How To Export Gmail Messages to HTML

This Alphr post told you how to export Gmail emails as text documents. We also talked about how to save emails as PDFs. However, it’s better to save backup email copies as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) files that open in your browser. This way the emails will retain their images, hyperlinks, and text formatting, and take up less space than PDFs.

Unfortunately Google forgot to add an export as HTML option to Gmail, but you can still export Gmail messages to the HTML format. Here’s ho

Copy and Paste Gmail Emails to Notepad

First, you can use the copy and paste hotkeys to save your Gmail emails as HTML files with Notepad. If you want the HTML tags included in the Notepad file, then first you should paste the emails into a text-to-HTML converter. (Don’t worry, we’ll show you one in a minute.) Then you can copy the converted HTML email and paste that into Notepad.

So let’s try it.

1. Open an email in Gmail, and select all its content with the cursor.

2. Press the Ctrl + C hotkey to copy the message to the Windows clipboard.

3. Then open this website page. Unit-Conversion has one of the tools we recommend for changing formatted text to HTML.

4. Paste the email into the input data text box by pressing Ctrl + V.

5. Press the Convert button to convert the pasted email to HTML output as shown in the snapshot directly below.

6. Select the HTML output with the cursor, and press the Ctrl + C hotkey.

7. Now open Notepad. (You can open the Cortana app in Windows 10, and enter “Notepad” in its search box. Select to open Notepad.”

8. When the Notepad file is open, press Ctrl + V to paste your HTML email into Notepad.

9. Click File > Save As.

10. Select All Files from the Save-as-type drop-down menu.

11. Enter a file title with HTML at the end of it. For example, you could enter something like: Gmail email.HTML.

12. Then select to save it to Desktop, and press the Save button. Now you’ll have a saved email HTML file on the Windows Desktop.

Convert Gmail Email PDFs to HTML Format

Chrome’s Print dialog window enables you to save emails you have open in Gmail as PDFs. You can then convert the PDF copies to HTML format with various web apps or software. This is how you can save Gmail messages as PDFs and then convert them to HTML with the Convert PDF to HTML & Word web app.

1. First, open a Gmail email in Google Chrome.

2. Click the Print all button shown in the snapshot directly below.

3. The Print all option opens the email in Chrome’s Print dialog window as shown directly below. There, click the dropdown on the Destination button, and select the Save as PDF option.

4. Press the Save button to open a Save As window.

5. Then choose a folder to save the PDF to, and press the Save button. Now you have a PDF copy of the Gmail email.

6. Click this hyperlink to open the Convert PDF to HTML & Word web app at PDFOnline in your browser.

7. Press the Local device button.

8. Select the PDF email that you saved, and press the Open button. A preview of your HTML email will open as shown in the snapshot directly below.

9. Click the Download option to save the email.

Convert Gmail Emails to HTML With Outlook

You can also open your Gmail email with email client software and export it as HTML from there. Outlook is one email client that enables you to save emails as HTML. To import your Gmail messages in Outlook, you’ll need to open your Google My Account tab to enable 2-step verification for Gmail, and set up an app password that Outlook can use to connect to Gmail. Then you can add your Gmail account to Outlook and save emails as HTML as follows.

1. Open Outlook and click the File tab.
2. Select File and Add Account to open an Add Account window.
3. Enter your Gmail login details and press the Finish button to sync Gmail with Outlook. Then you can open Gmail emails in Outlook.
4. Open a Gmail email from your Outlook mail list.
5. Click File > Save As to open the Save As dialog window.
6. Select HTML from the Save as type drop-down menu.
7. Enter a file title, and choose a folder to save the email to.
8. Then press the Save button.

Open the HTML Emails in Your Browser

When you’ve exported emails as HTML, you can open them again by right-clicking their files and selecting “Open with.” Select to open the email with your web browser (that’s Chrome, Firefox, Explorer, and so on). The email will open in a browser tab, as in the shot directly below. Firefox users can open HTML files by clicking File > Open File and selecting the email to open.

So that’s how you can export Gmail emails to HTML. You can also convert emails to HTML, and other file format, with the Total Mail Converter software. With HTML email copies you can delete more emails from Gmail to free up some inbox (and Google Drive) storage space.