If you find a highly detailed tutorial, a recipe, or a research article that you want to keep forever, relying on a bookmark is risky. If the website owner deletes the page or the server goes offline, your bookmark will just lead to a dead “404 Not Found” error.
To ensure you never lose the information, you can use Google Chrome to save a complete, offline copy of the webpage directly to your computer’s hard drive.
How to Save a Webpage
- Open Google Chrome and navigate to the webpage you want to save.
- Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the browser.
- Hover your mouse over More tools (or “Save and share” on newer Chrome versions).
- Click Save page as… (Alternatively, you can just press Ctrl+S on Windows or Cmd+S on a Mac).
- A standard file save dialog box will open.
Choosing the Right Format
Before you click the “Save” button, look at the Save as type drop-down menu at the bottom of the window. You have two very different options:
1. Webpage, HTML Only
If you select this, Chrome will download a single .html file. It contains all the text, the layout code, and all the hyperlinks on the page. However, it does not download the images, logos, or complex styling.
When you open this file offline, it will look like a bare-bones, text-heavy version of the site. It is perfect if you only care about the written content and want to save hard drive space.
2. Webpage, Complete
If you select this, Chrome will download the .html file AND a matching folder (e.g., if the file is recipe.html, the folder will be named recipe_files). This folder contains every single photograph, background image, font, and CSS style sheet used on the page.
When you open the HTML file while completely disconnected from the internet, the page will look 100% identical to the live website.
Warning: If you choose “Webpage, Complete”, you must keep the HTML file and its matching folder in the exact same directory (like your Desktop). If you delete the folder or move the HTML file away from it, the offline page will break and lose all its images.