HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer

Version 0.3
Released 11 May 2002
Copyright © 2002 Ravi Bhavnani
Program data copyright © How Stuff Works, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

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 What's HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer?
 
HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer allows you to browse the How Stuff Works website without having to being connected to the internet.  The program downloads articles from the site to a location on your hard disk, and creates a local index that you can use to navigate the site offline.

The viewer was built using a generic web resource provider framework that I developed.  The framework can be used to obtain virtually any kind of information from the internet.  See this article if you'd like to know more.

Note:
The program is not intended to be used as a product.  It's simply a demonstration of how information on the internet can be made available through an easy-to-use interface.  Content downloaded by the viewer is copyright by HowStuffWorks, Inc.

 
  
Click to see a larger image

 Features
 
Some of HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer's features are:
  • Allows you to select a folder in which to download articles
  • Removes all ads from downloaded articles
  • Automatically downloads images and Flash animations
  • Skips articles that are already downloaded
  • Easy-to-use, fast operation!
 What does it cost?
 
HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer is free.

 Installation
 
To install HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer, do the following:

  1. Download the self-extracting archive HowStuffWorksSFX.exe (55 Kb) and extract its contents to a new folder, eg: C:\How_Stuff_Works.
  2. Run the program C:\How_Stuff_Works\HowStuffWorks.exe.

To uninstall HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer, delete the folder C:\How_Stuff_Works.  HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer doesn't touch the Windows registry and doesn't create or modify any files in the Windows or Windows system folders.

 How to use HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer
 
HowStuffWorks Offline Viewer is easy to use!  Make sure you're connected to the internet, run the program and:
  1. Select the folder to receive the downloaded articles.
  2. Click Start to download the articles.
  3. When the download completes, view the index.htm file in the the download directory.
 Known problems
 
None (yet).

 Release notes

 0.3, released 11 May 2002
  • Initial release

 How to submit a bug report
 
To submit a bug report, suggestion or feature request, please send mail to ravib@ravib.com.  Although I may not be able to send you a personal reply, please be assured that I read each and every message.  A list of known bugs, along with the names of their discoverers will be posted at this page.

Most of the drivel at this site is copyright © Ravi Bhavnani.
Questions or comments?  Send mail to ravib@ravib.com