63. Access Your Bookmarks Using .Mac  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 45 Sign Up for .Mac
 SEE ALSO 65 Remove a Cookie 100 Synchronize Your Information Using .Mac
A handy feature for users of Apple's .Mac service is the ability to access your Safari bookmarks from any computer at any location, even a Windows PC. All you need to do is synchronize your computer with the .Mac server so that the bookmarks are stored at the central, network-accessible location and kept up-to-date with the ones on your Mac. This feature is particularly useful if you frequently need access to your bookmarks when you're accessing the Internet from coffee shops or libraries, where you might not have access to your own Mac and instead have to use a public computer. The .Mac service allows you to be productive even if you have to use Windows! 63. Access Your Bookmarks Using .Mac 
When accessing your bookmarks on a public computer, you should be very careful about what kind of data you are exposing to the public. Some web addresses, for instance, can contain encoded passwords to services that you access. Similarly, public computers might have surreptitious web cams or keyboard sniffers installed to spy on you in case you enter sensitive information such as credit card numbers . Always assume the worst about the security of a public computer: Would you feel safe about the prospect of the next person sitting down at that same computer from which you have just accessed your bank account online? If you have any doubts at all about the security of the computer from which you're accessing the Web, don't go to any sites in your bookmarks that might reveal sensitive information. This doesn't just apply to your .Mac Bookmarks, eitherany time you use a public computer for anything, you should always clean up after yourself: Empty the Trash (or Recycle Bin), clear the browser's cookies and caches, and close down all browser windows before you leave the computer. | 1. | Enable .Mac Synchronization You must ensure that Mac OS X is logged in to your .Mac account before beginning this task; be sure to set it up at the .Mac pane of the System Preferences application as detailed in 45 Sign Up for .Mac . Choose Preferences from the Safari menu; click the Bookmarks tab. At the bottom of this pane, select the Synchronize bookmarks with other computers using .Mac check box. Close the Preferences window; now, from the Sync System Menu in the upper right of the menu bar, choose Sync Now to publish your Safari bookmarks to the .Mac server. (If the Sync System Menu does not appear in your title bar, you can enable it as described in 100 Synchronize Your Information Using .Mac . Another way to synchronize your bookmarks manually is to use the Sync Now button on the Sync page of the .Mac Preferences pane.)  NOTE Bookmarks are just one of the kinds of data that can be synchronized to .Mac and thus across all your Macs. See 100 Synchronize Your Information Using .Mac for more information on taking full advantage of this feature, such as configuring the time interval for automated synchronization of all your data with .Mac. | | 2. | Log In to .Mac
On your Mac, another Mac, or even a Windows PC, surf to the .Mac website at http://www.mac.com. If you are not already logged in, click the Log in link and enter your .Mac member name and password when prompted.
| | 3. | Open Your .Mac Bookmarks
Click the Bookmarks icon in the left pane. If this is the first time you've synchronized your .Mac bookmarks, a notification screen appears that tells you that your .Mac bookmarks will be synchronized. Click Sync Now to continue. .Mac then shows a progress screen while your bookmarks are synchronized at the .Mac server. This process takes about thirty seconds.
Now, and every subsequent time you open the Bookmarks section of .Mac, you see a Welcome window to inform you that your bookmarks are available; click the Open Bookmarks button to pop them up in a small, palette- sized external window.
| | 4. | Locate and Use a Bookmark
The floating Bookmarks window lists all your bookmark folders, the same as in the sidebar of the Bookmarks Library page in Safari. Click any of the listed folders to move into that folder, and use the drop-down menu above the folder list to select a folder to jump to.
When you find the bookmark for the site you want to visit, click it. The site will open in a new browser window.
| | 5. | Set the Default Starting Folder Because the Bookmarks window starts with a top-level listing of all your bookmark collections, you will always have to navigate down into one or more of the collections before you find the folder with the bookmark you want. If you always browse from a certain collection, such as your Bookmarks bar, you can set that collection as the default location that your .Mac Bookmarks window always starts with. To set this and other options, click the Preferences icon (a light switch) at the bottom of the palette-sized Bookmarks window and choose the desired collection from the Default folder to open menu. Click Save to preserve your changes. NOTE If the computer you're using is a public terminal (such as a computer in a public library), don't have .Mac automatically save your password for that computer! Remember, anybody in the world could be next to sit down at that computer; if you've enabled this option from that computer, that person would have complete access to your bookmarks. | | 6. | Log Out of .Mac
When you're done using any public computer, always be sure to log out of any services that might provide access to your personal informationincluding .Mac. Don't forget to end your session by clicking the Logout link at the top of the floating Bookmarks window.
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