Spurl.net - Getting started
Getting started using Spurl.net is really simple. This guide will lead you through the first steps.
1. Make sure your setup is working
By the time you're reading this you've probably registered for a Spurl.net account and followed the installation guidelines. There are two things that should have been set up:
1. The Spurl! button
Pressing this button will open a small pop-up window for posting pages to Spurl.net.
In Internet Explorer, this button should be located in the 'Navigation bar', (right next to the Back, Home, etc. buttons):
If you can't see the button see this troubleshooting note.
2. The Spurl bar
The Spurl bar is a sidebar that sits in your browser window and allows quick access to your links as well as the most popular functions of the Spurl.net service. You can open the Spurl bar by clicking the button right next to the Spurl! button (see above). You can hide it again by clicking the X icon in the top right corner of the bar.
In Internet Explorer, the Spurl bar button sometimes won't work until after a full reboot of the computer. If that is the case, you can still open the bar for this browser session by clicking here.
If your setup is not working properly, see the troubleshooting section, go to the user forums or drop us a line at support@spurl.net
2. Spurl your first page
Now that you've made sure that everything is correctly set up, it's time to "spurl" (i.e. bookmark) your first page.
- Open one of your favorite web sites in your rowser, just as you normally would.
- Now click the Spurl! button (see #1 above). A small pop-up window will appear showing the title and a thumbshot of the web page and several input fields.
- We'll skip entering any additional information for now, just click the Spurl! button at the bottom of the pop-up window.
- You've now spurled your first page and will never loose it again.
3. Locating the page again and using the Spurl bar
Now use the Spurl bar button to open the Spurl bar. It will open in the left hand side of your main browser window.
The Spurl bar has four tabs. Each of them gives quick access to one of the main parts of the Spurl.net service:
- Quick contains three lists to the pages you're most likely to be after:
- Most used spurls: The pages you've most frequently visited through Spurl.net
- Recently visited spurls: The pages you've most recently visited through Spurl.net
- Recently spurled: The pages you've most recently spurled
- Categories is a tree showing all your links and your folder structure. Use the + sign to open a folder and click a link to open it in the main window.
- Tags gives access to your spurls by looking up tags or tag combinations. A tag is a descriptive keyword that you think will help you later locate the spurl again.
- Spurl.net gives direct access to some of the most popular functions of the Spurl.net service that are not available in ths Spurl bar directly.
The input box at the top of the Spurl bar gives, at all times, quick access to searching your spurls. Simply enter the search string in the text field and press Enter or click the Search button ( 
).
4. Advanced spurling
Once you've gotten the hang of using the basic Spurl functions, as explained above, you're likely to want more.
Try spurling another page and filling in some of the additional information fields. This information will help you later re-locate pages, and remember what they were all about. By placing your mouse cursor over the question mark ( 
) next to each field, a brief description of the field will be displayed.
Spurl offers easy-to-use features for managing your spurls later on: moving, editing and deleting information as well as modifying your category structure and category details. Note that while the Spurl bar gives quick access to your links and the most commonly used features, you will have access to a lot more features by opening My Spurls on the Spurl.net website in the main browser window.
Tip: If you highlight a paragraph or two of the text from the page you're spurling before clicking the Spurl! button, it will automatically be used as the text for your "Snip" of the page. It is a good rule of thumb to always highlight the part of the page that interests you most, before clicking the Spurl! button.
For more information, tips and tricks you can look in the help section. The good folks in the Spurl.net user forums are also there to help.
Enjoy Spurl!
