Save web page as Pocket does it

smartsquare41
edited August 15, 2019
Hey all,

Pocket is a read-it-later app that removes all ads, website formatting and other unnecessary items from articles it saves. I find that really convenient, and was wondering if there is a way to save web sites in Zotero in a similar way. Saving snapshots does not save the images, which are frequently useful if not necessary, but keeps all website formatting.
  • dstillman
    edited August 15, 2019
    Zotero snapshots certainly save images, though if a site is doing something weird to load them then they may not work properly.

    Snapshots are opened in your browser, so you should be able to just use your browser's reader mode (which all browsers except Chrome have, and Chrome is getting one) to strip formatting after the fact.

    We're hoping to switch to a new snapshot method in a future version that does a better job of avoiding problems with JavaScript on webpages (particularly ad junk). We've discussed also applying reader-mode changes, but I don't know if we'll do that pre-save.
  • smartsquare41
    Thanks for your quick reply, dstillman. I saved another web page (
    this one), in which case the image was taken perfectly. I had only tried it once before, with this web page, and now see the images also have links over them. That website is probably a bit trickier? Pocket does both of them fine, though.

    Concerning reader view (I use FireFox), that's a brilliant feature I did not know about. However, I cannot save a web page in reader view, nor can I enable reader view on saved articles. What do you suggest to do to save articles in Zotero? Copying articles with images to Zotero Notes is supposed to give problems with sync.
  • dstillman
    Ah, I guess Firefox doesn't allow Reader Mode on local HTML files, so that won't work.

    I'm afraid there's no other option at the moment.
  • smartsquare41
    Thanks for your help. I'll keep thinking about other ways of working. It is really convenient to have all reference material in one place (i.e. Zotero).
  • mgreis
    Are there any updates on the development of the new Snapshot method?

    Or other alternatives for addressing the problem of saved snapshots that don't load? In the past, some snapshots did finally load, but recently, they're not loading at all. Even snapshots I've attempted to load just a few minutes after saving them aren't loading (so it's not a question of content changing or being hidden behind a paywall).

    Thanks!
  • loay
    It'd be helpful if there's a way to save articles directly to pdf documents instead of snapshots. I use printfriendly.com for that then add them manually to Zotero.
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