Research 3 min read

Saving Web Pages for Offline Reference in Deckle

How to capture a web page as an offline reference in Deckle's Research folder, refresh it later, and what to do if a site blocks the capture.

An article you're using for research today might change or disappear tomorrow. Capturing it into Deckle keeps your own offline copy, tied to the project it's actually relevant to.

What You'll Need

  • The URL of the page you want to save, and an internet connection at the moment you capture it.

Step-by-Step

  1. Open the Research section of the Binder and use its add menu to choose Add Web Page.
  2. Paste the URL. You can leave off https://, it's added automatically if missing.
  3. Save it. Deckle fetches the page's content and stores it locally as part of your project, so it opens instantly and works offline from then on.
  4. Come back to it any time by opening it in the Research tree, exactly like any other research item.
  5. Refresh it if the source has changed. Click the reload icon on the saved page to re-fetch the current version from its original URL. This requires a connection again, and overwrites your local copy with the latest version.

When a Site Blocks the Capture

Some sites block automated fetches. If capturing a URL directly fails:

  1. Save the page from your own browser first. Most browsers have a "Save Page As" or similar option that saves a local HTML file (or, on Safari, a .webarchive file).
  2. Use "Import a page you already saved" in the same Add Web Page dialog, and select that saved file instead of pasting a URL.
  3. Know that the refresh button may not work afterward. Reloading from source depends on Deckle being able to recover the original URL from the saved file. This works reliably for files saved from Chrome or Edge, but not from every browser, so a manually imported page may need to be re-saved and re-imported by hand if it changes later.

Common Mistakes

  • Expecting a saved page to look pixel-identical to the live site. Deckle preserves the page's text and structure, not a full visual copy. External images, fonts, and styling from the original aren't mirrored, so a saved page can look plainer than the live version.
  • Assuming the refresh button works on every imported page. It only works when Deckle captured the page directly (or recovered a URL from a browser-saved file). It won't work on every manually imported save.
  • Looking for saved page text in Search results. Web snapshots aren't indexed for search the way notes and chapters are. You'll need to open the page directly to find something in it.

FAQ

Do I need an internet connection to view a page I already saved?

No. Once captured, it's stored locally and opens completely offline. You only need a connection again to use the refresh button.

Will refreshing a saved page lose anything if I'd added notes about it?

The saved page content itself is what gets refreshed and overwritten. Keep any commentary or notes about it in a separate Research note rather than editing the snapshot directly, since a web snapshot isn't an editable document.

Why didn't my capture work at all?

Some sites actively block automated page fetches. Use the "Import a page you already saved" option instead, after saving the page from your own browser first.