Grabbing Distant Web Pages to Modify

One of the great things about the Web is that you can borrow ideas, graphics, and page layouts from pages already out there. You might see a web page that is nicely laid out with content similar to something you want to write. You can download that page and replace the original content with your own. You might see a WebQuest or other web-based lesson that could be modified to fit your classroom better. You might create templates for your students which contain a structure that you'd like them to follow in an assignment. You can take just about any page on the Web and modify it (with permission) to suit your needs.

Just because something is on the Web doesn't put it into the public domain, of course. If you're going to re-use substantial portions of someone else's page, write and ask them for permission. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they'll say yes!

Here's how to go about it.

1. First, go to the page that you'd like to grab a copy of.

Then drag down to the Save As item from the File Menu.

 

2. Netscape will suggest a name for the file based on its title. We need to change that suggestion so that it fits the rules of safe file naming: no spaces, no punctuation marks other than "-" or "_", no non-English characters like "ñ". On some servers, the case of the name is important, so some people make a habit of using lower case for everything.

There's also a pop-up menu from which you can choose Text or Source.

Be sure to choose Source. Otherwise you'll just get the words and none of the formatting.

 

 

3. To avoid losing track of where you're saving the file, click on the desktop button. This will ensure that the file will end up where we can see it. We can tuck it away elsewhere later.

4. Finally, click on the Save button and the page will be downloaded.

Once you've gone this far, you've got a local copy of the file that you can edit to your heart's content.

When you're ready to take it the next stage, you can then follow the steps to upload it to your server and publish it on the Web for all to see.

Written and last updated on July 15, 1998 by Bernie Dodge.