Many manufacturers no longer publish their catalogue as a single 800-page PDF. They publish it as HTML: a home page, product families, a page per part number, and links to the datasheets, fitting instructions and certificates in PDF. The whole thing ships as a folder or a .zip archive, so that sales reps, distributors and technicians can take it anywhere, network or not.
On a laptop, that catalogue opens with a double click. On the iPad, the device you actually put on a customer's counter or on a trade show stand, it's another story. Here is how to browse it offline, links and PDFs included, with Pagira.
The HTML catalogue, a format made for the field
HTML has real advantages for a catalogue: you browse by family, brand or model instead of scrolling through hundreds of pages, the product pages point to each other, and the same edition reads on any computer with no software to install and no account to create. It is also a format that catalogue management tools export directly.
The situations where it's needed are always the same: at a customer's who asks for the part that fits their model, at a trade show where the Wi-Fi collapses on day one, in a workshop or warehouse with no network, abroad with no data plan.
Why it won't open on an iPad
An HTML catalogue is a folder: thousands of pages, a style sheet, pictures and PDFs stored in subfolders. iOS has nothing to open it as it is:
- The Files app previews one page at a time. Links to the other product pages lead nowhere, and pictures or the layout are often lost.
- Safari can't open an HTML file stored in Files.
- A .zip archive can be decompressed, but that doesn't open it.
We went through these dead ends in eight documents that arrive as a folder. A catalogue needs a reader that opens the whole folder and makes it work as on a computer.
Browsing your catalogue with Pagira
- The catalogue as it was designed. Pagira serves the folder locally like a real website: the home page, the menus, the links from one product page to the next, the pictures and the layout work, even interactive pages.
- Linked PDFs open in place. Tap the link to a datasheet or a manual: the PDF opens right in the view, with its contents, thumbnails and Go to Page. A swipe takes you back to the product page.
- Fully offline. Once the catalogue is on the iPad, everything opens without a connection. If it is stored in iCloud Drive, it streams page by page, and Download keeps a full copy on the device before a trip.
- The new edition without starting over. When the catalogue changes in iCloud Drive, Pagira tells you at opening, and Update fetches only the new or changed files. An interrupted download resumes by itself.
- Find a part number. After Prepare Search, a part number, a part name or a dimension can be found across every page of the catalogue and every one of its PDFs at once, datasheets included; tap a result, Pagira opens the right page and highlights the word. Scanned PDFs can be recognised, on the device. See searching a 3,000-page local documentation.
- The pages you use every day. Add to Favorites the product page or cross-reference table you keep opening; History keeps every page viewed, grouped by day.
Nothing leaves the device: no server, no account, no platform for IT to approve. For a catalogue that holds prices or part numbers not yet released, that's not a detail.
Getting the iPad ready before the road trip
- Get the catalogue the way your company distributes it: the folder, or the .zip archive. Copy it to Files, On My iPad, or to iCloud Drive. A company network share added to the Files app works too.
- Install Pagira from the App Store, tap Open a folder or file and pick the catalogue. A .zip archive unzips in one tap.
- Tap the catalogue's home page (often
index.html). Before leaving, tap Download if it is in iCloud Drive, and Prepare Search to find any part number in a second.
On site, leave the iPad in airplane mode if you like: the catalogue, its product pages and its PDFs all open. For the technical documentation that comes with the products, see also reading technical documentation offline on iPad.
The trial unlocks everything for 20 document openings; opening a folder doesn't count, and neither does following links through the catalogue. After that, a one-time purchase of $11.99, with no subscription and no account.
Frequently asked questions
Can you browse an HTML product catalogue on iPad offline?
Yes. Pagira opens the catalogue's whole folder offline: the navigation, the links between product pages, the pictures and the layout work as on a computer.
Do PDFs linked from an HTML catalogue open in Pagira?
Yes. A link to a datasheet or a manual opens the PDF right in the view, and a swipe takes you back to the product page.
Can you search for a part number across a whole catalogue?
Yes. After Prepare Search, Pagira finds a part number or a part name in every page of the catalogue and in its PDFs, on the device.
Does a catalogue delivered as a .zip open on iPad?
Yes. Pagira unzips the archive in one tap and opens the catalogue, with no computer needed.
Is the catalogue sent to a server?
No. Pagira reads the catalogue on the iPad, with no server and no account: nothing leaves the device.
