Actually, you can put any digital file onto the Loughborough University Research Repository, no matter the format. For a while now, I wondered how one would go about putting up a website. Afterall, that’s just a bunch of html files, why not bundle them up and create an offline version of them?

This week, I was given the opportunity to try with the Design Never Ends project.

Turns out, it’s both easier and harder than expected. The most recommended tool, HTTrack, worked 95% of the way – with only some images breaking. This was an image heavy website though, so 95% was not enough. I tried creating a snapshot on Wayback Machine to download, which was easy enough to do, but the result looked not so great. I ended up using Cyotek WebCopy, which was perfect.

What all of these tools do is save all the pages and pictures and whatnot, and relink all the hyperlinks to these offline versions. Takes a few minutes to do, but like all things in life, easy with the right tool.