Life with Microsoft Edge: How to make use of Edge’s nifty research features

Earlier this week, Microsoft launched Windows 10 S – a Streamlined version of Windows 10 Pro which focuses on squeezing battery life and performance out of devices ranging from the most modest of PCs to the highest specced machines. For now, Microsoft indicates its primary target is education – and one of the most important apps to that story is Microsoft Edge.
Chances are, if you’re in education, you should be researching a lot. You’re going to be searching up, googling and otherwise collating information for use in exams, essays and dissertations.
Microsoft has made a series of updates to Edge to make the research experience on Edge – out of the box and without any extensions – very capable for students. With the built in Reading List and Set Tab Aside features, you can get a lot done with Edge.

Procrastinate endlessly with ‘Set aside tabs’

With Microsoft Edge, you can wholesale set aside all the tabs you have open just so you can return to them later. This is a new feature of the Edge browser that was introduced in the Windows 10 Creators Update — if you’re on Windows 10 version 1607 or lower you won’t be able to access this.

It is distinct from a Reading List or Bookmarking type feature in that you don’t have to select individual pages one by one but can set aside every tab in the open window. Its usefulness lies in the fact that you can make use of this prior to streamlining your research by holding a list of interesting tabs in limbo while you do other things.

Steps to make use of ‘Set Aside Tabs’

1. Open the set of tabs you want to set aside in one Edge window.
2. Tap or click on the set aside icon, it is located on the top left of the Edge header. This instantly clears your Edge tabs and sets them all aside for later reference.
3. If you want to restore the tabs, simply tap the icon again and select “Restore Tabs”

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Bonus Tip: You can also share tabs you’ve set aside either via OneNote or using the Mail app by tapping the (…) menu in the Set Tabs Aside slide-out pane.

Curate your research with Reading List

Edge on all versions ships with a native reading list feature. Unlike bookmarking, this feature is more user-friendly and helpful when researching for an end of term paper.

When I made use of the reading list in preparation for a paper, I mainly used it to save pages that I actually intended to use going forward for quick referencing. Unlike saving with Pocket or clipping the pages to OneNote or Evernote, you get the page in its full unalteredform when used with – making the experience of citing pages and papers and continuing further research via web tools more convenient.

Steps to saving pages with Reading List

1. On the webpage you want to save, tap the “star” button located in the URL bar of the browser.
2. When prompted on whether to save to reading list or favourites, swipe left and save it to your reading list.
3. Open the “hub” icon located to the right of the URL bar in Edge and navigate to reading list
4. All your saved pages should be there and available to access.

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Bonus tip: OneNote and Evernote are both in the Windows Store, and you can make use of their Edge extensions in order to share web content directly to each of these apps.