Written retrospectively for the 2004 archive.

I like the idea of saving a copy of a site before changing its design. A screenshot tells me what it looked like, but it leaves out the experience of clicking through it. The HTML and images let me reopen the old pages and see what I was trying to do.

For a small site, make a dated copy of its files and include a short note about how it was served. Open that copy in a separate folder. Click an old link and check an image. If something only works when the current live site is available, write that down while you can still investigate it.

The note doesn’t have to explain the whole project. It should give you a way to open the copy and a few details you’d otherwise have to figure out again.