How to Use Collections in Microsoft Edge to Organise Web Links, Notes, and Images

Saving web pages for future reference has traditionally meant cluttering your browser’s bookmark bar with hundreds of unsorted links, pasting URLs into temporary Notepad files, or emailing links to yourself. While bookmarks work well for permanent tools like online banking, they are ill-suited for transient, multi-page projects—such as planning a holiday, researching product purchases, or compiling academic research papers.

Microsoft Edge includes a visual project workspace built directly into the browser: Collections. Collections allow users to group web pages, individual text snippets, images, and custom sticky notes into thematic visual folders that sync seamlessly across desktop and mobile. Furthermore, Collections feature one-click export integration with Microsoft Word, Excel, and OneNote. This guide explains how to create, organize, and export Collections in Microsoft Edge.

Opening and Enabling the Collections Panel

To open Collections in Microsoft Edge:

1. Open Microsoft Edge on Windows or Mac.
2. Click the Collections button in the top-right toolbar (the icon resembles two overlapping squares with a plus sign).
3. If the icon is hidden, click the three-dot menu (Alt + F), select Settings > Appearance, and toggle Collections button to ON.

The Collections flyout panel opens smoothly on the right side of your browser window.

Step-by-Step: Creating and Populating Collections

1. Starting a New Collection

In the Collections sidebar, click Start new collection. Type a descriptive name (e.g. “Trip to Scotland”, “Home Office Upgrade”, or “Tax Prep 2026”) and press Enter.

2. Adding Web Content with One Click

You can populate your collection using multiple intuitive methods:

• Add Current Page: Navigate to any webpage and click Add current page at the top of the collection panel. Edge saves a clean visual card showing the page title, website favicon, and thumbnail preview.
• Drag and Drop Content: Click and drag any image or highlighted text passage from a webpage directly into the Collections sidebar. Edge clips the quote or image and automatically appends a clickable citation link back to the source website.
• Add Custom Sticky Notes: Click the Add note icon (notepad symbol) to type reminders, price comparisons, or project to-do lists directly inside your collection. Change note background colours (yellow, blue, green, pink) to categorize ideas visually.

Exporting Collections to Microsoft 365

One of the greatest strengths of Collections is seamless export into productivity software without manual copy-pasting:

1. Open the collection you wish to export.
2. Click the More options button (three horizontal dots) in the top-right corner of the collection.
3. Select your desired export target:
   • Send to Excel: Edge parses all saved product links into a structured spreadsheet table containing columns for Page Title, URL, Price, and Website Name.
   • Send to Word: Generates a polished document featuring your clipped images, quotes, notes, and formatted hyperlinks with citations.
   • Send to OneNote: Sends the entire collection as a new notebook page.

Comparison: Collections vs Traditional Bookmarks