So there is one annoying thing about the way Internet Explorer works is when you are trying to save a web page. If you click Save As, IE will by default select the full web page format (* .htm, * .html) when saving.
I don’t like this format when saving web pages because it creates one HTML file for the source code and then stores all other resources like JS files, images, CSS, etc. in a separate folder.
Instead, I always change it to a web archive, a separate file (* .mht). This is much more convenient for me if I’m just looking for a quick way to save multiple web pages and don’t bother with all the source files.
– /
So, is there a way to set IE as the default so that it saves every web page in MHT format instead of HTML? Not certainly in that way. You cannot change the configuration of the file – Save As or press CTRL + S on your keyboard. This will still display the Save Web Page with Web Page dialog box, which is populated by default.
However, you can create a new button on the Favorites toolbar that, when clicked, will open the Save Web Page dialog, but with the default MHT. This is the best solution and really the only one in the world. It works great because it doesn’t require additional mouse clicks.
Also, if you know how to use a program like AutoHotKey, you can create a keyboard shortcut so you can only press one key to run the script and display the Save Web Page dialog box! In this article, I’ll show you how to do it.
First, you need to create a VBS script with the following code. To do this, open Notepad and paste the following code:
WScript.Timeout = 10 Set wShell = CreateObject (“WScript.Shell”) wShell.SendKeys “^ s” Don’t do it until wShell.AppActivate (“Save the web page “) WScript.Sleep 100 Loop wShell.SendKeys”% t {home} tww% n “
It should look something like this:
Then click “File” – “Save” and change the “Save As” type to “All Files”. Give the file a name such as SaveAsMHT.vbs. The important thing is that there is .VBS at the end of the filename.
Save the file somewhere on your computer, no matter where. Then right-click in the same folder and select New – Shortcut.
Go ahead and click Browse and then select the VBS script. Give the shortcut a convenient, meaningful name like “Save As” or “Save As MHT”, etc.
Now for the last step. Open Internet Explorer, right-click anywhere in the top title bar and select Favorites Bar.
Now all you have to do is drag the shortcut to your favorites bar. You may need to minimize IE so that it does not occupy the entire screen for this.
This is it! Now just click this button and the script will run and the “Save Web Page Configured to MHT Format” dialog will automatically open.
Sweet! So for those of you who save a lot of web pages, we hope this will make your life easier by creating a shortcut to save web pages in MHT format. Enjoy!
–