To save an individual scan to a file, choose “Save Scan” from the “Scan” menu (or use the keyboard shortcut ctrl+S). If there is more than one scan into the inventory you will be asked which one you want to save. On the save dialog, you have the choice of saving in “Nmap XML format” (.xml extension) or “Nmap text format” (.nmap extension). The XML format is the only format that can be opened again by Zenmap; if you save in text format you will not be able to open the file again. Nmap output formats are covered in the section called “XML Output (-oX)”.

You can save every scan in an inventory with “Save All Scans to Directory” under the “Scan” menu (ctrl+alt+S). When saving an inventory for the first time, you will commonly create a new directory using the “Create Folder” button in the save dialog. In subsequent saves you can continue saving to the same directory. To reduce the chance of overwriting unrelated scan files, the save-to-directory function will refuse to continue if the chosen directory contains a file that doesn't belong to the inventory. If you are sure you want to save to that directory, delete any offending files and then save again.

Saved results are loaded by choosing “Open Scan” from the “Scan” menu, or by typing the ctrl+O keyboard shortcut. In the file selector, the “Open” button opens a single scan, while the “Open Directory” button opens every file in the chosen directory (perhaps created using “Save All Scans to Directory”).

“Open Scan” opens loaded scans in a new window, thereby creating a new inventory. To merge loaded scans into the current inventory instead, use “Open Scan in This Window”.