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How to use Page Saver

Page Saver

Install Page Saver, save pages from the app, Safari, Chrome or the terminal, compare snapshots, watch pages for changes, crawl sites and turn on updates.

Free to read. You can explore the guide before buying the app.

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Install Page Saver

Page Saver runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

After you pay, download Page-Saver-1.0.0.zip from your Polar receipt, unzip it, and drag Page Saver.app to Applications. It’s signed with my Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so confirm Open at the first-launch prompt.

Enter the license key from the receipt in Page Saver › License… to turn on automatic updates. The app works without it.

Save a page

Paste a URL in the address field at the top of the window and click Save URL. If a collection is open in the sidebar, the page goes into it.

Saving a URL that’s already in the library adds a new snapshot. The list shows how many snapshots each page has, and the Snapshot menu above the reader switches between them.

Save from Safari

The Safari extension is inside the app:

  1. Open Page Saver once, so macOS registers the extension.
  2. In Safari, open Settings › Extensions and turn on Page Saver.
  3. Click the Page Saver button in the toolbar, or right-click a page and pick Save page to Page Saver.

The first time, Safari asks for permission. Pick Always Allow on Every Website, so the extension can download images and fonts from other domains.

Save from Chrome

The Chrome extension hands pages to the pagesaver command, so Chrome needs to know where it is. Run this once:

"/Applications/Page Saver.app/Contents/MacOS/pagesaver" install-chrome-host

Then load the extension:

  1. Unzip the source zip from your receipt.
  2. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode.
  3. Click Load unpacked and pick the extension/chrome folder.

Click the Page Saver button, press Option+Shift+S, or right-click the page. A green check means the page is in your library. A red ! means it isn’t: hover the button to read the error.

If you move Page Saver to another folder, run install-chrome-host again.

Compare snapshots

Click Compare… on a page with two or more snapshots. It compares the latest with the one before. Pick others in the From and To menus, or click a snapshot in the timeline.

  • Text shows removed words in red and added words in green. Option+Command+Down and Option+Command+Up jump between changes.
  • Side by Side shows both saved pages, scrolling together.
  • What Changed lists the headings, links and images that were added or removed.

Organize pages in collections

Click New Collection at the bottom of the sidebar. Drag pages onto a collection, or right-click a page and use Add to Collection. A page can be in many collections. Deleting a collection keeps its pages in the library.

Watch pages

Click Watch… on a page, or right-click a collection and pick Watch…. Watching a collection checks every page in it, including the ones you add later.

Pick a schedule (every few minutes, every few hours, daily at a time, weekly on a day and time) and when to be notified: when anything changes, or only when a page is dead, moved or taken over.

Alerts appear in Activity and as notifications. Page Saver asks for notification permission the first time you watch something. Click an alert to open Compare on that check.

Checks run while the app is closed too, through a background agent the app installs the first time you watch something. It shows up in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions, where you can turn it off. The Mac has to be awake.

Crawl a site

Click Crawl… next to the address field, or pick File › Crawl Site… (Shift+Command+K). Choose the whole site, only pages under a path, or the start page and the pages it links to. Set the depth, the page limit, and patterns to include or skip, like /tag/*.

The crawl saves into a collection named after the site. While it runs, the collection shows how many pages were found, saved and failed, with a Stop button. Resume continues a stopped crawl, and Crawl Again saves a new snapshot of every page.

Click a link in a crawled page and Page Saver opens the saved copy. Command-click opens the live page in your browser.

Use the command line

Link the command into your PATH:

ln -s "/Applications/Page Saver.app/Contents/MacOS/pagesaver" ~/.local/bin/pagesaver
pagesaver save https://kettlefox.co/pricing
pagesaver list
pagesaver search "rate limit"
pagesaver watch add https://kettlefox.co/pricing --daily 09:00
pagesaver watch list
pagesaver crawl https://fieldnotes.garden/ --max 20
pagesaver activity

pagesaver with no arguments lists every command, and pagesaver capabilities describes them for an agent. Set PAGESAVER_LIBRARY to use a different library folder.

Where your pages are

Everything is in ~/Library/Application Support/PageSaver: library.sqlite holds the index, collections, watches and checks, and snapshots/ holds one HTML file per snapshot. Back up that folder to back up your library.

Updates

With the license key entered, Page Saver checks for a new version once a day and installs it with Install and Relaunch. Page Saver › Check for Updates… checks right away. A key works on 3 Macs, and License… › Deactivate This Mac frees one. Your Polar receipt always has the latest app and source zips.

See Page Saver → · $20 including tax, with full source code.