This New Way Of Saving "threads"

I'm trying to figgure out this new system of saving a "thread". In the old way it would save a folder of files and a short cut to get to them. Under this new system it appears that to save a "Thread (article), it only saves a short cut to that article and you must be connected to the internet to read your saved "thread". Is this how this new system works? Where is the explination of all of the little "icons" to the left of and article's title? What do they mean? Thanks jerrycwo4