SingleFile

Save a complete page into a single HTML file

Getting started - Additional notes - Options description - Technical notes - Template variables - Known issues - Troubleshooting unknown issues - Contributors
  1. Getting started
    • Wait until the page is fully loaded, you may need to scroll down the entire page to be sure all elements are loaded.
    • Click on the SingleFile button in the extension toolbar to save the page.
  2. Additional notes
    • To save multiple tabs, select them first and click on the SingleFile button .
    • Open the context menu by right-clicking the SingleFile button in the extension toolbar or on the webpage. It allows you to save:
      • the current tab,
      • or the selected content,
      • or the selected frame.
    • You can also process multiple tabs in one click and save:
      • the selected tabs,
      • or the unpinned tabs,
      • or all the tabs.
    • The context menu also allows you to activate the auto-save of:
      • the current tab,
      • or the unpinned tabs,
      • or all the tabs.
    • With auto-save active, pages are automatically saved every time after being loaded (or before being unloaded if not).
    • Right-click on the SingleFile button and select "Options" to open the options page.
    • The default save folder is the download folder configured in your browser, cf. about:preferences in Firefox and chrome://settings in Chrome.
    • You can use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Y to save the current tab or selected tabs. Go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts to change it in Chrome.
  3. Options description

    You can customize SingleFile through the options page. Right-click on SingleFile button in the browser toolbar and select "Options"/"Manage extension" in the context menu to open the options page.

    Profiles

    • A profile is a set of user-defined options associated to a unique name.

      The drop-down list in the upper right of the options page allows you to select a profile and modify the associated options. The buttons next to the drop-down list allows you respectively to create, delete and rename a profile.

    • You can select the default profile through the context menu of SingleFile. The selection is persistent and applied to all tabs.

    • You can also override the default profile by associating a profile to a complete or partial URL. See the description of the Auto-settings rules feature for more info.

    User interface

    • Option: add entry in the context menu of the webpage

      Check this option to display an entry for SingleFile in the context menu of the webpage. The context menu of the SingleFile button in the extension toolbar is displayed wether this option is checked or not.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: overlay a shadow on the page during processing

      Check this option to overlay a shadow on the page when SingleFile is retrieving page resources. This reminds you that you should not close the tab.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: display an infobar when viewing a saved page

      Check this option to display the ℹ button at the top right of the page when viewing a saved page. By clicking this button, you can get more information about the saved date and open the original URL.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: template of the infobar content

      The template allows you to customize the content displayed in the infobar. You can use any valid character, \n for new lines or \t for tabs. You can also use any variables from this list anywhere in the template. If the template or the resulting content is empty, the infobar will display the saved date by default.

      Template examples:

      • {url-href} ({date-iso}) will produce contents like "https://www.example.com (2018-09-15 11 06 03 PM)".
      • Title: {page-title} will produce contents like "Title: Example Domain" for a page having "Example Domain" as title.
    • Option: open a prompt dialog to edit the infobar content

      Check this option to display a prompt dialog in order to confirm the infobar content before saving the page.

    File name

    • Option: template

      The template allows you to customize the file name of saved pages. You can use any valid character and "/" to create sub-folders (with the option "save pages in background" active). You can also use any variables from this list anywhere in the template.

      Invalid characters are automatically transformed and collapsed to underscores. File names cannot exceed 192 characters and are truncated if longer. The invalid characters are: [ ~ \ ? % * : | " < > and control characters from 0 to 31 in the ASCII table.

      Template examples:

      • {page-title} ({date-iso} {time-locale}).html will produce filenames like "Introduction to SingleFile (2018-09-15 11_06_03 PM).html" for a page having "Introduction to SingleFile" as title.
      • archives/{url-last-segment} - {date-iso} will produce filenames like "welcome - 2018-09-15" for a page hosted on https://example.com/welcome.html. The saved files will be saved in the sub-directory "archives".
      • archives/{year-locale}/{month-locale}/{day-locale}/{page-title}.html will produce filenames like "Introduction to SingleFile.html" stored into 3 sub-directories in the "archives" folder, one for each part of the save date (e.g. "2018/9/15/Introduction to SingleFile.html").
    • Option: open the "Save as" dialog to confirm the file name

      Check this option to display the "Save as" dialog in order to confirm the file name before saving the page. If the option "save pages in background" is unchecked then a prompt dialog will be displayed instead of the "Save as" dialog.

    • Option: file name conflict resolution

      Choose the most appropriate action when a the filename of the saved page is conflicting with existing ones on the filesystem.

    HTML content

    • Option: compress HTML content

      Check this option to remove all HTML comments and unneeded tags, spaces, quotes and whitespace characters. Checking this option helps to reduce the size of the file without altering the document.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove HTML imports

      Check this option to remove all link elements used to import HTML documents. Checking this option can help to reduce the size of the file without altering the document.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove hidden elements

      Check this option to remove all hidden elements. Checking this option can help to reduce the size of the file without altering the document.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove frames

      Check this option to remove all frame and iframe elements. Checking this option can considerably reduce the size of the file without altering the document most of the time. It may also decrease the time needed to save a page.

    Stylesheets

    • Option: compress CSS content

      Check this option to minify CSS stylesheets. Checking this option can reduce size of the file without altering the document. It may also increase the CPU consumption and the time needed to save a page.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove unused styles

      Check this option to remove all the CSS rules and styles that do not match any element in the saved page. Checking this option will not alter the document and can considerably reduce the size of the file. It will also increase the CPU consumption and the time needed to save a page.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove stylesheets for alternative devices to screens

      Check this option to remove stylesheets that are not used for the screen display like stylesheets for print preview and speech synthesizers. Checking this option can help to reduce the size of the file.

    Images

    • Option: group duplicate images together

      Check this option to avoid saving multiple times duplicate images. Checking this option should not alter the document in modern browsers and can considerably reduce the size of the file. It may also increase the CPU consumption and the time needed to save a page

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: save deferred images

      Check this option to save all the deferred images that are not yet displayed. This may help to save all the images without scrolling the page. This feature does its best effort and is not guaranteed to work on all sites.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: maximum idle time (ms)

      Specify the maximum delay of time to wait for deferred images. You can increase this value if for example the network or system conditions are degraded. You can also decrease this value otherwise.

    • Option: remove images for alternative screen resolutions

      Check this option to remove images that are alternatives in lower and/or higher resolutions to the ones displayed by default. Checking this option can considerably reduce the size of the file.

    Fonts

    • Option: remove unused fonts

      Check this option to remove all font CSS rules that do not match any content. Checking this option should not alter the document and can considerably reduce the size of the file.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove alternative fonts

      Check this option to remove fonts that are alternatives to the ones used. Checking this option should not alter the document and can considerably reduce the size of the file.

      It is recommended to check this option

    Other resources

    • Option: remove scripts

      Check this option to remove all the JavaScript scripts. Unchecking this option may alter the document and may introduce privacy issues.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove video sources

      Check this option to empty the "src" attribute of all video elements.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: remove audio sources

      Check this option to empty the "src" attribute of all audio elements.

      It is recommended to check this option

    Auto-save

    • Option: auto-save after page load or on page unload

      Check this option to auto-save pages after being loaded. If you browse to another page before the page is fully loaded then the page will be saved just before being unloaded. With this option active, you are guaranteed pages will always be saved. Some frame contents may be missing (if you unchecked "remove frames") when pages are saved before being unloaded.

    • Option: auto-save after page load

      Check this option to auto-save pages after being loaded.

    • Option: auto-save on page unload

      Check this option to auto-save pages before being unloaded instead of saving pages after being loaded. With this option active, you are guaranteed pages will always be saved but some frame contents may be missing (if you unchecked "remove frames").

    • Option: auto-save waiting delay after load (s)

      Specify the delay in seconds to wait before saving a page when the "auto-save on page load or on page unload" or "auto-save on page load" is checked.

    • Option: auto-save periodically

      Check this option to auto-save pages periodically after load.

    • Option: period (s)

      Specify the delay in seconds to wait before each page saving when the "auto-save periodically" option is checked.

    Misc.

    • Option: save pages in background

      Uncheck this option if you get invalid file names like "37bec68b-446a-46a5-8642-19a89c231b46.html" or interrupted downloads when saving pages. Unchecking this option prevent using sub-directories in filename templates. Unchecking this option can also introduce a security issue where a potential malicious script could read the content of the saved page.

      It is recommended to check this option

    • Option: display stats in the console after processing

      Check this option to display stats about processing in the JavaScript developer tools of your browser. Checking this option may increase the CPU consumption and the time needed to save a page.

      It is recommended to uncheck this option

    • Option: set a maximum size for embedded resources (MB)

      Check this option to remove from the saved page embedded resources (i.e. images, stylesheets, scripts and iframes) that exceeds a given size.

    • Option: maximum size (MB)

      Specify the maximum size of embedded resources in megabytes.

    • Option: save raw page

      Check this option to save the page without interpreting JavaScript. Checking this option may alter the document, and will force the options "remove frames" to be enabled and "load deferred images" to be disabled.

      It is recommended to uncheck this option

    • Option: save to clipboard

      Check this option to copy the page to the clipboard instead of downloading it. Checking this option may alter will force the "file name" options to be disabled.

      It is recommended to uncheck this option

    Auto-settings rules

    • The auto-settings rules let you associate a complete or partial URL with a profile. It also allows to associate a specific profile for the auto-save, or to disable it (check "display 'Auto-save profile' column"). When two or more rules match a URL of a page to save, the rule with the longest URL will be chosen. The special profile "-" means the current profile.
    • You can use regular expressions by prefixing the URL with "regexp:" (e.g. "regexp:.*\.com" to match all URLs containing ".com"). When zero or more rules based on URLs and one or more rules based on regular expressions match a URL, the longest rule based on regular expression will be chosen.

    Form buttons

    • Reset

      Reset all options to their default values.

  4. Template variables

    The template variables are used to customize the infobar content or the file name of a saved page. They help to insert dynamic values like the save date or the page title.

    • {page-title}: the title of the page
    • {page-language}: the language of the page
    • {page-description}: the description of the page
    • {page-author}: the author of the page
    • {page-creator}: the creator of the page
    • {page-publisher}: the publisher of the page
    • {datetime-iso}: the save date and time in the ISO format (e.g. "2018-09-15T22_38_26_317Z")
    • {datetime-utc}: the save date and time in UTC format (e.g. "Sat, 15 Sep 2018 22_38_26 GMT")
    • {datetime-locale}: the localized value of the date and time (e.g. "9_16_2018, 12_54_31 AM")
    • {date-iso}: the save date in the ISO format (e.g. "2018-09-15")
    • {date-locale}: the localized value of the save date (e.g. "16_09_2018")
    • {time-iso}: the save time in the ISO format (e.g. "22_38_26_317")
    • {time-locale}: the localized value of the save time (e.g. "00_38_26")
    • {day-utc}: the day of the save date in UTC format (e.g. "15")
    • {day-locale}: the localized value of the day (e.g. "15")
    • {month-utc}: the month of the save date in UTC format (e.g. "09")
    • {month-locale}: the localized value of the month (e.g. "09")
    • {year-utc}: the year of the save date in UTC format (e.g. "2018")
    • {year-locale}: the localized value of the year (e.g. "2018")
    • {hours-utc}: the hour of the save date in UTC format (e.g. "20")
    • {hours-locale}: the localized value of the hour (e.g. "22")
    • {minutes-utc}: the minutes of the save date in UTC format (e.g. "38")
    • {minutes-locale}: the localized value of the minutes (e.g. "38")
    • {seconds-utc}: the seconds of the save date in UTC format (e.g. "31")
    • {seconds-locale}: the localized value of the seconds (e.g. "31")
    • {url-href}: the URL of the page (e.g. "http_example.com")
    • {url-pathname}: the path name of the URL (e.g. "category_index.html")
    • {url-last-segment}: the last part of the pathname (without the extension) or the host if not found (e.g. "index")
    • {url-protocol}: the protocol of the URL (e.g. "https")
    • {url-host}: the host name + the port of the URL (e.g. "example.com_8080")
    • {url-hostname}: the host name of the URL (e.g. "example.com")
    • {url-port}: the port of the URL (e.g. "8080")
    • {url-username}: the user name of the URL (e.g. "john_doe")
    • {url-password}: the password of the URL (e.g. "qwerty123")
    • {url-search}: the search string of the URL (e.g. "order=ascending")
    • {url-search-<name>}: the query parameter "<name>" in the the search string of the URL (e.g. "url-search-order" will return "ascending" in the previous example)
    • {url-hash}: the hash of the URL (e.g. "chapter-2")
    • {url-referrer}: the URI of the page that "linked" to the page (e.g. "http_example.com")
    • {tab-id}: the unique identifier of the tab (e.g. "326")
    • {tab-index}: the index of the tab in the window (e.g. "1")
    • {digest-sha-256}: the SHA-256 hash value of the entire page content (e.g. e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855)
    • {digest-sha-384}: the SHA-384 hash value of the entire page content
    • {digest-sha-512}: the SHA-512 hash value of the entire page content
  5. Technical notes
    • All images are converted into base64.
    • All resources except frame contents are injected in the document using data URI scheme.
    • Frame contents are injected as text in the document by using the srcdoc attribute.
  6. Known issues
    • All browsers
      • For security reasons, you cannot save pages hosted on https://chrome.google.com, https://addons.mozilla.org and some other Mozilla domains. When this happens, 🚫 is displayed on top of the SingleFile icon.
      • The last saved path cannot be remembered by default. To circumvent this limitation, disable the option "Misc. > Save pages in background".
      • The following characters are replaced with _ in filenames: ~, \, ?, %, *, :, |, ", <, >
    • Chrome/Opera
      • You must enable the option "Allow access to file URLs" in the extension page to display the infobar when viewing a saved page, or to save a page stored on the filesystem.
      • If the filename of a saved page looks like "56833935-156b-4d8c-a00f-19599c6513d3", disable the option "Misc. > Save pages in background". Reinstalling the browser may also fix this issue.
    • Firefox
      • The "file name conflict resolution" option does not work if set to "prompt for a name".
  7. Troubleshooting unknown issues

    Please follow these steps if you find an unknown issue:

    • Save the page in incognito.
    • If saving page in incognito did not fix the issue, reset SingleFile options.
    • If resetting options did not fix the issue, restart the browser.
    • If restarting the browser did not fix the issue, try to disable all other extensions to see if there is a conflict.
    • If there is a conflict then try to determine against which extension(s).
    • Please report the issue here with a short description on how to reproduce it.

    Suggestions are welcome :)

  8. Contributors
  9. Icons