Pages, categories and collections

Organise with pages, categories and collections: sort, fold and spread categories over columns, move bookmarks, and let smart, custom and tag collections gather links for you.

Categories

The right-click menu on a category header: Add new bookmark, Rename, Show as tiles, Spread across columns, Insert icon, Move to page, Add category and Delete, with their keys

Create — the + in a category header or the button under the last category (on the page you are on), :category new, New category… in the bookmark form, or Structure → Categories.
Rename — F2, a long press or double-click on the header, the right-click menu, or Structure → Categories.
Icon — an icon is part of the title. Type an emoji in the name, or right-click the header → Insert icon… to put an app icon in it (written :file.svg: in the name). Widgets are titled the same way.
Tiles — right-click the header → Show as tiles draws the category's bookmarks as a grid: a large icon, the name under it, the status as a dot on the corner. Show as rows goes back. The choice belongs to that category; Terminal and Launcher keep their own designs.
Move — drag the // in the title. The page holds still and a dashed box shows where the category lands; drop it on the line between two columns to make it wide. On the header, Alt + ←/→ moves it one place and Shift + Alt + ←/→ to the previous or next page. Without a mouse: ↑ on the block's top row (or Shift + Home) steps onto the title, Tab goes to the //, and Space picks the block up — the arrows move the box, W switches one column and wide, Enter drops, Esc cancels. Move to page in the right-click menu sends it to any page, where it lands last. Widgets and collections move the same way, except a tag collection, which shows wherever its tag is. Undo is on the notice, or Ctrl/Cmd + Z while it shows.
Overview — Structure → Categories is one table for every page, grouped by page; a page's row folds its categories away. Chips narrow it to some pages or to a view (Spread, With broken links, Empty), and columns show each category's bookmarks, broken links and whether it spreads. The order of categories is set on the dashboard, not here.
Delete — Delete on the header, the right-click menu, or Structure → Categories. The bookmarks are kept and lose their category; the category goes to the trash.
Duplicate — on the row in Structure → Categories, with its width, icon and sort, and optionally its bookmarks.

A category shown as tiles: a grid of large icons with the bookmark names under them — Show as tiles: the same bookmarks as a grid.

A category you just created stays visible even with hide empty categories on, until you leave the page.

Sorting and folding

Each category header has a ⋯ menu with Manual, A–Z, Last opened, Newest and Most opened. The chosen sort shows as a short chip in front of the ⋯ (A–Z, Rec, New, Top); click it to go back to manual order. Last opened and Most opened put bookmarks never opened last. Pinned bookmarks always stay on top. A sorted category cannot be dragged — the cursor and a short note say so. Sorting is only a view; the stored order changes when you drag.

Click a header, or press Enter on it, to fold the category. . folds or unfolds everything on the page, widgets included; the state is kept per page. Start with categories collapsed (Appearance → Layout) starts every category folded.

Moving and reordering bookmarks

Drag a row within its category or onto another. A click still opens; a long press still edits.
Alt + ↑/↓ moves the selected bookmark within its category; Shift + Alt + ←/→ moves it to the next category.
Shift + M moves it to any category or page.
Moves can be undone from the toast for eight seconds.
Lock layout (Behavior → General, or :locklayout) turns dragging and moving off for bookmarks, categories and widgets.

Spreading a category across columns

A category can run across several columns, so a long list of short entries flows across instead of down.

Route	How
Mouse	Right-click the header → Spread across columns
Keyboard	`Shift + W` on the header
Command	`:width on` / `:width off`, or `:width all` to switch every category back
Config	The ↔ button on the row in Structure → Categories

The number of columns is not a setting: it follows from items per category and the number of bookmarks. With a limit of fifteen:

Bookmarks	Columns
1–15	1
16–30	2
31–45	3

The column count of the grid is the ceiling. Spreading needs a limit on items per category and at least two columns. With Pack columns tightly on, the categories after a spread one fill in beside and below it. On a phone held upright every category is one column wide. Appearance → Layout → Categories across columns holds the limit, whether new categories start spread (they do by default), and whether turn spreading off everywhere covers this page or all pages. A walkthrough is under Config → Help → Structure & bookmarks.

Smart collections

Structure → Collections turns them on. Each has its own item limit (0 = unlimited) and can be limited to certain pages.

Collection	Shows
Today	What you tend to open at this time, tuned by keywords for office hours, evenings and weekends
Recently opened	What you opened last
Recently added	What you saved last (off by default)
Most used	Ranked by opens; appears once you have opened bookmarks from the dashboard
Stale	Not opened within the stale threshold

Editing or deleting a bookmark inside a collection changes the real bookmark.

The Today smart collection on the grid: the eight bookmarks you tend to open at this time — The Today collection on the grid.

Custom and tag collections

Custom collections (Structure → Collections) take a name, an icon and rules, combined with AND or OR. A rule picks a field:

Field	Matches
Tag, Category, Shortcut	A bookmark that has (includes) or lacks (excludes) the value you give. The value fields suggest what is already in use
Pinned	Pinned bookmarks. No value to fill in
Has no tags	Bookmarks without a tag. No value to fill in
Not opened in (days)	Bookmarks not opened for that many days, or never
Changed within (days)	Bookmarks you edited in the last that many days

For example, Has no tags AND Not opened in 90 days gathers what you saved and forgot.

Tag collections turn each tag used by enough bookmarks into its own group; raise the minimum to keep one-off tags out.

Page templates

A page can be saved as a template file and imported on another install, or kept as a starting point. The file holds the layout, the categories, the widgets and the links; it never holds when a link was opened, how it checked, stored sign-ins or other settings.

Share. Share this page… in the page switcher (or Save as template… in Structure → Pages, or Share “name” as a template file in the palette) lists the addresses on your own network — 192.168.1.10, nas.lan — and turns each into a name you can change, such as jellyfin. The importer fills in their own address for each service once. Public addresses go as they are, and Include the text of notes is off until you tick it. Download saves the file, or copy it to paste into a post. Icons travel inside the file.
Import. Import a page… (or Import a page from a template file in the palette) takes a file or pasted text and shows what is in it — categories, widgets, links — and asks for one address per service. A link whose service is left empty is skipped, as are links with an address that is not allowed and widgets this version does not know; the result says how many. Importing always makes a new page; nothing on your other pages changes.
Start from a template. An empty page offers Start from a template…: the template fills that page instead of making another.
The three that come with nextDash. The import dialog also offers Homelab, Media server and Developer under Or start from:, and the Quick start guide offers them too (Installation and first launch › First launch). For these, Where do these run? takes one server address and fills in every service's address with its usual port; an address you change by hand stops following it. In the guide the page goes where your answer about the example links says: a new page beside them when you kept them, the emptied first page when you started empty.

A file is at most 2 MB.

Pages, categories and collections ​

Pages ​

Categories ​

Sorting and folding ​

Moving and reordering bookmarks ​

Spreading a category across columns ​

Smart collections ​

Custom and tag collections ​

Page templates ​