Off topic: Offline page access of a website (such as VitaminDWiki) on an iPad

Offline Pages Pro is a neat $10 application for the iPad

It permits you to download and store on your iPad any amount of any number of websites.
VitaminDWiki – for example.
You can just point it at a URL and store any number of pages from that URL.
If you store 200 pages it take only about 39MB
All 8000 pages takes 1 Gbyte – which is not too much for even the smallest iPad (16BGyte)

It does not have any of the search capability of a real website, but provides a great way to browse the information.

You can set it up to automatically find and add new web pages on a periodic basis

Very easy to use.

No help information is needed.
That is good, as there is no help available.

They did, however, quickly answer some email questions

Q1) If there some way to see downloading progress?

You can see progress in "Saved Pages" view.
When website is downloading, corresponding item in the list will show animation and number of pages downloaded vs. total.
Unfortunately, percentage progress and remaining time is impossible to predict since number of pages is usually not known until entire website is loaded, at which point progress is 100%.
But at least you can see progress in absolute numbers of pages loaded and remaining.

Q2) How can I mark a page to indicate that I have read it?

Easiest way on iPad: touch checkmark button, touch Mark as Read.
Easiest way on iPhone/iPod: go to settings, enable "Mark as Read" = "When first loaded".
Then it will mark any pages you open automatically. This also works on iPad.

Q3) The full screen icon is disabled every time I come to a new page, and I need to click on it to see the full screen
    Is there any way to always see the full screen?

We've received this feedback already, so we'll add an option in next version to always open pages in full screen.

Q4) Will there be some indication of the new pages added by updates?

No, there will be no indication. You have to open saved website and see what's changed.

Q5) Will OfflinePages update changed pages during an update, or just new pages?

By default, only new pages are loaded to save time and bandwidth. However, you can enable "Thorough update" switch in Auto Update -> Thorough.
This will re-download all pages that could have been updated since last time. Note that increases update times and bandwidth consumption dramatically.


I have used programs with similar capability on my Windows laptop, but were nearly as easy to use.

1206 visitors, last modified 30 Sep, 2013,
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