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I like to save copies of articles from websites locally. I do this because often links will change around or a website will disappear entirely from time to time. Also, I don't want to "bookmark" the article because it will bloat the omnibox search results in Chrome.

I was using Delicious (about 5+ years ago) but the dynamics of link sharing has largely moved onto Facebook and Twitter. Delicious always seemed to be better suited to websites over articles anyway. I moved onto Evernote, and it's web clipper isn't too bad.

Evernote Web Clipper will work but was wondering if anyone had suggestions. I am currently in the process of demoing OneNote, so I have temporarily moved all my notes there (somewhat painstakingly, I might add!). I'm actually starting to like OneNote better than Evernote. The problem with OneNote is that it's web clipper only seems to be compatible with Internet Explorer.

I also use Pocket, but I am using that exclusively as a read-it-later list. I'm not really sure the best way to use Pocket to save articles

Here are my requirements:

  • Windows support (I use Windows 7 x64).
  • De-crapify webpages before saving them -- I just want the article and relevant images (none of the website's formatting or ads, but keeping any relevant diagrams, pictures, and layout).
  • Save the link to the article and date.
  • Saves the article to its own storage (not just a reference or link). Doesn't have to sync locally, but it would be preferred.
  • Minimal levels of organization so I can search the articles and browse a list of them.

In reality - this is a question of "too many options" and not "too few" or "unknown". I'd like to hear community feedback on what is the best option, not the available options.

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5 Answers 5

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this is a question of "too many options" and not "too few" or "unknown".

Yes, there are numerous ways to achieve the above. I'm a Web Developer, as you said that website URLs change, but they don't change often as you think. Websites which maintain some standards always take care of the modified URLs by using 301 Redirect.

So I don't think that's much of an issue, but well, this was technical, coming to question, first, as you said that The problem with OneNote is that it's web clipper only seems to be compatible with Internet Explorer., but you always have extensions to work with.

If you want to use Clip feature, refer

[1] Most of the reviewers are complaining here that the extension doesn't work, it's because they never read the details before using the extension. You need to download Clip to OneNote listener in order to get the extension to work.

Personally I use Adobe Acrobat extension for Mozilla Firefox, but it comes along with the software, and I don't really need much of the customization, as the web page is converted to PDF, that's all I need, but if you are looking to convert the articles or text to pdf, than you should take a look at Print pages to PDF extension for Firefox, so no real software for managing articles as this question is focused on Saving Web Pages/Articles.

What does it do?

(First lets cover your requirements)

  • Windows Support (I use Windows 7 x64) - Yes
  • De-crapify webpages before saving them -- I just want the article - Yes [2]
  • Save the link to the article and date - Yes
  • Saves the article to it's own storage (not just a reference or link). Yes

[2] May not be that accurate.

Some screens for customizations

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Features of the extension

  • Converting a webpage to Pdf
  • Converting all open tabs into a single pdf
  • Converting a selection of Bookmarks into a single pdf
  • Converting all links inside a Bookmark Folder into a single pdf
  • Converting a selection of Scrapbook pages into a single pdf
  • Converting all links inside a Scrapbook Folder into a single pdf
  • Converting links from external sources (Filesystem, Wordprocessor,..) into a single pdf
  • Converting a mixture of links from the sources above into a single pdf
  • Pure local processing, no Data is sent to other sites over the network full Privacy!
  • Several options for formatting the otuput (e.g margins, page size, ....)
  • Variaous Context menus for accessing the AddOns functionality
  • Keyboard shortcut for accessing the AddOns functionality
  • Toolbar button for accessing the AddOns functionality
  • Retains links in the pdf from the content of webpages
  • Supports local links for navigating in the webpage/pdf
  • Supports outline feature of pdf (the navigation bar outside of the pdf document), creates an outline by headlines.
  • Supports a single Table of Content for the whole pdf with page numbering and local links for navigation
  • Supports header and footers for the whole pdf or separate for individual webpages in the pdf.
  • Ability to print text only
  • Editing the outline and Table of Content
  • Editing feature for removing unwanted content before converting
  • Drag[&]Drop support

The only bad thing about this extension is that it weighs whooping 8.6MB which is too much for a Browser AddOn, rest is good.

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  • I did initially check out the OneNote extension but dismissed it because it isn't officially endorsed my MS and had a low star rating. Now that you've cleared that up, I'll take a look. I'd still prefer OneNote had a MS-official Chrome extension. Hopefully it will work just as well as Evernote Web Clipper, or I might be forced to go back to it for web clipping if not all my notes. I find it interesting that you print the articles to PDFs. That doesn't sound like an optimal solution. PDF files include images on the page and it's a large format. In Chrome you can choose PDF as a print target.
    – Julia McGuigan
    Apr 11, 2014 at 21:12
  • Not very impressed with the unofficial chrome extension. I tried to clip something from Github (a markdown document) and it's telling me "the document does not have HTML markup". Then I tried it in Internet Explorer and it basically copies a print out - complete with converting the entire web page to an image - which is terrible. I think I may have to use Evernote. The organizational structure makes a bit more sense in OneNote but some of the features that Evernote has, like web clipping. I'll leave this question open for now. Still looking for options. I have added question clarification.
    – Julia McGuigan
    Apr 12, 2014 at 1:11
  • I've actually switched back to Evernote, at least for web clipping. I am thoroughly enjoying it, the only downside is that I have both OneNote and Evernote installed. Should I add this as an answer...?
    – Julia McGuigan
    May 3, 2014 at 3:08
  • I think given the requirements I provided four years ago, you deserve a retroactive answer. I usually just use Evernote web clipper. It's not the best, but it does have the easiest integration with everything else. I've learned to use web archive tools a little better, which actually covers some of the original use cases to any degree that it matters. A screenshot (or PDF) doesn't really prove anything. HTML is client side. I discovered, by trying it twice, that I hate OneNote, and I don't use it outside of work.
    – Julia McGuigan
    Feb 28, 2018 at 2:24
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I use scrapbook plugin for firefox to store articles permanently. It have nice options such as auto-saving and recursive download of links present in the page. It can also be configured to ignore specific file extensions and so on.

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New Firefox Quantum comes with Pocket by default. It allows you to save the web links for later with a single click (from the address bar). It's free to use, including offline viewing of articles and webpages. It automatically syncs across your phone, tablet, and computer.

For personal backup of all the articles and webpages you’ve saved, you can go with Premium.

I'm also using Evernote Web Clipper for a while, but I find it slow, and got some limitation, like it doesn't support clipping of the large and complex websites. So I'm using both of them, depending on the use case.

Another way of quickly save the website is to archive it using Wayback Machine, just by going to:

http://web.archive.org/http://website2save.example.com/

then if you bookmark it, it won't disappear. The advantages are: you don't need any plugins, works for all web browsers, easy to remember, and it's accessible for all.

This will also work from the command-line, e.g.

curl -vs http://web.archive.org/save/http://website2save.example.com/
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  • I did not know Pocket's premium had that feature. Given my original question, I went back and marked one of the earlier answers as the answer. I thank you for the suggestion.
    – Julia McGuigan
    Feb 28, 2018 at 2:29
  • My current workflow works well enough with Evernote. I know this was four years ago, but I don't think I was using Firefox...? Anyway, A "digital scrapbooking" tool as another mentioned might fit, and I do (occasionally) use Pocket, and that is a very interesting suggestion. I use(d) Pocket almost exclusively as read-it-later, so as a collection tool I'm not so sure. Additionally, clippers can usually bypass any "Deep web" (behind a login) which I'm not so sure pocket did (besides capturing the URL...?) but maybe the extension would (or tries to)
    – Julia McGuigan
    Feb 28, 2018 at 2:31
  • I'm using Evernote (Premium) for already some time (support for both Chrome/Firefox), but it takes time to snap something, then offline syncing is slow, and it doesn't support clipping of large and complex websites. After a while, I've end up with a huge, unmaintainable mess. But I'm using both, depending on the use case. I've recently switched from Chrome to Firefox and testing Pocket. I'll test Premium soon, as I also hate when I bookmark something useful, and it's gone next year.
    – kenorb
    Feb 28, 2018 at 12:18
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You can try Flamory. It saves snapshots of web pages. Snapshot includes a copy of the page, screenshot of the browser window, selected text, address and scroll position on the page.

You can later find that snapshot by looking through the list with thumbnails, or with a full-text search by page content and title.

It would be somewhat weak in de-crappifying part though. It seems to remove all scripts from the page, so part of the adds and popups will be gone. But navigation and other stuff still remains on the page.

It saves everything locally on your PC and is free for personal use.

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You can try the WebToPDF Firefox addon to generate a PDF from the web page. It is free to use.

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