Saving a complete web page to your computer is no mystery. Typically, pressing Ctrl+S is more than enough, but when you explore that offline copy, you discover that it has lost integrity or is missing several images. The SingleFile extension, compatible with Firefox and several Chromium flavors, eliminates that problem at its root by merging the essential elements of the page into a single HTML file that works correctly anywhere, without dependencies.
It may have lost a bit of popularity lately, but storing content offline is a fundamental strategy to minimize the impact of lack of connectivity and other unexpected technical details. For example, the Go version of the YouTube app lets you keep local copies of videos on your mobile device, and other services enable similar mechanisms as part of their premium packages.
Today, however, we'll focus on basic web pages. Nothing prevents us from visiting the Internet Archive and searching for a previous version of a page that has disappeared, but if you think its information is very useful or too important, nothing beats an offline copy. The drawback is that browsers don't do a great job, and on more than one occasion they leave material behind. How can we change that behavior?
How to Save Pages as a Single HTML with SingleFile
One possible solution is the SingleFile extension by Gildas Lormeau. Instead of using the classic Ctrl+S in browsers, SingleFile reduces the process to a single click and stores the web page content while preserving its overall structure. The best part is that it does this using a single HTML file, instead of saving secondary resources inside a folder.
The factory configuration works very well, but you can change many aspects of the extension, starting with the length of the generated name for the HTML file, the deletion (or not) of duplicate fonts and images, the removal of audio and video sources, saving 'raw' (i.e., without interpreting JavaScript), and sending the HTML file to your Google Drive account, among other things.
Now, SingleFile is not technically a crawler, and it won't save all of the page's resources, only those needed to maintain its appearance and avoid major errors. Otherwise, some HTML files could end up with a gigantic size. That said, it's an excellent tool to add to your browser (Firefox, Chrome, and their immediate clones). If you depend on offline web pages, don't hesitate.
Official site and downloads: Click here
