Uwe Albrecht
"Unfortunately, the internet doesn't forget anything" - you often hear this complaint about photos from the last glittering birthday party or an embarrassing posting in a forum. Exciting articles and websites, on the other hand, often disappear from the scene much too quickly. As you do with this content You can find out how to save or archive permanently in this article.
Enlarge archive
© rawf8 / shutterstock.com
Apple's operating systems macOS, iOS and iPadOS come with numerous options for saving websites or articles - either to be able to read them later - even offline - or to archive them permanently. In addition to the on-board resources of Mac, iPad and iPhone, third-party apps are also available.
Read later or archive?
Depending on whether you think the article or website is worthy of being included in your personal or professional archive, or whether you just want to save it temporarily so you can read it later without internet access, you decide which option You use. The file format also differs accordingly.
Safari's reading list in action
If your primary concern is reading an article or webpage later—on both Mac and iPad or iPhone—then Safari's Reading List is a great place to do it. Unlike creating a bookmark, not only is the Internet address (URL) saved in the reading list, but the website is temporarily saved, even if not completely. If you use multiple devices, such as a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, you can view the contents of the reading list on each of these devices and study the associated websites. Your reading list is kept up-to-date across all your devices via iCloud—provided you're signed in with your Apple ID everywhere. To use the reading list, proceed as follows.
Start Safari and go to the website, such as "www.macwelt.de".
Select an article that interests you and that you want to read later.
In Safari, open the Bookmarks menu and choose Add to Reading List. Alternatively, click or tap the Safari share box
You will find the corresponding article later in the reading list. You can open this by clicking on the bookmark symbol on the left of the toolbar and selecting the "Reading List" tab with the glasses symbol.
You can call up the entry with a mouse click or a tap of your finger. If you want to delete an entry, swipe on the entry - from left to right - on the iPhone or iPad on the screen and on the Mac on the Magic Trackpad or Magic Mouse.
Enlarge Add websites to the reading list that you want to view and study later.
Put a website in the macOS Dock
Alternatively, you can save a web page - more precisely the bookmark of the website - to the Dock of macOS. On Mac, enter the web address (URL) in the address field of Safari or another web browser and visit the page.
Use the mouse to highlight the web address and, while holding down the Alt key, drag it to the dock to the right of the vertical dividing line.
Put a webpage on your iPhone or iPad's Home screen
On iPad or iPhone you can bookmark a website directly on the home screen - for example, if you visit the webpage or website regularly.
Enter the web address in Safari's address field and browse to it.
Tap the Share box, then tap Add to Home Screen at the bottom.
You can then enter the designation and save the Internet address by tapping on "Add" on the home screen.
Enlarge Important websites are saved directly on the home screen.
Backup webpage or website to Mac and iPad or iPhone
If you want to store a website – if possible – in its entirety on the Mac or the iPad and iPhone, then the reading list is not the right choice for this. In this case, proceed as follows instead:
Save a webpage on Mac:
Use Safari to open the webpage on the Mac. From the File menu, choose Save As.
If required, enter a different file name and select the file format "Web archive". This saves the website and its individual components in a file with the file extension of the same name.
If you open it later, you can view the page offline. If you click on the links contained therein, you will need Internet access to be able to open them.
Enlarge Web pages that you save in web archive format can be viewed offline with Safari - except for the links that may be included.
Save a webpage on iPhone and iPad:
Use Safari to access the webpage and tap the share button. The entry "Options" then appears under the title of the website.
Tap Options. There you select the entry “Web archive”.
To save the website in the selected format, select the entry "Save to Files", then the file will end up on iCloud Drive and you can also view it on the Mac.
Enlarge You can also save web pages in web archive format on iPhone and iPad.
Take a full screenshot of a website on iPhone and iPad
Alternatively, you can also take a screenshot of the website and mark it right away:
Start Safari and go to the website. Now press the key combination to create a screenshot. For devices without a home button, this is: volume up button and power button. For devices with a home button: home button and power button.
Quickly tap the screenshot preview in the lower-left corner, then tap Full Page at the top.
Now a screenshot of the entire website is created, which you can edit and mark if necessary and save it as a PDF file - on iCloud Drive (with the Files app).
Download an entire website
The options presented so far are intended to save a single web page. It is not possible to secure an entire website completely with the on-board tools of macOS or iOS and iPadOS. The tool of choice for this is “SiteSucker”: SiteSucker 4 for macOS or SiteSucker 3 for iPadOS and iOS. The app is currently available for EUR 5.49 in the respective app store. In a nutshell, we will show you how to use SiteSucker – on a Mac.
Purchase SiteSucker on the App Store and download it on Mac.
Start the app and first open the settings and then the "Limits" tab.
Here you specify how "deep" SiteSucker should go when saving as far as the links contained in the website are concerned. You can also specify the largest file size or the number of files, for example.
Now enter the Internet address and click on "Start". The corresponding files are stored in a subfolder in the "Downloads" folder. There you can later open and view the website with a conventional web browser.
Enlarge If you want to download an entire website, then the SiteSucker app is your program of choice. Make the appropriate settings here beforehand.
Archive article as PDF file
If you have found interesting articles on the Internet, for example all of them here at Macwelt, and you would like to archive them permanently, then do not use the reading list or the web archive format, but rather PDF. Not only does this make it possible to create easy-to-read copies without ads and other clutter, the files are also searchable. This means that if you store them in folders or manage them with an appropriate program, you can carry out a full-text search with Spotlight and find the archived articles in no time at all.
Save article as PDF file on macOS
Call up the website with Safari, for example "www.macwelt.de". Locate the article and click on "Reader View" in the upper left corner of the address bar.
From the File menu, choose Export as PDF and save the file in the desired folder.
Alternatively, you can go to the macOS print dialog and select PDF from the drop-down menu at the bottom and save the article.
Enlarge Interesting articles are best archived in the cross-platform and searchable "PDF" file format.
Save article on iPhone and iPad as a PDF file
Call up the desired article with Safari and tap on the two small letters in the address bar on the left to display the reader view.
Tap the Share box and under the web page title, tap Options.
Here, select the entry "Reader-PDF" and tap on "Done".
To save the article as a PDF file, tap on the "Save to Files" entry and select the desired folder on iCloud Drive (Files app).
Enlarge Websites and articles can also be saved as PDF files on iPads and iPhones.
