Today I had the frustrating experience of sitting down to write a blog post about a web site that I’d visited recently, only to discover that I hadn’t bothered to bookmark the page. I probably assumed that I would have no trouble finding it again. I was mistaken.

I’ll track down that site again and write about it later. Meanwhile, I’ll tell you about a handy tool for WordPress blogs that can keep you from finding yourself in the predicament of wanting to write about a web page that you can’t find. It’s called Press This, and it’s part of the default installation of WordPress in at least the last few versions. Press This provides a simple mechanism for creating a draft blog post from any web page you’re visiting.

You’ll find Press This in the “Tools” section of the administrative area of your WordPress site. It’s a toolbar widget, a small snippet of code that you install by dragging the linked text (“Press This”) from the WordPress Tools page to the bookmark bar of your web browser—also called the “bookmark toolbar” or “favorites bar,” depending on which browser you’re using. You may be prompted to assign a name to the widget, or you can leave it as “Press This” or assign a name by editing it later.

For a simple way to create a draft blog post from any web page you visit, drag the “Press This” linked text to the bookmark bar of your browser.

Once the widget is installed, you can use it from any web page you visit. Click “Press This” in the bookmarks bar, and your browser will pop open a window with a draft WordPress post that contains a link to the web page you’re visiting. If you aren’t already logged into your WordPress site, you’ll be prompted to do so before you see the draft post. At this point, you have some options: write the post now, assign categories and tags, and hit publish; write a few notes to remind yourself why you plan to write about this page later; or just hit “Save draft.” The next time you visit the Dashboard of your WordPress site, you’ll find the draft article in your list of recent drafts as well as in the full list of posts.

If you like writing about things you find online, Press This is a nearly effortless way to collect ideas for blog posts. Give it a try!