Webcollect - A powerful webpage capturing/clipping tool

Webcollect is a web browser extension for capturing webpages with ease. Captured contents can be put into system clipboard, or be directly saved with Mybase Desktop without having to first save as HTML files and then insert them manually.

• Webcollect allows you to capture whole or portion of webpage from within web browsers and save into Mybase databases by one click for offline perusing or archiving;
• Webcollect also allows you to copy whole or portion of webage into system clipboard, then you can paste elsewhere you see fit; Unlike the default copy operation of web browsers, that usually copies only original HTML text with no image data, while Webcollect tries to capture whole webpage with all stylesheets and images preserved;
• Stylesheets, images and HTML text will be embedded into a single .html file, that helps keep databases and file system uncluttered.

• Ability to capture: selection if any, or section/article/main blocks if present, or entire webpage if no selection;
• Applied CSS stylesheet can be preserved;
• Linked images can be captured and embedded into HTML source;
• Background images in CSS can be captured as well;
• Captured contents can be put into system clipboard;
• Captured contents can be directly sent to Mybase Desktop 7/8 for offline storing;
• Captured contents will show page titles, timestamp and URLs of original websites;
• With well-designed websites, ad banners and/or sidebars can automatically be excluded while capturing whole webpage;
• Support of .webp image format, which can be converted into .png for back-compatibility with Mybase Desktop 7.x;
• Works well with original websites with CORS policy fully complied;
• Two capture modes: [copy] and [clone] mode, that helps keep the extension functioning in different circumstances;
• Intuitive log window for displaying detailed info and progress of operations;
• Available for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox on Linux, MacOSX and Windows;
• Usage is simple; To save a webpage, just one click on tool button, or use context menu, or simply press Alt+Shift+S; To copy, press Alt+Shift+C, instead of the default Ctrl/Command+C.

To install the Webcollect addon and get it to work with Mybase Desktop, please be sure first to select the [Tools - Install webcollect host for Chrome/Firefox] menu item from in Mybase Desktop 7/8, and then follow the instructions and preceed to the Chrome Webstore or Mozilla Addons website to complete installation of the extension;

As per requirements of web platform's native messaging mechanism, the Webcollect host program must be properly installed, so web contents can be sent to the native program when selecting the 'Save with Mybase' command; However, the 'Copy HTML + Images' command doesn't require the host program, it just puts web contents onto the system clipboard.

Once the extension is properly installed within your web browser, it'll be added into both the context menu and top tool bar. The usage is simple; To save a webpage, just one click on the tool button, or use the context menu, or simply press Alt+Shift+S; To copy, press Alt+Shift+C, instead of the default Ctrl/Command+C.

Notes:

• To copy contents: Right-click in a webpage, and then select the [Copy Html + Images] menu item; Or just press Alt+Shift+C; The captured contents will be copied to system clipboard;
• To save contents with Mybase Desktop 7/8: Right-click in a webpage, and then select the [Save with Mybase] menu item; Or simply click the tool button; Or just press Alt+Shift+S; The captured contents will be sent to Mybase Desktop and saved with in the currently working database, so you'll need first to open a database before capturing web contents;
• To capture portion of a webpage, make sure first to highlight the portion by mouse;
• To capture whole webpage, no need to highlight any portions, Webcollect will automatically capture section/article/main blocks if present, this could exclude ad banners and sidebars from in captured HTML contents. If no section/article/main blocks present, the entire webpage will automatically be chosen;
• In the case that you'd need to capture entire webpage including ad banners and/or sidebars if any, just highlight all contents in the webpage by selecting [Edit - Select all] menu item or press Ctrl/Command+A before capturing. Note that banners and sidebars usually use complicated scripts, tricks and/or advanced layout settings, that may not fully be captured and could make a mess in the layout of captured contents.

Here is a list of frequently asked questions.

1. How to capture webpages from on websites that have copy operation blocked?

   For websites having the copy operation blocked, you may choose to:

   • close the tab and leave; Or,
   • continue viewing without saving any contents; Or,
   • use Webcollect tool button or pressing Alt+Shift+C or Alt+Shift+S to capture contents; Or,
   • before captiuring from in Google Chrome you may want first to temporarily unblock the copy operation by selecting [View - Developer - Javascript Console] menu item, and running the following 4 lines of javascript code in the Console command line;

     for(var e in getEventListeners(document))
     {if(/copy|selectstart|mousedown|mouseup/i.test(e))
     getEventListeners(document)[e].forEach(function(x)
     {document.removeEventListener(e, x.listener)})}

2. How to capture webpages containing lazy-load images?

   Where the 'lazy-load' means that images will only be available when they're getting visible in the browser window. That's to say, you'll need to scroll the webpage down to the bottom and make sure all linked images are completely loaded before capturing.

3. How to report bugs/problems capturing web contents?

   You can reach us by email or via the online suport form; Please be sure to have relevant log text included in your message, that would help us figure out what's the problem source. The log message text can be put onto system clipboard by clicking the 'Copy' button from in the log window of Webcollect addon.