How to Use Offline Browsing in Internet Explorer 8

By Greg Harvey from Windows 7 For Dummies Quick Reference

You can use the offline browsing feature of Internet Explorer 8 to view your RSS feeds and Web page subscriptions. Offline browsing is especially beneficial when you’re using a laptop computer and can’t get connected to the Internet or when you rely on a slow dialup connection. Offline browsing enables you to download Web content during nonpeak hours and browse it whenever you want.

Once Internet Explorer goes into offline mode, it won’t go back online until you either restart the computer or manually turn offline browsing off.

To turn offline browsing on and off, choose Work Offline from the Tools drop-down menu (or press Alt+FW). You can view offline content in several ways:

By revisiting Web pages stored in the cache as part of the History. When browsing offline Web sites, you’ll find that Web sites open almost instantly.

Open these pages by selecting them from the History Explorer bar, which you open by pressing Ctrl+Shift+H, by clicking the History tab on the Favorites/Feeds/History bar, or by choosing View→Explorer Bars→History from the Internet Explorer menu bar.
By visiting updated Web pages marked as Favorites that have been stored for later viewing. This will give you the most complete content. IE will also save other pages that are linked to the one you’re saving and automatically check for updated content.
To save a Web page for later offline viewing, choose File→Save As and and save it as one of the Web page or Web archive file types in the Save As Type drop-down menu.
Open these pages by choosing them from the Favorites menu, or click the View Favorites, Feeds and History button on the Favorites toolbar. Then select the Web from the Favorites tab.
By opening Web pages that are stored in folders on local disks, such as the hard drive or a CD-ROM. When browsing offline Web sites, you’ll find some of the links aren’t available for offline viewing.

Open the page by typing the pathname in the address bar of Internet Explorer. You can also open a local Web page with the Open dialog box (press Ctrl+O).

Internet Explorer lets you know when a link isn’t available by adding the international “No” or “Don’t” symbol (you know, the circle with a backslash in it) to the normal hand mouse pointer.

If you click a hyperlink to a page that hasn’t been downloaded, IE will display a Web Page Unavailable While Offline alert dialog box. Click Connect or press Enter to have IE go online and go to the requested page. To remain offline, click the Stay Offline button instead.