Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

Why does Save-As… not work in my web browser?

Question:

I’m in the habit of saving useful computer tips and advisories in my
Documents folder for future reference. However, I’ve not been able to save the
web page that carries your comment/answer and response to subscribers’
individual question. A message under the title error saving web page that says,
“This web page could not be saved” pops up when I click on the “Save As” in the
file menu.

In this excerpt from
Answercast #52
, I look at a computer that is having problems saving some
web pages to disk.

Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!

Save-as error

Unfortunately, I don’t really know what to tell you. I’m not sure what
browser you’re using. It absolutely should work.

What I actually recommend that people do instead is that they print to PDF.
PDFs are much more easily and portably viewed than whatever format you might be
saving in.

Problems with Save As

Unfortunately, Save As works differently on different browsers. You’re not
guaranteed being able to read what it is you’ve saved at some point in the
future.

Printing is more reliable

If you actually have something like a CutePDF printer driver
installed, you can:

  • Print to PDF;

  • And then save that PDF;

  • And be able to read that PDF on just about any device (computer or
    otherwise) at any point in the future.

Error on page

So I don’t have an answer to your specific problem. It should just work.

My assistant actually tested it out and it certainly worked for her, but
instead what I’m going to recommend you do is kinda change how you go about
this. Rather than using Save As, use print and print to PDF.

Do this

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

I'll see you there!

3 comments on “Why does Save-As… not work in my web browser?”

  1. I agree with Leo, printing to PDF is a much better option. Some browsers store a single file along with a folder of supporting files for each web page. A housekeeping mess. And, yes, at times, I too have be unable to save some web pages using the standard formats. Never did figure out why.

    The Chrome browser, has a “save as PDF” option built-in, no extra software is needed.

    Reply
  2. Dear Leo,
    A Big thank you for your articles in the past have had problems saving from web pages to document .Reading this post will try out saving to PDF know no more lost web sites and important documents yahee.Heres hoping old saved document in document folder works. How do I convert saved websites in dropbox as have the same problem when opening document up I find just cascade jpeg extra but no saved viewed item.

    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.