# Webpage htm viewing...

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 9, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045 "2003-03-09T06:25:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![MachineHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@MachineHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MachineHead)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045/1 "2003-03-09T06:25:43Z")

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Is there any way to view the html of webpages online or offline without the webmaster giving you the document for it? Is it possible?

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### Author: ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2003, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045/2 "2003-03-09T06:34:40Z")

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Using Internet Explorer, you can go to View\>Source.

Is that what you mean?

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### Author: ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2003, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045/3 "2003-03-09T06:34:49Z")

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Go to the view menu in your webbrowser. Select “Source.”

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### Author: ![MachineHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@MachineHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MachineHead)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2003, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045/4 "2003-03-09T06:55:46Z")

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Woah.

Yeah, that’s what I meant.

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### Author: ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045/5 "2003-03-09T13:02:40Z")

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If you can see the webpage then you have the HTML already. It’s the source that’s sent to your browser when you request a page. The browser interprets the HTML tags to display the page.

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### Author: ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045/6 "2003-03-09T15:26:14Z")

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If it’s a page created using an active script, you can only view the output of the script, not the script itself, in case anyone was wondering about that.

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### Author: ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/webpage-htm-viewing/160045/7 "2003-03-09T15:56:50Z")

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Same with JSP and Perl.