Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

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carum carvi

Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

During my Windows years I had been using a standalone pc for a while. Without internet connection I needed to save and copy website pages from one computer to another.

When I wanted to cross over to LinuxMint I unfortunately noticed that those special formatted Windows websites could NOT be read in Linux. That was the main cause that I decided NOT to start using LinuxMint, because lots of valuable information was saved in that Windows html format.

Would it be very difficult for LinuxMInt Firefox to be able to read that special Windows format? It is perhaps a small thing, but it was crucial for me back then. Windows uses a single file format that has the same layout as a complete Html website, but is much smaller in size and only uses 1 file, instead of the regular 2.

The great thing about LinuxMInt 18 and 19 is that is able to read EXFAT formatted discs. Ubuntu cant. What I am trying to say is the better the interchangeability of formats between Windows and LinuxMInt is, the more likely people will wanna cross over to LinuxMint. Therefore I hope that my suggestion to be able to read Windows Html formatted websites in LinuxMint is another little bump in the road less, for those who wanna crossover to LinuxMint.
gm10

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by gm10 »

I had already suggested when you first posted this to use another browser: viewtopic.php?p=1545449#p1545449
There might also be a Firefox extension for this.

The Mint team doesn't develop web browsers, they just slap some branding on Firefox and add some limitations and bugs. ;)
kukamuumuka

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by kukamuumuka »

carum carvi wrote: Sun Oct 28, 2018 2:02 pm When I wanted to cross over to LinuxMint I unfortunately noticed that those special formatted Windows websites could NOT be read in Linux. That was the main cause that I decided NOT to start using LinuxMint, because lots of valuable information was saved in that Windows html format.
Any examples about "Windows websites"?
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Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by phd21 »

Hi "carum carvi",

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

This makes no sense to me, websites are not usually designed to be displayed specifically for MS Windows, or Mac, or Linux, they are in various website formats like html, php, etc...

Some websites on the Internet have an outdated or limited login authentication code which may require using a browser extension add-on called a "user agent" switcher to basically tell certain websites that you are using a particular browser on a particular operating system even though you are using Linux and a Linux browser; for example, you can use a user agent add-on to tell websites you are using Internet Explorer or Edge on MS Windows when in fact you are using a Linux Firefox on Linux Mint.

Perhaps if you told us exactly what the webpages format(s) are saved as and provided screenshots, that would help. If you can provide a link to, or a download link to, an example webpage or if the webpage also has a folder then an archive file of the webpage with its related folder(s), then we can help with more suggestions.

I always found it easy to save web pages as pdf files using various browser extension add-ons (fireshot, etc...), or in Linux Print to File PDF. I always install the "cups-pdf" package as well which adds a printer driver to print web pages or anything else to pdf files in a pdf folder.

Hope this helps ...
Last edited by phd21 on Sun Oct 28, 2018 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
carum carvi

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

Administrolaatoori and Phd21, I mean MHTML. It is a Windows single file HTML format. Small, yet handy. But created by Microsoft not in line with world wide HTML standards.

Gm10 I understand your point. totally logical. I dont think many newbies are bothered by my particular problem, because most will just bookmark a website instead of manually saving it, like I had done for some time with my standalone pc. But maybe there are some newbies who do mind...I dont know ofcourse. Just trying to polish LinuxMInt into an even more user friendly OS.

Your tip in the other post about the Chromium browser that CAN read Windows MHTML saved webpages would have been very helpful for me years ago. But how could I have known back then, being a total newbie? That is the reason I suggested it here, in the hope more newbies would cross over easier to LInuxMint.

I started trying out LinuxMint from a cd-rom that was sold with a PC magazine about LInuxMInt 17. The very basics I learned from that PC magazine. I still have it lol.

What comes to mind right now, is that there should be a summary of software and hardware problems often encountered by newbie LinuxMint users during the test run with a live usb or live DVD. Directly followed by solutions. It will give newbies hope that there is a solution to their problem. Makes crossing over from Windows a lot more attractive. Newbie information about LinuxMInt is now mostly found AFTER install and not during the testing of a live ISO. That doesnt feel user friendly enough for me.

I still think LinuxMInt 18 and 19 are the most user friendly of the whole linux world. I love it. I wont go back to windows ever. But I was just pondering in how to make LinuxMint just a bit easier for the total noobs like me, when we first try a new LinuxMInt iso.
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Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by phd21 »

HI "carum carvi",

In Google Chrome and Slimjet (chromes based) browsers I was able to save and view mhtml docs.

Chrome MHTML Extension: Save Webpages Offline As MHTML
https://browsernative.com/save-webpage-offline-mhtml/

MHT File (What It Is & How to Open One)
- Google Chrome and Opera are supposed to be able to open these and other browsers with add-ons.
https://www.lifewire.com/mht-file-4140714

Google Docs can probably read and or convert (save as) the mhtml docs.
EML, MHT Viewer with Drive
http://mhtviewer.booogle.net/

Convert mht file under Linux - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?t=261105
mht to htm - Browse /mht2htm/1.8.1 (05.apr.2016) at SourceForge.net
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mht2ht ... r.2016%29/

I downloaded the "mht2htmcl-1.8.1.35_07.apr.2016.lin_x86_64.zip" and right-clicked it, extracted here which created a new folder "mht2htmcl-1.8.1.35_07.apr.2016.lin_x86_64" and within that is the executable program file "mht2htmcl", copied a couple mhtml files into that, ran the command below and it created a new folder for the converted mhtml web page to html. Use quotes with documents that have spaces in the filename.

Code: Select all

./mht2htmcl '(1) Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint - Linux Mint Forums-forums.linuxmint.com-20181028-153522.mhtml'
You can run the command below for help.

Code: Select all

./mht2htmcl
UnMHT – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unmht/

install unmht console terminal command.
opennota / unmht · GitLab
https://gitlab.com/opennota/unmht

Code: Select all

sudo apt install golang-go

Code: Select all

go get -u gitlab.com/opennota/unmht
Now there is a new folder "~/go" and underneath that is a "/go/bin" folder with unmht executable file. I opened a console terminal in this and ran the command below on this web page saved as an mhtml doc which I save into this folder for testing. Use quotes with documents that have spaces in the filename.
~/go/bin$

Code: Select all

./unmht '(1) Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint - Linux Mint Forums-forums.linuxmint.com-20181028-153522.mhtml'
which opens the mhtml document in the default browser which can then be printed "to file pdf".

Converting an MHTML document to a PDF
http://www.novapdf.com/kb/converting-an ... f-373.html

Convert MHT to XHTML Web files online and without registration!
https://www.coolutils.com/online/MHT-to-XHTML

online convert mht to pdf - Google Search
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1030& ... bqVjKwRAEQ
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
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Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by jimallyn »

I used Catfish to search for mht files on my hard drive, and found quite a few of them. I only checked a few, but I was able to open them with the Opera browser. Get it here:

https://www.opera.com/download
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
kukamuumuka

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by kukamuumuka »

Old Opera 12.16 is able to make, open and convert mht-files.
http://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/linux/1216/
gm10

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by gm10 »

administrollaattori wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:06 am Old Opera 12.16 is able to make, open and convert mht-files.
http://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/linux/1216/
Yes, but this is dangerous advice. You should never use outdated browser versions, they are a gaping security hole even if they do work with current websites.

Every Chromium based browser including current Opera can read/write MHTML, so stay up to date.
carum carvi

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

Phd21 thanks for your extensive summary of links to various converters for Windows Mhtml format. I checked the links you provided. There is more possible than I could have imagined. But still the easiest solution for a newbie like me would be to install the Chromium or Opera web browser alongside the trusted Firefox.

I have become curious by all the positive talk of other forum members like Jimallyn and Gm10 about those Chromium and Opera webbrowsers. I am gonna install them just as an experiment to see how they are. Might come in handy, for some websites that Firefox is giving me trouble with.

It is not urgent, but I am also curious if I would start saving webpages in linuxmint in the "only html" format, are those saved webpages readable by Windows or Apple browsers? I know that the "complete html" format in Linuxmint is the universal standard that can be read by EVERY browser. But how about LinuxMInt's "only html" format? Is that format universal as well? I dont wanna make the same mistake twice...
gm10

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by gm10 »

carum carvi wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 7:19 pm I have become curious by all the positive talk of other forum members like Jimallyn and Gm10 about those Chromium and Opera webbrowsers. I am gonna install them just as an experiment to see how they are. Might come in handy, for some websites that Firefox is giving me trouble with.
I don't believe I endorsed Chromium as such, I just said it's possible to read/write MHTML with it, but it's not the only option. Personally I do use Chromium for hardware accelerated video playback, something that Firefox struggles with.

Note that Opera is a Chromium browser, too. The big ones are Chromium, Chrome, Opera, and Vivaldi. Note that in all of them you'll have to enable MHTML saving at this address first: chrome://flags/#save-page-as-mhtml.
carum carvi wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 7:19 pmIt is not urgent, but I am also curious if I would start saving webpages in linuxmint in the "only html" format, are those saved webpages readable by Windows or Apple browsers? I know that the "complete html" format in Linuxmint is the universal standard that can be read by EVERY browser. But how about LinuxMInt's "only html" format? Is that format universal as well? I dont wanna make the same mistake twice...
"Only HTML" only stores the entry level HTML document but no referenced files like images, scripts or included documents. Depends on the web pages you are saving whether that's a useful format for you.

Depending on what you're doing with your saved web pages, have you considered simply printing them to pdf format?
carum carvi

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

gm10 wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 2:01 am Personally I do use Chromium for hardware accelerated video playback, something that Firefox struggles with.

Note that Opera is a Chromium browser, too. The big ones are Chromium, Chrome, Opera, and Vivaldi. Note that in all of them you'll have to enable MHTML saving at this address first: chrome://flags/#save-page-as-mhtml.

Depending on what you're doing with your saved web pages, have you considered simply printing them to pdf format?
Just to prevent any other casualties with saved webpages I will save ALL of them in the universal world standard. It's great to know though that there are ways of circumventing these browser incompatibilities with Microsoft's Mhtml standard.

A bit off topic, but interesting nonetheless. Should I make a new post? Gm10 I have noveau installed at my LM19 OS. Newbie question: does that mean that hardware video acceleration is NOT used at all? That's what I thought is how nouveau functioned, bypassing my Nvidea card, because Nvidea couldnt deliver any picture at all in combination with Linuxmint. I am rather fond of good video quality and Firefox struggles sometimes with screentearing, although lately it has improved.
Are you suggesting that Chromium offers better video quality ONLY when one can use hardware acceleration? Or is Chromium better in general in relation to video in your experience?
gm10

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by gm10 »

carum carvi wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 11:55 am Microsoft's Mhtml standard.
It's a proposed standard only and while Microsoft was involved in it, it's not their proposal alone: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2557
carum carvi wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 11:55 am A bit off topic, but interesting nonetheless. Should I make a new post? Gm10 I have noveau installed at my LM19 OS. Newbie question: does that mean that hardware video acceleration is NOT used at all? That's what I thought is how nouveau functioned, bypassing my Nvidea card, because Nvidea couldnt deliver any picture at all in combination with Linuxmint. I am rather fond of good video quality and Firefox struggles sometimes with screentearing, although lately it has improved.
Are you suggesting that Chromium offers better video quality ONLY when one can use hardware acceleration? Or is Chromium better in general in relation to video in your experience?
Hardware acceleration isn't about better video quality (some hardware implementations actually lead to worse quality), it's about performance. Hardware accelerated video playback doesn't use up any of my CPU, and also costs much less energy and produces less heat, which is quite relevant on a laptop.

Note that chromium browsers have hardware acceleration disabled by default if not run on ChromeOS (Google tries to sell Chromeboxes after all) and you'll need to build them in a special way to enable that.

But you should really make a new thread to discuss any of this.
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Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by phd21 »

Hi carum carvi,

You are welcome from all of us that replied...
carum carvi wrote:Phd21 thanks for your extensive summary of links to various converters for Windows Mhtml format. I checked the links you provided. There is more possible than I could have imagined. But still, the easiest solution for a newbie like me would be to install the Chromium or Opera web browser alongside the trusted Firefox.
I totally agree to install Google Chrome and or Slimjet (chrome like) and or Opera. I have many browsers installed, but I use Slimjet the most.

I really like Firefox although it took me a while to like the new Quantum version after disabling all my older add-ons now only using web extension add-ons. I found very good new add-ons to replace the ones that no longer worked. The problem I have is that Firefox cannot run certain things I use like Google Voice (Internet telephone & answering machine), and some web pages will not display or work properly in Firefox, but will in Google Chrome, Opera, Slimjet, etc... and sometimes certain web pages that do not display in those browsers will in Firefox?
carum carvi wrote:I have become curious by all the positive talk of other forum members like Jimallyn and Gm10 about those Chromium and Opera webbrowsers. I am gonna install them just as an experiment to see how they are. Might come in handy, for some websites that Firefox is giving me trouble with.
I personally believe it is a smart idea to have more than one browser installed for various good reasons. There can always be a browser update that just does not work well and although most browser developers are very quick to fix most issues within a day or two (usually), you can always bring up another browser and use it.

Some people configure and use a particular browser for specific tasks as well. Others will have browsers for other people using their system without creating other user accounts and logging out and back in with that user, although most browsers also support "profiles".
carum carvi wrote:It is not urgent, but I am also curious if I would start saving webpages in linuxmint in the "only html" format, are those saved webpages readable by Windows or Apple browsers? I know that the "complete html" format in Linuxmint is the universal standard that can be read by EVERY browser. But how about LinuxMInt's "only html" format? Is that format universal as well? I dont wanna make the same mistake twice...
I would recommend saving web pages as single PDF files because those are universally viewable on any computer through any browser and various applications. The Fireshot extension add-on for any browser is excellent at saving web pages in PDF and other formats although you can use the Linux Print to File PDF option as well.

You can bring up your older saved "mhtm/mhtml" documents in Google Chrome, Opera, Slimjet, etc... and use Fireshot, or just print them to file PDF, use one of the converter apps I mentioned before, to convert them if you want to. Some of the converter apps can convert them in batches (time-saving) to "html".

If you save web pages into the typical save "web page complete" options that should be universally viewable as well because they are in standard common ".html" format, BUT you have an HTML document and a related folder for each saved web page which makes managing these difficult versus saving them into a single file option like PDF; If you try to move or copy these somewhere else without their related folder(s), or accidentally renamed the folder, etc... they will no longer work.


Hope this helps ...
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
carum carvi

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

Gm10, thanks for your explanation about hardware acceleration. Now I finally understand.

Phd21, your tip about Print to PDF is the most easiest for use right now. I am testing out different browsers as we speak, but I must admit I have become fond of Firefox. But as you have already explained, it is handy to have a backup browser ready, when Firefox for whatever reason cant display a site or add on properly.

phd21 wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:42 pm I would recommend saving web pages as single PDF files because those are universally viewable on any computer through any browser and various applications. The Fireshot extension add-on for any browser is excellent at saving web pages in PDF and other formats although you can use the Linux Print to File PDF option as well.

You can bring up your older saved "mhtm/mhtml" documents in Google Chrome, Opera, Slimjet, etc... and use Fireshot, or just print them to file PDF, use one of the converter apps I mentioned before, to convert them if you want to. Some of the converter apps can convert them in batches (time-saving) to "html".
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Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by phd21 »

Hi "carum carvi",
carum carvi wrote:Phd21, your tip about Print to PDF is the most easiest for use right now. I am testing out different browsers as we speak, but I must admit I have become fond of Firefox. But as you have already explained, it is handy to have a backup browser ready, when Firefox for whatever reason cant display a site or add on properly.
So far, my browsers have been able to open "mhtml" files although I did add the mht extension add-ons to some of them.
Save Webpages Offline As MHTML - Chrome Web Store
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... nfcienmehn


When printing to PDF I prefer to use the "FireShot" extension add-on which is customizable because it automatically uses the web page's title as the filename whereas the Print To File PDF does not, although both produce high-quality PDF files with clickable web links which the "cups-pdf" printer driver (shows up as just PDF in printers) had trouble with before even though it too print to PDF with the web page's title as the filename. You can always copy the web page title before printing and paste that into the filename as well.

Hope this helps ...
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FireShot_Options1.jpg
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SaveAsMHT1.jpg
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carum carvi

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

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Last edited by carum carvi on Fri Nov 02, 2018 5:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
carum carvi

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

Phd21 thanks for the tip.

As far as filenames are concerned I wanna mention the following: after 1 year using LinuxMint I have now only just started to learn some terminal commands from "The Linux Command Line" pdf. It is very insightful! Really great. One thing I just got warned for is NOT to use spaces in filenames. That' s a habit that I had copied from Windows though.

Using spaces makes for easier reading, but now I read that the linux shell interprets spaces in filenames totally different. Therefore the "Print to PDF function" with which I have to give a new name to every webpage that I save, that specific "Print to PDF" method gives me a chance to rename my saved webpages in an accurate way WITHOUT spaces. I dont know though if that is readable. Imeanhowreadableisthisentence?

I already left out all the ? ! * ) ( & symbols in website titles, because I knew Microsoft could not read them properly. Or so I thought. Linux is more tolerant in naming files, but when I wanna exchange saved webpages with Window users I better not use those ? ! * ( ) symbols.
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Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by Moem »

carum carvi wrote: Thu Nov 01, 2018 6:28 am Imeanhowreadableisthisentence?
SlightlyHarderThanThisSentence. Linux filenames are case-sensitive, so you can use capitalization for easier reading.
As_far_as_I_know, underscores are safe to use too.
Image

If your issue is solved, kindly indicate that by editing the first post in the topic, and adding [SOLVED] to the title. Thanks!
carum carvi

Re: Make Windows formatted websites readable in LinuxMint

Post by carum carvi »

Moem, I dug a little deeper into this case sensitive stuff. I found that NTFS is case sensitive, but Windows OS is not. What a mess. ONe of my external harddiscs is NTFS.

I dont use Windows often, but I would like to be able to transfer files easily between Linux and Microsoft or Apple. I started this post when I wanted to express my troubles with exchanging saved webpages between Microsoft Windows Mhtml format and Linux. Great to know that there are good workaround solutions for that Mhtml format problem.

But just to be sure I am not making the same mistakes with filenames inter changeability between Windows, Apple and Linux, I guess for guaranteed succes in interchangeability I will have to only use small letters without any spaces or (* & % $ !) marks. The lower _ mark is allowed across all computer OS platforms.
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