Consumer Guide to Health Care

Help: Saving Information on your Hard Disk

At the top of your screen (or browser window) you might see a series of words that begins with "File   Edit   View":

1. Click on the word "File" to bring up a pull-down menu.
   
   

2. Somewhere on this menu you might see options like "Save" or "Save As…" . Click on either of these. A dialog box appears.
   
   

3. Use the controls in the dialog box to navigate to a directory or folder where you want to save the information.
   
   

4. Decide what format you want to use for saving the file: plain text or HTML.

   Plain text is something you can easily read after saving the information. If you save the information in this format, you will be able to read it later using a word processor like Microsoft Word. However, you will not see any pictures, and you won't be able to click on hyperlinks to visit new pages. It will appear as just words on a page.

   HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the language in which Web pages are written. It consists of the words that you see on the page, plus formatting specifications that determine how the page looks. If you save the information in this format, you will be able to look at it again - or print it - using a Web browser. The information will look a lot like it does right now. However, the pictures will probably not appear - because when you save a Web page you don't automatically save all of the pictures on that page.
   
   

5. Enter a name for the file. Leave off the extension - the suffix that reads ".txt" or ".html". The browser will append that for you automatically, depending on the format you chose.
   
   

6. Click the button marked "Save" or "OK".

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Last Modified: July 01, 2008