Save webpages for offline reading, with their layout and images

To save webpages for offline reading, you need a copy that lives on your own computer, not a bookmark that breaks when the page changes or your connection drops. Barside keeps that copy inside a note. Choose Save a webpage into this note (the download icon in the note toolbar), paste an address or choose Use current browser tab, then choose Save into note. Barside saves the page with its layout, styles, images and fonts in one file on your computer, and the note shows it even when you are offline.

It is free, needs no browser extension and no account, and works on Windows, Linux and Mac. This guide shows how saving works, what a copy keeps and leaves out, what to do when a page will not save, and when Reading or a bookmark is the better tool.

Three ways to keep a webpage in Barside

Barside has three tools for the web, and each keeps something different:

Pick a saved webpage when the look of the page matters, Reading when you want to read and highlight, and a bookmark when you want the live page one click away. Nothing stops you from using all three for the same page.

How to save webpages for offline reading

1. Open the note where the page belongs, such as a project note, a trip plan or a research note.
2. Choose Save a webpage into this note, the download icon in the note toolbar, just after the recording and screen text buttons. The Save a webpage panel opens.
3. Give it the address. Paste it into Website address, or choose Use current browser tab and Barside reads the address of the page open in your browser. The button says Reading browser… while it works.
4. Choose Save into note. The button shows Saving page…, and Barside says "Webpage saved for offline reading." when the copy is ready.
5. Read it. The copy appears in the note under the page's title, with Offline copy, the date you saved it and the website's name. Choose Expand saved page for more room, and Open original website to visit the live page.

Most pages take a few seconds. Barside saves one page at a time, and it gives up on a page after 45 seconds with a message to try a smaller page. You can save several pages into the same note, and drag a saved page to another place in the note like any other block.

What a saved copy keeps, and what it leaves out

Barside opens the page in a hidden browser window of its own, in a separate, temporary session. It waits until the page stops changing, loads at once the pictures the page marks to appear only as you scroll, then saves the page and bundles its styles, images and fonts into one file in your library's media folder.

It keeps:

• The layout, text, styles and fonts, so the page looks the way it did.
• Pictures, including the ones a page marks to load only as you scroll. Pictures that a page loads with its own scripts can be missing.
• The page's title, its address and the date you saved it.

It leaves out, on purpose:

• Scripts, forms and embedded frames. The copy is for reading, so nothing on it runs. It opens in a sandboxed frame inside the note.
• Links inside the page. They are removed from the copy. Open original website takes you to the live page.
• Your sign-ins. The separate session has none of your browser's cookies, so you get what a signed-out visitor sees. Pages behind a sign-in or a paywall usually cannot be saved this way.
• Video, audio and interactive tools, which need the live site.
• The rest of the website. Each save keeps one page, not every page of the site.

There are limits, so one heavy page cannot fill your drive: Barside keeps files of up to 10 MB each inside a page, and up to 40 MB of them in all. Anything past that is left out of the copy.

When a page will not save

Barside explains in plain words why a page could not be saved, so you know what to try next:

• A robot check (error 429). Some websites block automatic copies. Google search always does: open a result and save that page instead, or search with Bing or DuckDuckGo and save the page you find there.
• A refusal (error 401 or 403). The website needs a sign-in, or blocks copies.
• A missing page (error 404 or 410). Check the address.
• A server problem (error 500 and up). Try again later.
• A file, not a page. An address that downloads a file, such as a PDF, has no page to save. Download it in your browser instead.
• A page that keeps reloading itself. Barside follows a page that reloads or redirects while it opens, up to six times, then stops.
• No connection, an unknown website, a refused connection or an invalid security certificate. Barside does not save a website whose certificate is not valid.
• A local network address. Only public websites on the usual web ports can be saved, so addresses on your own network, or with a port number such as :8080, are refused.

If Use current browser tab cannot read your browser, paste the address instead. A busy browser can take several seconds to answer the first time.

Examples: what people save

• A pricing page before a vendor call, so you can compare what it said last month with what it says today.
• Documentation for a flight or a train ride, when you know the connection will be poor.
• A job posting you applied to, in case it disappears before the interview.
• Design references: landing pages, layouts and type you want to study, in a mood-board note next to your Excalidraw drawings.
• Research sources for a paper or a report, kept in the same workspace as your drafts and bookmarks.

Windows, Linux and Mac

Use current browser tab reads the address of the page open in your browser, on the same screen as the note. On Windows, Barside reads it through the system's accessibility interface, with no extension, in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi, Opera, Arc and Zen. On Linux, Barside copies the address from the browser's address bar with xdotool and then puts your clipboard back. Without xdotool, it uses an address already on your clipboard. In Barside for Mac, Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera give Barside the address through Apple Events, after macOS asks you once for each browser. Firefox and Zen do not share their address on a Mac, so paste it there instead.

The saving itself, and the copy it makes, are the same on Windows, Linux and Mac.

Privacy: where saved pages live

A saved copy is a file in Barside's media folder on your computer, attached to its note. Barside does not upload it on its own. To make the copy, your computer visits the website once, like a browser would, but without your cookies or sign-ins, so the website sees an ordinary visit from your IP address and none of your accounts.

Saved pages are part of your library, so they travel in your ZIP backups. With Barside Plus, they are also in the encrypted cloud backup and in cloud sync between your computers. The privacy guide lists what stays on your computer and what goes online.

Make saved pages searchable and useful

A saved copy keeps the look of a page, not a search index. The search bar and Library search find the note by its title and your own text, but they do not read the text inside a saved copy. To search a page's text or ask questions about it, Barside has two more tools:

• Reading keeps an article's readable text in your library, where the search bar, AI search and the assistant can find it. In any app, press Alt+Shift+Space and type save to use Save to Reading.
• Save webpage content, in Library → Sources, keeps the text of a bookmarked page for Library search and answers. Choose a bookmark, then Download public page text, or paste the text of a page you are signed in to and choose Save this text. It keeps up to 120,000 characters per page.

The research agent works the same way: it reads up to 5 public pages for a question, saves each one as a searchable bookmark, and writes a summary note with numbered sources. See AI agents that ask before they act.

How it compares

Barside keeps the copy on your computer, in the note it belongs to, with no account and no extension. Your browser can also save a page as a file or print it to a PDF, but then you keep track of that file yourself. In Barside, the copy sits next to your writing and your bookmarks, with the date you saved it and a button back to the original.

If you are replacing Pocket, which Mozilla shut down on July 8, 2025, read the Pocket alternative guide and the list of the best read-it-later apps. If you are moving from Evernote, read the Evernote alternative guide.

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