Enable and Use Collections in Microsoft Edge

Edge Canary Icon 256

How to Enable and Use Collections in Microsoft Edge

The Collections feature is a special option in Microsoft Edge that allows the user to organize the web content your browse, including images, text, and links, into collections, share your organized sets, and export them to Office. Collections and Internet Explorer Mode have been announced earlier during Build 2019, so Microsoft kept their promise. Along with IE Mode, Collections can now be enabled in the browser.

The Collections feature is available starting in Edge Canary version Build 78.0.250.1. Microsoft describes this new feature as follows.

We designed Collections based on what you do on the web. It’s a general-purpose tool that adapts to the many roles that you all fill. If you’re a shopper, it will help you collect and compare items. If you’re an event or trip organizer, Collections will help pull together all your trip or event information as well as ideas to make your event or trip a success. If you’re a teacher or student, it will help you organize your web research and create your lesson plans or reports. Whatever your role, Collections can help.

To Enable Collections in Microsoft Edge Chromium,

  1. Update your Microsoft Edge to the latest version (see below). Build 78.0.250.1 and above is required to get Collections.
  2. Type edge://flags#edge-collections into the address bar and hit the Enter key,
  3. Select Enabled from the drop down menu next to the flag name.
  4. Restart the browser when prompted.

After that, you will get a new toolbar button that opens Collection.

How to use Collections

Create a new Collection

  1. When you open the Collections pane, select Start new collection
  2. Type a meaningful name.
  3. As you browse, you can add content related to your collection in three different ways:
  • Add current page: If you have the Collections pane open, you can easily add a web page to your collection by selecting Add current page at the top of the pane.

  • Drag/drop: When you have the Collections pane open, you can select an image, text, or hyperlink and drag it into the collection.

  • Context menu: You can also add content from a web page from the context menu. Just select the image, text, or hyperlink, right-click it, and select Add to Collections. You can choose an existing collection to add to or start a new one.

When you add content to Collections, Microsoft Edge creates a visual card to make it easier to recognize and remember the content. For example, a web page added to a collection will include a representative image from that page, the page title, and the website name. You can easily revisit your content by clicking on the visual card in the Collections pane.

You’ll see different cards for the different types of content you add to Collections. Images added to a collection will be larger and more visual, while full websites added to a collection will show the most relevant content from the page itself. The last option is a work-in-progress, so it works properly with a few shopping websites as of now. Content saved to a collection from supported sites will provide more detailed information like the product’s price and customer rating.

Edit your collection

  • Add notes: You can add your own notes directly to a collection. Select the add note icon  from the top of the Collections pane. Within the note, you can create a list and add basic formatting options like bold, italics, or underline.
  • Rearrange: Move your content around in the Collections pane. Just click an item and drag and drop it in the position you prefer.
  • Remove content: To remove content from your collection, hover over the item, select the box that appears in the upper-right corner, and then select the delete icon  from the top of the Collections pane.

Export your collection

Once you’ve created a collection, you can easily use that content by exporting it. You can choose to export the whole collection or select a subset of content.

  • Send to Excel: Hit the share icon from the top of the Collections pane and then select Send to Excel. Your content will appear on a new tab with pre-populated table(s) that allow you to easily search, sort, and filter the data extracted from the sites you added to your Collection. This is particularly useful for activities like shopping, when you want to compare items.

  • Copy/paste: Select items by clicking the box in the upper right. A gray bar will appear at the top of the Collections pane. Select the copy icon  to add those items to your clipboard. Then, paste it into an HTML handler like Outlook by using the context menu or Ctrl+V on your keyboard.

Sending content to Excel is available for Mac and Windows devices running Windows 10 and above. Microsoft is about to support Windows devices running Windows 7 and 8 soon. Additional functionality, like the ability to send to Word, will also come soon.

Actual Microsoft Edge Versions

The actual pre-release versions of Edge Chromium at the moment of this writing are as follows:

I have covered many Edge tricks and features in the following post:

Hands-on with the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge

Also, see the following updates.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

4 thoughts on “Enable and Use Collections in Microsoft Edge”

  1. Hi Sergey,

    “The actual pre-release versions of Edge Chromium at the moment of this writing are as follows:”
    Beta Channel: the actual version is 77.0.235.9

    Thanks !

    Reply

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