Questions A bookmarklet to help with link blogging

A bookmarklet to help with link blogging

How the tool works:

navigate to a website, click the bookmarklet, enter your caption and recieve a text-file.

For example, let's say you visit example.com and press the bookmarklet. You'll recieve a text file called Example.txt containing the following:

[Example](http://example.com)

Your caption here

How to install this bookmarklet

Make a new bookmark in your browser (right-click on the bookmarks bar and click Add Page...)

For the "Name" you might put "Save link".
Copy the code block below, paste this into the "URL" or "Location" of the new bookmark.

javascript:(function () {
  var caption = window.prompt("Would you like to add a caption?");
  if (caption === null) return;
  var textToSave = `[${document.title}](${window.location.href})\n\n${caption}`;
  var textToSaveAsBlob = new Blob([textToSave], { type: "text/plain" });
  var textToSaveAsURL = window.URL.createObjectURL(textToSaveAsBlob);
  var fileNameToSaveAs = document.title + ".txt";

  var downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
  downloadLink.download = fileNameToSaveAs;
  downloadLink.innerHTML = "Download File";
  downloadLink.href = textToSaveAsURL;
  downloadLink.onclick = (e) => document.body.removeChild(e.target);
  downloadLink.style.display = "none";
  document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);
  downloadLink.click();
})();

Asked a year ago • Improve this question

6 replies

Thank you for this!

Answered a year ago · Improve this answer

David,

This is great. Thank you. I have a further request.

Would it be possible to post only the highlighted text? For instance, I'm reading an article and I want to post a couple of paragraphs, within blockquotes and citing the source, with a comment on top.

Here's what it could look like:

The most interesting argument the author makes is the following. Worth reading carefully:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It has always done so since time immemorial. [Source](Link)

Answered a year ago · Improve this answer

In terms of retrieving currently highlighted text when the bookmark is clicked, you'd want to replace textToSave with something like this:

var textToSave = `${caption}\n\n> ${window.getSelection().toString()} [Source](${window.location.href})`;

Does that help?

Answered a year ago · Improve this answer

It does help a lot thank you (catching up on this thread.)

I've slightly tweaked it to make it look like more a ready-to-post Blot entry:

javascript:(function () {
  var caption = window.prompt("Add a comment");
  if (caption === null) return;
  var textToSave = `Tags:\nDate:\n\n# BLOG POST TITLE HERE\n\n[${document.title}](${window.location.href})\n\n> ${window.getSelection().toString()}\n\n${caption}\n\n`;
  var textToSaveAsBlob = new Blob([textToSave], { type: "text/plain" });
  var textToSaveAsURL = window.URL.createObjectURL(textToSaveAsBlob);
  var fileNameToSaveAs = document.title + ".txt";

  var downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
  downloadLink.download = fileNameToSaveAs;
  downloadLink.innerHTML = "Download File";
  downloadLink.href = textToSaveAsURL;
  downloadLink.onclick = (e) => document.body.removeChild(e.target);
  downloadLink.style.display = "none";
  document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);
  downloadLink.click();
})();

Answered a year ago · Improve this answer

Thanks for this! Very useful.

Ray

Answered 8 months ago · Improve this answer

Great, thanks!

Answered 5 months ago · Improve this answer

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