Downloading and Saving Files From the Internet

To download a file from a certain HTML page, you typically have to click on a certain hyperlink text inside the HTML page. As a result, the dialog box shown in Figure A.1 is displayed. (Depending on the Web Browser program that you are using, you may see a slightly different dialog box than the one shown in Figure A.1. Figure A.1. as well as the other figures in this page assume that you are using the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web Browser program).

Figure A.1. The dialog box that lets you Save or Open a file.

As you can see, the dialog box of Figure A.1 lets you either Open the file, or Save the file. In most cases, you want to Save the file. So make sure that the Save it to disk radio option is selected.

Once you click the OK button of the dialog box shown in Figure A.1, you may see the dialog box shown in Figure A.2. The dialog box shown in Figure A.2 basically informs you that the file that you requested for download is being examined.

Figure A.2. The Getting File Information dialog box.

Then the Save As dialog box shown in Figure A.3 appears.

Figure A.3. The Save As dialog box.

The Save As dialog box (Figure A.3) lets you select the directory in which the file that you are downloading will be saved to. So you now have to use the Save As dialog box (Figure A.3) to select the directory where you want the file to be saved.

As a result, the file will start to be downloaded from the remote Web site to the directory that you selected with the Save As dialog box.

During the time the file is downloaded into the directory that you selected, you see the File Download dialog box (see Figure A.4) that basically shows you how the download progresses.

Figure A.4. The File Download dialog box.

The dialog box shown in Figure A.4 reports the estimated time left (see the bottom of the dialog box of Figure A.4). Because the calculations of the Estimated time left are based on the filesize and the average number of bytes that had been downloaded so far, the reported time left is only an approximation. For example, if at the beginning of the download the connection was slow, the File Download dialog box reports a ridiculously large number for the Estimated time left. In this case, stay connected for another minute or so. If the Estimated time left does not change, you'll have no choice but to click the Cancel button, and then try to download the file again.

Note that the File Download dialog box also tells you how many bytes had been downloaded so far. This way, you can get a feeling of how long it will take to download the rest f the file.

Eventually, the entire file will be downloaded, and you can now use the Windows Explorer program to list the files that reside inside the directory that you specified in the Save As dialog box (see back in Figure A.3). Inside this directory, you will see the file that you downloaded. Now you can proceed with the instructions given you in the HTML page that tell you what to do with the file that you downloaded.