Instructions - Demo - Options description - Saved archives folder - Technical notes - Known issues - Unknown issues

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1. Instructions
   • wait until the page is fully loaded : you may need to scroll down the entire page and hover dynamic document elements (e.g. "rollover" images) to be sure all elements are displayed
   • click on the SingleFile icon in the Chrome toolbar or press Ctrl-Shift-S shortcut or use context menu to launch page processing
   • wait until the shadow disappears then hit Ctrl-S or select "Save as" in the wrench menu and save the page
   • all images, style sheets and frame contents are embedded into the ".htm" saved file
2. Demo : SingleFile advantages over default file save
3. Options description

   You can customize the way SingleFile process a document through the options page. Right-click on SingleFile icon in the Chrome toolbar and select "Options" in the context menu to open the options page.

   Details :

   • remove frames

     Check this option to remove all frames on the page. It may help to reduce the file size, to remove some ads and to view saved pages on IE8.

     It is recommended to uncheck this option

   • remove objects

     Check this option to remove all non embeddable elements : flash objects, java applets ...

     It is recommended to check this option

   • remove scripts

     Check this option if you do not want to save scripts. Most of the time, you do not need scripts in the saved page. Thus they can alter it. Nevertheless if you want to save page dynamic behavior then uncheck this option. If you uncheck this option then it is strongly recommended to check process raw document option.

     It is recommended to check this option

   • remove hidden elements

     Check this option to remove all hidden elements (visibility = "hidden" or display = "none" or opacity = "0" CSS property values). This option may alter the document but can considerably reduce the saved file size.

     It is recommended to uncheck this option

   • remove unused CSS rules

     Check this option to remove all CSS rules that do not match any element. This option may alter the document but can considerably reduce the saved file size. If you check this option, it may also introduce some incompatibilities issues in the saved page when opening it into another browser (i.e. not based on Webkit).

     It is recommended to uncheck this option

   • scrapbook the page

     Check this option to send the processed page to Scrapbook for SingleFile.

     It is recommended to uncheck this option

   • display a context menu entry

     Check this option to launch processing on a page with context menu.

     It is recommended to check this option

   • process in background

     Check this option to process the page in background. Processing in background means it won't be blocking (only if display processed page option is unchecked). If you uncheck this option, a shadow will prevent you to navigate into the page during the SingleFile processing but it will be faster.

     It is recommended to uncheck this option

   • save processed page (*)

     Check this option to save the processed page on filesystem. See Saved archives folder for more details about saving folder location. If you check this option and you do not want to use "Save as" dialog box to save the page then you should uncheck display processed page option.

     It is recommended to uncheck this option

   • display processed page (*)

     Check this option to display the processed page in the tab. This option must be checked if you want to use Chrome "Save as" dialog box to save the page. If you uncheck this option then you should check process in background so the processing won't be blocking: you will just have to wait that "..." label in action icon disappears. Conversely, you should uncheck process in background when this option is checked so the processing will be faster.

     It is recommended to check this option

   • max filename length (*)

     Set the value of maximum filename length. This value is used when save processed page option is checked. SingleFile cannot guess the maximum filename length allowed by the Operating System so you have to configure it manually.

     It is recommended to set this option to 90 (if you are using Windows)

   • process raw document

     Check this option to process the raw downloaded document instead of the displayed document. The main difference is that scripts won't be parsed and executed. Frames won't be embedded too. This option also helps to not alter the saved page when remove scripts is unchecked

     It is recommended to uncheck this option

   • Reset to default options

     Reset all the options to default (i.e. recommended) state

4. Saved archives folder (*)

   When save processed page option is checked, pages are automatically saved on filesystem. However, Chrome will not allow to choose the root folder where archives are stored. Neither it will allow SingleFile to make links pointing to saved files folder. So you have to find "manually" this folder.

   Files are saved in the extension subfolder of "FileSystem" folder located into Chrome user data folder:

   • Windows default path:
     %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\FileSystem\chrome-extension_jemlklgaibiijojffihnhieihhagocma_0\Persistent\
   • Linux default path:
     ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/FileSystem/chrome-extension_jemlklgaibiijojffihnhieihhagocma_0/Persistent/
   • Mac OS X default path:
     ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/FileSystem/chrome-extension_jemlklgaibiijojffihnhieihhagocma_0/Persistent/

   You can create shortcuts to access to this folder easily.

   You can also create symbolic links in order to use sync services like dropbox. Here are the way of doing it on windows (mklink /d) and linux or Mac OS X (ln -s).

   You can also change Chrome user data folder with --user-data-dir switch.

5. Technical notes
   • all images are converted into base64
   • frame document contents and automatically saved pages (*) are encoded with utf-8 charset
   • encoded contents are injected in the document using data URI scheme
   • data URI scheme is supported by the following web browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konqueror and Internet Explorer 8 (limited support: data URIs must be smaller than 32 KB, embedded frames are not supported)
   • SVG images are supported (SVG document is converted into utf-8 but is not processed)
6. Known issues
   • SVG images without src attribute or with empty src attribute are not embedded
   • If you are using NotScripts extension and have issues when using SingleFile then you must add this line in "CHANGE__PASSWORD__HERE.js" file as described here:
     const DO_NOT_MITIGATE_INLINE_SCRIPTS = true;
   • If process in background is unchecked and display processed page is checked then the page may sometimes be altered after being processed (i.e. some elements are not correctly placed). This issue won't affect the saved page.
   • file:///*, chrome://* and https://chrome.google.com/* URIs cannot be processed
   • Some pages make the tab crash when processing (e.g. gmail), however if save processed page is checked then you will be able to open the saved page in another browser
7. Unknown issues

   If you find an unknown issue (i.e. frozen process, extra saved files, blank or altered document, tab crash...):

   • reset SingleFile options
   • disable all other extensions to see if there is a conflict
   • if there is a conflict then try to determine against which extension(s)
   • report the issue here with a short description describing how to reproduce it, Chrome version, OS name and version.

*: feature only available on Chrome 9+