Save As Text

When I choose to Save or PDF a webpage, what determines what comes in the “Save As” box??

Sincerely,

Debbie

What application are you using?

Typically, the file type that is selected by default is whatever the application produces by default.

For example, if you are working in Microsoft Word, the “docx” file format will be selected by default because Word produces word documents by default.

You’re not understanding me…

When I go to this link (using FireFox)…


h[b][/b]ttp://www.cnn.com/2013/12/22/us/winter-weather/?sr=google_news&google_editors_picks=true"]http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/22/us/winter-weather/?sr=google_news&google_editors_picks=true

And then I choose to save it, I get this in the “Save As” box…


Winter weather wreaks havoc for the holidays - CNN.com.html

And if I choose to PDF it - via Printing it on my Mac, I get this when I choose “Save As PDF”…


Winter weather wreaks havoc for the holidays - CNN.com

So where is that File-name/PDF-name coming from??

Follow me now?

Sincerely,

Debbie

When I go to that link using Firefox and choose “Save Page As” my Windows 8 OS gives it the extension .htm (which I could change using text input and the dropdown)

You guys are killing me tonight… :rolleyes:

I am NOT asking about the File Extension…

I am asking what makes FireFox be pre-populated with the “Winter weather wreaks havoc for the holidays - CNN.com portion…

Debbie

I would hazard a guess that it is supplied by the Macintosh Print utility.

Ah, your beating us up pretty good, too :slight_smile:

Check line 12 of the HTML page,


<meta content="Winter weather wreaks havoc for the holidays - CNN.com" name="title"/>

Sorry, my guess is it uses

<title>Winter weather wreaks havoc for the holidays - CNN.com</title>

Though it may use the meta content (when it exists) by preference. I don’t know.
For example, if I “Save As” this page the file name is “Save As Text” (same as the page’s <title>) but then again this page has no meta content tag.

I think you’re right, Mittineague. I hastily grabbed the wrong tag.

The only way to know for sure is to find a page where the meta content and title tags are different and see which Firefox uses.
Not likely to find one and I don’t have the time to look (the Holiday crunch is on).

Well, you guys were frustrating me! (I think my OP was pretty clear…)

What is the meta content thingy?

That is a new one for me…

If I was answering my own question - which I was nearly forced to - I would have put my money on the <TITLE> tags…

At first I would have thought it was the Article’s “Page Title” which is often an <H1>, but based on my observations, it seems like it is the <TITLE> tags…

My reason for asking this is because I want to make sure my webpages are coded in a way, so that when people try to Save or Print an Article from my website, the FILE NAME that is pre-populated is what they would likely want to save it as.

(Just trying to make life a little easier for my users!)

Sincerely,

Debbie

I just did a quick test and it comes from the <title> not the meta information, at least on windows with FireFox.

Hope this helps…


What is the <meta name=“title” content=“…”> thingy?
Google doesn’t recognize it ("[U]Just remember that Google will ignore meta tags it doesn’t know[/U]."), it’s not in the html4.01 spec, not in the example meta list of the html5 spec. See also this [URL=“http://www.raisemyrank.com/articles/meta-title.htm”][U]Testing the “meta title” Tag[/U] (‘the tag doesn’t exist’) - Well, if you put in into your code, the tag is existing. - But SEO-wise the effect is zero! :wink:
Validator-wise it is invalid html5.

  • Of course in a CMS the tag could be used for internal references / processing.

Unfortunately, others didn’t see it so clearly.

Me, too. I wasn’t expecting it, either. I was looking for the <title> tags and copied a meta tag in error. :confused: Oops.

Thanks for testing and confirming.

Now that things have quieted down a bit (calm before the storm?) and I have had some sleep, I realize finding a page isn’t the only way.
A page could be written having meta, title and H1 all different and then tested.

So is there consensus that…

1.) The <TITLE> tag is what comes up for the File Name when you go to “Save As” or “Save As PDF” a web page??

2.) That the Meta tag is some unsupported, renegade thing that is not found in HTML4 and HTML5??

Sincerely,

Debbie

Just be clear that it was the <meta name=“title” content=“…” > that was being discussed above, not all meta elements. For example, the “description” meta element is crucial for web pages:

<meta [COLOR="#FF0000"]name="description"[/COLOR] content="Description here." >

And there are other useful meta elements, too. So don’t throw them all out.

RTFS! :wink:
Read The Following Specifications:

Testpage above is html5. Here are:

My conclusions:

  1. In html4.01 and xhtml1.0 the use of a meta name=“title” is allowed. But user agents (browsers) are free to do something with it (or not); about what search engines do with this meta, the specs are blanc. In practice, they do nothing with it.
  2. In html5 the use of a meta name=“title” is forbidden.
  3. Html4.01 + xhtml1.0 + html5: this meta should not be used!

“That the title-Meta tag is some unsupported, renegade thing?” Yes! :slight_smile:


Note: the browsers use the normal <title> of a webpage also for the (proposed) name of a Bookmark/Favorite.

Well, here is how one of my typical web pages looks…


<head>
	<!-- HTML Metadata -->
	<title>Change My E-mail</title>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
	<meta name="description"
				content="TBD" />
	<meta name="keywords"
				content="TBD" />

	<!-- Page Stylesheets -->
</head>

Sincerely,

Debbie

Off Topic:

Wouldn’t this thread be better in Webpage Design? It could be a big help to others in the future who have similar challenges. Could we move it?