Methods of Saving a Webpage for Later Viewing

Sometimes you need access to the contents of a webpage even when you don’t have an Internet connection. Or, perhaps you want to save something for later reading. Maybe you want to record the contents of a page before it gets taken down. Whatever the case may be, saving a copy of a webpage for later viewing is a snap.

Here are a few options:

The “Save As” method: While on the page you wish to save, press Ctrl+S to open the “Save As” dialog box. The drop-down menu gives you the option of saving “Web page, complete” or “Webpage, HTML only.” The former saves the HTML file as well as any images, links, and other elements on the page. The latter saves only the code, so for offline viewing, choose the “Web page, complete” option.
For advanced, browser-specific options, see Firefox Help or Microsoft’s Help & How-to page.

The “Cut & Paste” method: Sometimes referred to as “copy pasta” in web-speak, this method works well when you’re only interested in saving the text of a website. Press Ctrl+A to select all the text on the page, press Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard, then open Word or another text editor and press Ctrl+V to paste the text. Save the Word document as you normally would.

The “Print as PDF” method: Google Chrome has this feature built in, as does just about any Mac application. For Firefox and Internet Explorer, you’ll need to download and install the free CutePDF Writer. Then, when you want to save a webpage as a PDF, simply choose “print” from the File menu, and select CutePDF Writer as your printer. The computer will “print” the webpage into a PDF document, which allows for easy offline viewing.