How to pin items to Pinterest with an automatic caption

Screenshot of a Pinterest board.

Pinterest is the hot new social media platform for sharing any URL that has a photo associated with it. The web site, and free mobile app, works like a virtual pinboard where you can pin literally anything to the boards you create. The most popular boards are for topics like recipes, travel photos, clothes or shoes (remember, Pinterest is 97% women), and home decor, but the topics really are up to the user. (For example, you can check out my “Defies categorization” board or my “What I don’t understand about fashion” board.)

My interest in Pinterest is totally experimental at this point. It’s a good time waster to look at pretty pictures but I’m still clicking around and trying to figure it out. In my clicking around, I discovered this neat trick: How to pin an item without needing to re-type a caption for it.

To quickly and easily pin something to your board with an automatic caption, follow these steps:

1) Log in to Pinterest and install the “Pin It” button bookmarklet from Pinterest.com/about/goodies.

2) Go to site from which you want to pin a photo.

3) Highlight the text you want as your caption.

4) Click the “Pin It” bookmarklet in your browser bar.

5) Choose the photo you want to pin (if there are more than one from the site you chose, the bookmarklet will give you the option.)

6) Choose the board you want to pin to from the dropdown (you will see your highlighted text already populating the description box) and click “pin it.”

If you’re already on Pinterest, let me know what you think of this shortcut. Want an invite to Pinterest? Email me.