Now you see them, now you don't. Web pages don't always have a permanent home online. Interesting pages that you see today could be gone tomorrow due to database glitches, server changes or a site being trimmed or pulled off altogether.
To preserve the ones you really like you could save or archive them using your browser's Save As command. You could also simply print out a page. But this isn't exactly problem-free and you might not get a printout at the correct resolution or save pages linked together.
There's more to saving or printing Web pages. You can set browser options and use cool tools to enable better archiving and tackle your printing woes.
Saving Web pages
Your browser's File > Save As command (on both Internet Explorer and Netscape) is the common way to do this. There are different save options such as text or HTML, which can be accessed from the File > Save As dialogue box. While Netscape 4.5 has options to save pages in plain text or HTML, Internet Explorer 5.0 and later versions also let you save as a Web archive.
If the page has mostly text without too many links, you can save it directly as a text file instead of copy-pasting the content into a text editor or word processor.
You can save as Web page, HTML only, if the page contains only HTML formatting. But this won't save sounds or other plug-ins embedded in it. The Web page with all the images get saved in a file that you can send as an email attachment.
If you want the entire page saved as it is along with graphics, frames and style sheets, choose the Web page, complete option (for IE users). This saves the page as a primary HTML file while other elements like graphics and images get stored in separate folders. Sending the page as an attachment is difficult as you have to individually mail all components. Often links may not work or graphics and images may not be displayed on the page.
Choosing Web Archive in IE 5.0 and 6.0 solves this problem. You save a page with all the graphics and images in a single 'MIME encoded file' that you can easily mail without errors. This will work only if you have Outlook Express 5.0 installed. Office XP has built-in Web archiving, but if you use Office 2000, this Web Archive Add-on can do the job.
Offline browsing
The above options work fine for individual pages. However any links on them won't work. To save pages linked together, offline browsing available in both IE and Netscape is a neat solution.
In IE, open the page you want to save or download and select Favorites > Add to Favorites. Check the box that says 'Make available offline' and click the 'Customise' button.
This is where you set options to download links to other pages. You can choose how much content you want - just a page or all the links. You can download up to three links deep from a page. This could take hours depending on the number of links and how fast your connection is.
Once you've downloaded it, you're not stuck with old content if the page changes. You can schedule content updates on your offline page by clicking Synchronize from the Tools menu.
When you want to view pages offline, open your browser and from the File menu, click Work Offline. Pick the pages you want to view from the Favorites menu.
There are several third-party utilities like Web Stripper and offline browsing bots and tools that let you download pages, entire sites or mere portions of a page. You can organise your pages, schedule updates and even archive old pages!
Sending links and Web pages
If you're using Outlook, Outlook Express or Netscape Communicator, try sending URLs as attachments so that when the recipient clicks on it, the page opens in a new window.
You can send a URL or the entire Web page from IE by using File > Send. This will open a new message in your email client with the title of the page as the subject. However the Send Web page option attaches each image separately. A better option would be to save the page as a Web archive before attaching it.
Netscape too lets you use the send option from the browser's File menu. You can also attach a page by dragging it (drag the location icon directly after the Bookmarks but before the Location field) into the Attachment icon in the address field area (the paper clip icon directly under where you would enter the recipient's address).
You can also use the Attach button in an email message in Communicator: Select the Web Page option and type in the URL of the page you want to send. This will send the entire page, not just the link.
Printing Web pages
Most browsers have a print icon but be warned! You could end up with a complete mess, especially if the page uses frames or has a dark background. With a few tweaks you can produce print outs of pages that look almost as good as they appear on-screen.
It's always a good idea to use the Print and the Page Setup dialogue boxes before you finally print a page. The latter allows you to set the size of print according to the size of your paper, type a page header and footer and set margins.
Web pages can be extremely long and run into several printed sheets. You'll end up wasting paper and ink printing portions that you don't really need. Print Preview gives you an idea of what the pages will look like as well as the number of pages so you can print just the ones you need. To print only part of a page, select the part you want and pick Selection from the print options box.
The preferences button lets you choose the quality of the print. It also lets you print from 2 to 16 pages on a single sheet of paper!
Printing pages with dark backgrounds
Pages having dark backgrounds with light text won't print the same way as dark text on light backgrounds. You may end up with only the dark background printed. A few changes to your browser preferences will prevent that.
If you're using IE, choose Tools > Internet Options. At the bottom of the 'General' menu, you'll find the Colors option. Change the background colour to white and the text color to black. Then print the page the same way as any other.
From the Netscape Navigator menu bar, select Edit > Preferences > Appearance > Colors. Set your background colour to white and font to black. Check the box that says Always use my colors, overriding document colors. You can check and uncheck the box depending on the colours of the page you're printing.
Printing without background
You can turn off backgrounds by going to the IE menu and selecting Tools > Internet Options and picking the Advanced menu. From Printing Options, uncheck the box that says Print background colors and images. You can also do this from the Netscape Page Setup menu.
Printing Web pages with frames
Some pages are divided into multiple sections called frames. Printing these can be a bit tricky. You can printout one frame at a time by clicking within the frame you want printed.
IE gives you a number of options to print frames. The Options in the print dialogue box allows you to print the page as it appears on the screen; print only a selected frame; or print each frame individually. Also, some pages have a different print layout without the images and tables, so only the content gets printed.