Normally when we save a web page in Firefox, if we choose to save the complete page, Firefox creates multiple files for a single page. One is HTML file and another is a folder containing page contents like CSS, JS, images, etc. This is not comfortable to have multiple files for one web page, also it’s not portable. It’s hard to transfer the page to others or read in offline. You may need internet connection to properly load the saved page later as it may miss some graphical contents.

In Internet Explorer, we have option to save web pages as MHTML (short form of MIME HTML) which is a web archiving format that combines a web document and its resources into a single file. Thus the file becomes portable, having ability to open in offline. Mozilla Firefox lacks this feature. MHTML feature is available in Chrome as experimental option.

Save pages as single file in Firefox

Fortunately some Firefox add-ons got us covered. And I found Mozilla Archive Format is best to do this kind of job. With Mozilla Archive Formatadd-on installed, you can save any web site in a single MHT/MHTML or MAFF (Mozilla Archive Format) file. For your information, MAFF is a file format provided by Mozilla which archives associated web files in a ZIP container.

Note: Chrome has a similar extension named SingleFile with which you can save web pages in a special single HTML file.

Features of Mozilla Archive Format Add-on

  • Save pages in single MHT or MAFF file.
  • Open MHT or MAFF files.
  • Save multiple tabs into one MAFF file including all elements.
  • Pages saved faithfully, thus you get the exact output as it was before saving.

How to Use Mozilla Archive Format

  1. From Firefox, head to Mozilla Archive Format add-on page. Hit Add to Firefox.
  2. Restart your Firefox to make the extension effective.
  3. Open the page you want to save. Now right-click on the page and choose Save Page As, or hit Ctrl+S.
  4. In Save As window, under Save as type, you will have both the archive format *.mht and *.maff including Firefox built-in types.
    Save as MHTML or MAFF file in Firefox
  5. Choose you format.

You can open saved MHTML files in Internet Explorer too. Saving web pages in single files is specially useful when you want to send them to others.

Alternatively you can checkout UnMHT add-on for Firefox which comes with all things MHT feature.

Author: 

Jaber is a Programmer and Tech Enthusiast Geek from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is the founder and Chief-Editor of TechGainer. While he is away from his keyboard, either he's fishing or messing with wildlife. In case, you can contact him at rijans[at]techgainer[dot]com.