All modern web browsers support the idea of ' favourites' or 'bookmarks'. Whatever they call it, they mean the system by which people can remember web pages they want to revisit.

Bookmarks are unique to the computer or browser they have been created with. Anyone can store a bookmark to almost any document on the web, a terribly useful feature that many newcomers to computers don't realise is at their disposal.

Getting to your bookmarks is usually easy; as with many computer features, there are about a dozen different ways of doing the same thing.

Most bookmarks can be reached by clicking the Bookmarks or Favourites menu at the top of the screen; some browsers, like Internet Explorer, will open your bookmarks list in a sidebar. Others, like Firefox, Safari or Camino, will open a new window.

One thing common to many browsers, but often ignored by users, is the 'personal bookmarks bar'. This is a chunk of the browser window, usually located just below the toolbar where the Back and Home buttons live.

You can drag any web link you like on to this bar. The idea is that you use it for super-quick access to your very favourite bookmarks.

Drag them on to the bar, and they're always available with a single click.

But there's something else you can keep on the bookmarks bar which might be even more useful.

Bookmarklets are tiny bits of computer code that can be stored alongside all your other bookmarks.

But instead of taking you to one of your favourite pages, bookmarklets do clever things to the page you're already viewing.

Say you've called up a typical web page but would like to see it without all the images; a bookmarklet called 'Remove images' will reload the page without them.

Another, called 'Remove CSS', will take away all the code that dictates how the page is designed and laid out.

You'll be left with something that looks uglier, but might be easier to read on your screen.

The are hundreds of bookmarklets that do all sorts of clever things.

You can find a list of them at bookmarklets. com although that site is now quite old and might not be up-to-date.

If you're looking for a bookmarklet for a specific task, it's a good idea to Google for it, including the name of the browser you're using, just to see what's available.

I make frequent use of the 'Remove CSS' tool, and the 'Post to Flickr' bookmarklet I found which makes it trivially easy to send a photo from my website to the photo sharing service Flickr.

The last bookmarklet was provided by the team at Flickr, and you should keep your eye out for bookmarklets being devised by online services for your use. Often they are a great time-saver and a terrific way of getting making your browser work harder for you.

* Giles Turnbull has a website at gilest.org