DON'S FREEWARE CORNER - DEC 2020
SAVING WEBPAGES BY SAVING THE HTML
Don's Freeware Corner articles are printed in the
UTAH VALLEY TECHNOLOGY AND GENEALOGY GROUP
(UVTAGG) Newsletter TAGGology each month and are
posted on his Class Notes Page
https://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
where there may be corrections and updates.
SAVING WEBPAGES BY SAVING THE HTML
©2020 Donald R. Snow - Last updated 2020-12-08
SAVING WEBPAGES
Many times we want to save a webpage and for some reason,
it can't be done the usual way by making a pdf or saving
it with a scrolling screenshot. This Freeware Corner
article shows a way that sometimes works, when other method
fail, and it has other uses.
HTML = HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE
HTML (computer jargon) is short for hypertext markup language,
but don't panic; you don't need to know much about that
here. HTML is the language that is used to show information
in browsers on your computer monitor. It is mostly real
language (English, French, etc.), with some additional
"tags" which tell the browser what to do with the text.
Some tags just make the words show as paragraphs and others
form lists or tables or tell the browser to show a
particular picture in a certain location. These image
tages tell the computer whee to find the picture, what
size, and where to show it. Tags are usually shown in
angle brackets, <...>. To see examples of html go
to any webpage, right-click in a blank spot, and then
left-click on Show Source. There are various programs
that help write webpages and put in the tags where
needed. Some of these programs are free, but not
needed here. Writing simple html webpages will be
another Freeware Corner article. Here, we will show how
to save a webpage from the internet in its html format.
This makes it so that, when you click on the saved file,
your default browser opens it and shows it just as though
you were connected to the internet. By the way, I am
purposely not including any pictures in this article for
a reason you'll see below.
HOW TO SAVE A WEBPAGE IN HTML FORMAT
When you find a webpage you want to save, and the usual
saving methods don't work, or you want to save the exact
html, right click anywhere on the page that is not already
a link. Remember that right clicking opens menus, whereas
left clicking causes actions. The right-click menu is
sometime called the Context Menu. On it you see things
like Print, Copy Link, Delete, Open Source, and Save As.
Clicking on Save As opens your file manager and lets
you select where you want to save the file and what you
want to name it. Tell it where to save the file and
what you want to name it. Below the name you'll see
a box with a drop-down menu (chevron poointing down
at the right end) that includes Save as Webpage Complete,
Webpage Single File, Save Html Only, etc. The difference
here is whether you want to save everything in a single
file or each of the text or image or table files in a
folder. You may need to experiment to see what works
best, but usually you can save text and images, etc.,
in a Webpage Single File. If you want to keep the
images, etc., separate, you can save it as Webpage
Complete and they will all be separate files in one
folder. If you save the files separately in a folder,
it will keep track of where to find them when you are
ready to show them. Now, clicking on the file or folder
will open your default browser and show the webpage
just like it was on the internet. There are some
webpages for which this method of saving doesn't work
since they are set to not allow it, but it's worth
a try.
EXAMPLE: MY WEBPAGES
Go to my webpage, e.g. my Freeware Corner webpage at
http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-freewarecornernotespage.html
and right click anywhere that is not a link already.
Tell it where to save the file (the html only is sufficient
here) and, after saving it, click on it. It will open in
your default browser and look just like it did on the
internet. The only way to tell whether it is on the
internet or just on your computer is to look at the
address in the browser. If it's on the internet,
it will have the URL, e.g. UVTAGG... If it's just on
your computer, the address will start with the letter
of the hard drive you saved it on. If you click
on a link in the saved file, it will take you to the
internet file location since it has all that built-in
to the saved file.
EXAMPLE: OURTIMELINES.COM
This is a free website that generates timelines of a
person's life with colored bars to indicate the
length of time events occurred. The URL is
http://ourtimelines.com/ .
Click on TIMELINE (top left) and enter your name
and birth year and this year as the ending year.
Then click Generate Timeline. You see a beautiful
colored bar-chart with world evets that have
happened during your lifetime. This can be printed
or you can save it as an html file. To save it
as an html click anywhere that isn't a link, tellit
where to save it, and save it as Webpage, Single
file. Then, clicking the resulting file will
open your default browser and this file in it and
you'll see the same colorful timeline on your own
computer, as if you were on the internet. With the saved file, you may now be able to use
other tools such as saving it to pdf as a scrolling
window.
COMMENTS
If you are reading this on my website, try saving this
article this way as an example. It has no images
and nothing but text, so it can be saved as a
Webpage, Single file. If you are reading this in
TAGGology, our UVTAGG monthly newsletter, you probably
won't be able to do that, since TAGGology is
usually in pdf format, not html. This method doesn't
always work, since some websites don't allow it, but
if other saving methods don't work, try this one.
And once you have an exact html copy on your computer,
other methods may be applicable on the saved file.
For example, the scrolling window-to-pdf method might
then work. Since this saves everything the way it
looked on the internet, if you are doing a presentation
and have no, or a slow, internet connection, you
can use this to save your examples before the class
and then show them, as if you were online.
CONCLUSIONS
This approach is worth keeping in mind, especially
when other saving methods don't work. When it works,
you get an exact copy that looks just like the
internet version and can be very helpful. There are
further explantions and information in other notes
and articles on my website. Good luck.
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