Tools to Archive selected text while browsing with
Internet Explorer
When people find text that
they want to copy from a web page, they typically select it, copy, and then
open a word processor or text handling program that can accept the pasted
text. If they save the entire web page
instead, they get a larger file that includes pictures, links and other
html. If they only retain the web
address, they might find the content is changed when they try to return to reference
the text. The problem with the copy and
paste method is that it takes time to open the program you’re going to paste
to, more time to save the document after the paste and if you’re doing research
you should also be noting the URL, document title and the date and time you
copied the text to be archived.
The downloads here contain
two slightly different approaches to make copying or archiving text selections
found on the web an easier process. Both
place a new item in the shortcut (context) menu for Internet Explorer. After installing, if you select text on a web
page and right click the selection, you will be given an option to archive the
text. The text is copied and saved along
with the title of the page, its web address and the date-time that the text was
copied.
IE Text Archiver This version places the entry
“Archive Selected Text” in your IE context menu. When you choose to archive, you get a pop up
window that offers some options for naming the archive file. The installation script creates a folder
where archive files will be kept. Each
time you select the option, a new text file is created with the selected text,
URL, date-time and document title and placed in this folder. A log file is appended making it easier to
locate archive text files later. The
script requires Internet Explorer ver. 5 or later and the installation script
requires that Windows Script Host (WSH) isn’t disabled. The download is a compressed folder, Fld1,
containing the files ArchiveSelTxtA.htm, ArchiveSelTxtB.htm,
Install_TextArchiver.vbs, Uninstall_TextArchiver.vbs, and ReadMe.txt.
Research Entry [Requires MS Word installed on the
system] This version functions much the same. Its context menu entry is called “Research
Entry”. Rather than create a new text
file each time it is used, this version keeps a Word document in the ‘My
Documents’ folder and appends it with the text selection and other
information. If Word isn’t already
running, it takes a bit of extra time the first time it is used but is quite
fast with further use. This version
doesn’t force you to take a moment and rename the file, since everything is
simply added to the document named “Web_Research.doc” which is only created new
if a file by that name isn’t found in My Documents. The download is a compressed folder, Fld2,
containing the files Install_web_research.vbs, Uninstall_web_research.vbs,
web_research.htm, and ReadMe.txt.