How to Make Web Pages Available for Offline Viewing

This article describes how to make Web pages available for offline viewing using Internet Explorer 5. When you make a Web page available offline, you can read its content when your computer is not connected to the Internet.

The following topics are discussed in this article:

• Making a Web page available for offline viewing
• Disabling offline viewing for a Web page
• Customizing offline viewing settings
• Offline viewing options
• Viewing Web pages without being connected to the Internet

NOTE: Some Web sites use HTTP headers or META tags within a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or Active Server Pages (ASP) document itself, to prevent their contents from being stored in your disk cache (Temporary Internet Files). In this case, the Make available offline and Synchronize options may appear to work, but the Web site content is not stored in your disk cache. As a result, the site is unavailable for offline viewing. For example, after you click the Make available offline option and then synchronize your Hotmail inbox, you are unable to view your Hotmail inbox offline.

Making a Web Page Available for Offline Viewing

To add the Web page you are currently viewing to your Favorites list and then make it available for offline viewing, follow these steps in Internet Explorer:

1. On the Favorites menu, click Add To Favorites.
2. Click the Make Available Offline check box to select it, and then click OK.

To make an existing favorite Web page available for offline viewing, follow these steps in Internet Explorer:

1. On the Favorites menu, click Organize Favorites.
2. Click the Web page you want to make available offline.
3. Click the Make Available Offline check box to select it, and then click Close.

Disable Offline Viewing for a Web Page

To disable offline viewing for a Web page, follow these steps in Internet Explorer:

1. On the Favorites menu, click Organize Favorites.
2. Click the offline Web page you want to disable, click the Make Available Offline check box to clear it, and then click Close.

Customizing Offline Viewing Settings

For a New Offline Web Page:

You can customize the options for an offline Web page. After you make a Web page available for offline viewing, click Customize in the Add Favorite dialog box to customize the settings.

For an Existing Offline Web Page:

1. In Internet Explorer, click Organize Favorites on the Favorites menu.
2. Click the offline Web page you want to modify, and then click Properties.
3. Specify the settings you want, and then click OK.

Offline Viewing Options

For a New Offline Web Page:

When you make a new Web page available for offline viewing, click Customize in the Add Favorite dialog box to start the Offline Favorite Wizard. The Offline Favorite Wizard can be used to configure the following settings:

• You can make other Web pages that are linked to the selected Web page available offline. If you have limited hard disk space or you want to reduce synchronization time, click No.
• You can schedule Web page synchronization using one of the following options:
  
  
  • The "Only when I choose synchronize from the Tools menu" option enables you to manually synchronize your Web pages.
  • The "I would like to create a new schedule" option enables you to specify a synchronization time based on your preferences. You can the schedule a unique name so you can easily identify it.
  • The Use This Existing Schedule option enables you to choose a default daily, weekly, or monthly scheduled time. You can also choose from previously created custom schedules.
  • The "Does this site require a password?" option enables you to specify a user name and password for the offline Web page if it is required. The user name and password are automatically provided when Internet Explorer synchronizes the Web page.

For an Existing Offline Web Page: To customize an existing offline Web page, click Organize Favorites on the Favorites menu, click the offline Web page you want to modify, and then click Properties. You can specify the following settings:

• Schedule tab:
  
  
  • The "Only when I choose Synchronize from the Tools menu" option enables you to manually synchronize your Web pages.
  • The "Using the following schedule(s)" option enables you to specify a default schedule.
    The Add button enables you to specify a synchronization time and give the schedule a unique name.
  • The Remove button enables you to remove any schedule.
  • The Edit button enables you to customize the following settings:
    
    
    • Synchronization Items tab: You can specify the network connection to use for the selected schedule. You can also select which offline Web pages to synchronize with this schedule. Internet Explorer can also automatically connect to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to synchronize your Web pages.
    • Schedule tab: You can modify the time settings for the selected schedule and choose advanced schedule options such as start date, end date, and how often the task can be repeated. Multiple schedules can be configured, schedule, and removed.
    • Settings tab: You can specify what to do with a task once it is completed, whether or not the computer has to be idle when the task is started, and power management settings.
  For more information about scheduled tasks, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type scheduled tasks, and then double-click the "Overview" topic.
• Download tab:
  
  
  • The "Download pages <nn> links deep from this page" setting enables you to specify how many links deep Internet Explorer should download Web pages for offline use. You can choose to follow links outside of the page's Web site and limit the amount of hard disk space allocated to the Web page. You can also specify what type of content to download or omit from your Web pages by clicking the Advanced button.
  • The "When this page changes, send e-mail to" check box enables e-mail to be sent to you when the content of the offline Web page changes.
  • If the site requires a user name and password, you can click the Logon button to specify your user name and password.

Viewing Web pages Without Being Connected to the Internet

To view your offline Web pages, follow these steps:

1. Before you disconnect from the Internet, click Synchronize on the Tools menu.
2. When you want to work offline, click Work Offline on the File menu to add a check mark.
3. In your favorites list, click the offline Web page you want to view.

NOTE: When you choose to work offline, Internet Explorer always starts in Offline mode until you click Work Offline on the File menu to clear the check mark.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: