter saves, Escape cancels), and the trash button removes it.
• Links you open from the desktop bar go to the browser window you used last: on Windows in a new tab, and on Linux and in Barside for Mac through that browser, or your default browser if it is gone.

Find any link in seconds

• The search box above your notes (Search notes, ideas, or links…) matches bookmark names, addresses and account labels, and on workspace bars, group names too.
• The search bar opens with Alt+Shift+Space in any app, or Ctrl+K in Barside. Bookmarks show under their own heading, Enter opens the link, and Ctrl+D makes it a favorite. Type bm to open the Bookmarks view. See the search bar and hotkeys.
• Ask library, in Library & briefing, searches bookmark names and addresses along with your notes on your computer, and the AI you connect writes the answer. To search a bookmarked page's text too, open Sources and use Save webpage content: Download public page text, or paste the text of a page you are signed in to. See ask your notes a question.

Bookmarks and the rest of Barside

• Share to a Space. The share button on a bookmark shares its name and address with a Space, after a preview. The account label stays with you. See team chat and paid communities.
• Import your browser's bookmarks. Export the bookmarks file from your browser and bring it in with Import notes. It becomes one note with every link in its bookmark bar, grouped by folder. See import your notes.
• Keep a copy. A bookmark is a link, and pages change or disappear. Save the webpage into a note to keep a copy you can read offline, or save articles to your read-it-later inbox.
• Your AI. On Windows, the AI assistant can collect bookmarks for you, for example Bookmark all pages in this browser window in a new note, grouped as Research, with the AI you connect. The research agent saves each page it reads as a searchable bookmark. AI apps connected through AI connections can list your bookmarks, and add them when you allow it.

Who it helps

• Founders and marketers who live in dashboards: analytics, ads, billing and support, each labeled with the account that owns it.
• Developers with docs, tickets and staging links per project, and the links for one bug in that bug's note.
• Students and researchers who keep sources inside the note they support, so a paper and its references stay together.
• Agencies and freelancers with one workspace per client and the client's tools on its bar.

Privacy

Bookmarks, groups and account labels live in your library on your computer and travel in your ZIP backups. Barside collects no browsing history: it reads a browser's address only when you ask it to save a page. Account labels are never indexed for Library AI, are left out when you share a bookmark to a Space, and reach an AI app only when you turn on that permission. The privacy guide has the details.

Bookmarks work the same on Windows 10 and 11, on Linux and in Barside for Mac, with the differences above.

How it compares

Most bookmark tools file links by folder or tag in a separate app. Barside files them by project, next to the notes and tasks for that project, on your own computer. If you are choosing a tool for saving links, see the best read-it-later apps and the best second brain apps, and the Pocket alternative guide if you are moving on from Pocket.

Works well with