Those of you who may not be familiar with how to save a file for later viewing on your browser, do the following. For Netscape: go to "File" on the menu bar and then down to "Save as . . ." and bring up the dialog box. The window that opens will already have the correct title of the file highlighted, right below "Save as:". All you have to do is move to "Format:" and change the default "Text" to "Source" and then save the file. For Internet Explorer: go to "File" on the menu bar and then down to "Save as . . ." and bring up the dialog box. In the window that opens everything is already set up for you, i.e., the correct title of the file is given and the appropriate format, "HTML Source," is there by default. All you have to do is save the file.
Once you've done this, simply launch your browser (no need to turn on the modem), click "ok" in response to two succesive messages advising you of no modem connection, then go to the "File" menu, highlight "Open file . . .", and select the desired file (you may have to navigate through various folders to call it up).
If you want printed a copy of any text, the following steps should get you there. Since your browser will allow you to print only a single "page" (i.e., a page from the point of view of the browser, which is the "page" visible in the window) at a time, you will have to do a few things to get more than just a single page (or a few single pages). First, you have to save the file again, but instead of saving it as "Source" file (in the case of Netscape), or as "HTML Source" file (in the case of Internet Explorer), you will be saving the file as a plain old "Text" file. Here, you are free to give the file in question any name you choose. Nothing could be so simple!
Now, to prepare the file for printing you're going to have to do some work. The "text" file you have will be stripped of all "source code" (the HTML code that displays text in bold and italics, large font or small, centered versus left justified, data in tablular form or as just a bunch of numbers, etc.) and you will have to go through the text with a word processor and clean up the layout of the text to your satisfaction; be forewarned that text with data will present the most difficulty. (If you're a Mac user, do not try to use "Teach Text" or "Simple Text" on files above 32k because you will not get very far.) Once you cleaned up the text to your satisfaction, save it (either as straight "text" or as a document belonging to your word processor), and simply print it out as you would any other document. Good luck.
I am what is affectionately known as a Low-End Mac User (an SE/30 with a black and white monitor) who is always running to keep from falling too far behind. I have tried to acquire a sound lay-person's knowledge of my Mac in order to "get the most out of it," which is merely to say that I'm forever trying to postpone the inevitable day of reckoning. Although I have decent survival skills for things Mac and will share a couple of them with you here, I have NO such skills when it comes to using "Wintel" PCs. (If any of you happen to be Low-End PC User who have managed to hang on in this era of fast machines and bloated software, and you have any tips that might be of use to those unable to afford a platform upgrade, please feel free to put something together and send it in.)
The single largest obstacle to doing just about anything on your computer, whether its an old 680x0 Mac or a new Power Mac, is the amount of RAM you have. Older Macs generally have less RAM because the System software requires less RAM. The Power Macs come with 16MB as a stock configuration, but the System software eats up, more or less, half of that amount (that's why it comes with 16MB!). Whichever Mac you using, you'd do will to reduce the amount RAM used just to get your machine up and running, thereby freeing up some RAM that can be allocated to your browser(s) (via the "Get Info" menu item under "File") and maximize its capacity for larger files.
Netscape 3.0, for example wants a whopping 9MB of RAM and if your system software is running above 7MB you more than likely will crash the program, if not your Mac, trying to load a very large file. (Netscape 4.0 requires even more RAM!! since it is now "intergrated" into other features that may or may not be of use to you.) Other browsers, including earlier versions of Netscape will settle for around 2.1 MB, but they would run better, that is, retrieve larger files, if they are allocated the 4+MB that they "prefer", but older Macs with only 8MB may have a problem, since the System software (e.g., 7.0.1 for Netscape 1.1N, and 7.1.x for Netscape 2.0) generally use more than 4MB.
As such, and short of installing more physical RAM (which, by the way, is a very inexpensive option and easy to do), it is necessary to reduce the RAM requirements of the System software. Aside from removing fonts that are seldom, if ever, used from the system "file" (as opposed to the "folder") the largest source of wasted RAM is in the motely array of control panels and extensions that always load at start up. Disabling many of these puppies will not only free up a considerable amount of RAM for use by your browser, your computer will "boot" much faster. How much RAM will you save? That, of course, depends on your Mac and which version of the System software you're using and how much junk is in there. But without knowing what function any given control panel or extension performs (and who among us has all of that down pat), nothing but "fear and trembling" will accompany those venturing to disable such items.
I wont venture to tell you what your particular Mac can do without. Clearly, if your Mac does not support color, you have no use for control panels and extensions pertaining to color. Similarly, if you do not have a CD-ROM drive, control panels and extensions intended to support one are useless. These are the easy ones because they are obvious. For the more questionable ones, however, you need a guide and if you take a look at Dan E. Frakes' "The InformInit v1.3" you will find a very useful one. It catelogs every Mac control panel and extension (that ever existed) and briefly summerizes what function is served; you will then at least have a basis for deciding whether this or that control panel or extension can be safely disabled (i.e., taken out of its folder).
(For Those Who "Just Want My Machine To Work")