Microsoft Edge Collections (23H2)

Collections is a unique Microsoft Edge feature that helps you gather, save, and organize information about a specific topic as you browse the web. It works well for almost any kind of research, such as when you are planning a trip, comparing products to purchase, writing a school assignment, engaged in a work project, and the like. And in these cases, it can be seen as a superior alternative to Favorites.

Collections might also be seen as an alternative to Edge Workspaces, which lets you organize a project into a special Edge window with a customizable name, color scheme, tabs, and favorites. There is definitely some overlap between the two features.

Collections appears as a pane in Microsoft Edge in which you can create and manage collections, add web pages and discrete bits of information to collections, and share and otherwise manage collections. You display this pane by selecting the Collections button in the Edge toolbar, if present, or by navigating to Settings and more (“…”) > More tools > Collections.

You can also open Collections by typing CTRL + SHIFT + Y.

If the Collections button isn’t visible, you can enable it in Edge settings: Navigate to Appearance > Customize toolbar and locate the “Collections button” item under “Select which buttons to to show on the toolbar.”

Collections isn’t limited to your Windows PC: This feature is also available in Microsoft Edge for Mac, Android, iPhone, and iPad, and any collections you create on any device will sync between all your devices. You can also access your collections from the Collections page on the Bing website.

Create a new collection

To create a new collection, open Collections and select “+ Create new collection.” When you do, a Create new collection dialog appears in the pane.

After you’ve entered a name for the collection and clicked “Save,” the new collection appears in the Collections pane at the top of the list of collections.

Select the Collection to open it. If you’re viewing a page you want to add to this new collection, you can use the “+ Add current page” link to do so now.

You can also create a new collection by right-clicking the current web page, an image, or some selected text and choosing “Add page to Collections” (or “Add to Collections”) and then “+ Start new collection.”

Add an item to a collection

Microsoft Edge lets you add webpages, text, and images from the Internet to a collection. You can also add your own notes.

Add a web page to a collection

Many people will want to add a page to a collection. Doing so is similar to saving a favorite (bookmark), though the Collections presentation is nicer.

To add the current page to a collection, right-click an empty area of the page and choose “Add page to Collections” and then the name of the collection.

Or, if the Collections pane is already open, you can select the “+ Add current page” link in the Collections pane instead.

When you do so, the page is added at the bottom of the items in the selected collection.

Add specific text to a collection

Sometimes you don’t want to collect an entire web page and would instead like to collect just some specific text on a page. To do so, select the text you’d like to add, right-click it, and choose “Add page to Collections” and then the name of the collection.

Add an image to a collection

Collecting an image works similarly: You can right-click an image you’d like to collect, then choose “Add to Collections” and then the name of the collection.

Or, simply drag and drop the image from the web page into the Collections pane.

Add a note to a collection

In addition to collecting items from the web, you can add your own notes to a collection too.

To do so, open a collection, click “More options” (“…”) in the header, and select the “Add note.” In the note card that appears, type your note.

You can add multiple notes to any collection and arrange them as desired in the list.

Manage a collection

Each collection you create supports a variety of actions you can take related to the management of that collection and its contents. Many of these actions can be found in the collection’s “More options” (“…”) menu.

Most of these are obvious, but the “Manage” item puts the collection into an edit mode in which you can easily rearrange all the items in the collection using the grab handles that appear next to each. Just click “Save” when you’re done.

Each item in a collection supports a similar menu of options you can access by clicking the “More options” (“…”) button that appears in the item’s top right when you mouse-over it.

Oddly, some management tasks occur outside the collection. In the main Collections view, you can click an individual collection’s the “More options” (“…”) button to view options like “Rename” and “Delete.”

Manage your collections

Managing your collections works similarly to managing an individual collection: There’s a “More options” (“…”) button in the header that provides a “Manage” option that puts the main Collection view into an edit mode in which you can easily rearrange your collections using the grab handles that appear next to each.

Follow creators

If you use Collections, you’ll likely notice a “Following” tab at the top of the Collections pane. When selected, the pane switches to this view and advertises a feature that lets you follow creators online–people who create videos for YouTube, for the most part–and receive notifications in Edge when they publish new content.

However, this feature is no longer available, and it’s unclear why it still appears in Collections. You will never be prompted to follow a creator. And even the “Follow” buttons associated with the example creators at the bottom of the pane don’t work.

Our expectation is that Microsoft will remove this feature from Edge. But it is re-enabled, we will update this chapter to cover it.