Printing threads?

[Mike64]

I saw a couple of old threads on the subject, but seemingly none relevant to the latest version of the forum's software.

Even with almost all scripts allowed, I'm not seeing any sort of "print view" or "print thread" option/icon, and I don't see anything about it on the help page(s). Am I just missing something, or does that option no longer exist in the current version of the forum software? Simply "printing" from the normal view of a thread doesn't work - not only are there a lot of blank pages inserted among the printable ones, the text of long posts just doesn't show up in its entirety at all, no matter how badly formatted.

I don't see why it would matter, but fwiw, the specific thread I was trying to print is The Food Storage thread.

 

[RossMAN]

@Kaido delivers again with a wealth of information, he is a great asset to this community and IP cult leader!

Googling "xenofo print thread" shows you're not alone and there are mods available to make this possible but we're at the mercy of the forum admins.
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/need-a-print-thread-option.92593/

Have you considered saving as .pdf instead of printing? Keeping a digital and searchable copy of the thread for prosperity?
https://www.howtogeek.com/150891/how-to-print-to-pdf-in-windows-4-tips-and-tricks/

Forums won't be around forever as we've seen recently, so it's wise to save useful resources for offline viewing, however I recommend keeping a digital copy instead of paper.
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/fatwallet-is-shutting-down.2519636/

 

[Kaido]

I saw a couple of old threads on the subject, but seemingly none relevant to the latest version of the forum's software.

Even with almost all scripts allowed, I'm not seeing any sort of "print view" or "print thread" option/icon, and I don't see anything about it on the help page(s). Am I just missing something, or does that option no longer exist in the current version of the forum software? Simply "printing" from the normal view of a thread doesn't work - not only are there a lot of blank pages inserted among the printable ones, the text of long posts just doesn't show up in its entirety at all, no matter how badly formatted.

I don't see why it would matter, but fwiw, the specific thread I was trying to print is The Food Storage thread.

Yeah like Rossman said, printing to a PDF is an easy option. OSX, Windows 10, and ChromeOS have it built-in; if you're using something older, like Windows 7, CutePDF is free app for adding a PDF printer. Get the zipped setup here, you'll need to install both parts:

http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Alternatively, like what Rossman said regarding making a searchable digital archive, what I do is archive them in Google Drive. Create a new document and then either select-all on the webpage (CTRL+A) & copy (CTRL+C), or just highlight post by post & optionally put a horizontal line break (from the insert menu) between the posts you paste into the gDoc. That's a nice approach because then you can pick & choose which posts you want to save (since not all of them are always relevant to what you want to keep) & because, at least copy/pasting from the Chrome browser, it preserves the formatting, particularly the links. In the screenshot below, I highlighted your post using my mouse, copy/pasted it into a Google Docs file, and clicked the blue link to demonstrate how it preserves the URL embedded in the text. Bonus, it's searchable in Google Drive & you can pull it up from the Google Drive app on your smartphone as well. Very useful for archiving information & making it accessible when you want to find it down the road!

 

[Mike64]

It didn't occur to me that anyone would think I meant "printing on paper". By "printing", I just meant "creating linear, readable/saveable, non-HTML-file output using the print command". (It's been quite a while since I've "printed on paper" much if anything for personal use on a regular basis except working copies of recipes and to-do/errand/shopping lists...)

But apparently, as RossMAN's second link demonstrates, it is in fact no longer an actual forum option here. Which sucks, but realistically, I guess just wasn't/isn't a priority since I most people probably don't even look for it these days... When necessary, I do either take screen captures (and usually print those to PDFs), or copy-and-paste into plain text files, or Word documents when I want clickable URLs ). But if I don't need to be able to edit or rearrange whatever I'm "printing", it's so much quicker and easier to just "print" to a PDF...

As for PDF utilities, I personally settled on the "trial version" of Bullzip a while back. At this point I don't remember what I didn't like about CutePDF, but there must've been something, since I stopped using it. I did like NitroPDF even better than BullZip but I'm incredibly cheap when it comes to paying "full price" for software unless I have no choice, and iirc, a lot of NitroPDF's more "advanced" features simply stopped worked entirely when the trial period ended (and then they nag you with emailed "special offers" in perpetuity even after you uninstall it completely), while BullZip let's you keep using most of theirs if you're willing to live with a non-(easily)-deletable "trial version" footer in a blatantly obvious red font (which I am willing to live with, for personal use)...

 

[Kaido]

It didn't occur to me that anyone would think I meant "printing on paper". By "printing", I just meant "creating linear, readable/saveable, non-HTML-file output using the print command". (It's been quite a while since I've "printed on paper" much if anything for personal use on a regular basis except working copies of recipes and to-do/errand/shopping lists...)

But apparently, as RossMAN's second link demonstrates, it is in fact no longer an actual forum option here. Which sucks, but realistically, I guess just wasn't/isn't a priority since I most people probably don't even look for it these days... When necessary, I do either take screen captures (and usually print those to PDFs), or copy-and-paste into plain text files, or Word documents when I want clickable URLs ). But if I don't need to be able to edit or rearrange whatever I'm "printing", it's so much quicker and easier to just "print" to a PDF...

As for PDF utilities, I personally settled on the "trial version" of Bullzip a while back. At this point I don't remember what I didn't like about CutePDF, but there must've been something, since I stopped using it. I did like NitroPDF even better than BullZip but I'm incredibly cheap when it comes to paying "full price" for software unless I have no choice, and iirc, a lot of NitroPDF's more "advanced" features simply stopped worked entirely when the trial period ended (and then they nag you with emailed "special offers" in perpetuity even after you uninstall it completely), while BullZip let's you keep using most of theirs if you're willing to live with a non-(easily)-deletable "trial version" footer in a blatantly obvious red font (which I am willing to live with, for personal use)...

LOL that made my day. We're still stuck mentally in the past with paper, apparently

Yeah, it's very odd that there's no print option. If you want to try a plugin-based workaround, there are "reading mode" plugins for Chrome (and other browsers) that strip away everything & let you print. I downloaded "Just Read" to try out & it works okay:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/just-read/dgmanlpmmkibanfdgjocnabmcaclkmod?hl=en

It's not as good as a dedicated print mode for the forum, nor is it as good as manually copying & pasting into say a gDoc or Word file, but it is quick & does strip away the background colors & whatnot, so it might be worth a shot!

 

[Mike64]

LOL that made my day. We're still stuck mentally in the past with paper, apparently

Yeah, it's very odd that there's no print option. If you want to try a plugin-based workaround, there are "reading mode" plugins for Chrome (and other browsers) that strip away everything & let you print. I downloaded "Just Read" to try out & it works okay:

If I'd been posting on a non-tech forum, I might've been more explicit; I didn't actually give it any thought, but I guess (unconsciously) I figured people here would realize I was just referring to the "print" functionality, not the final result.

I don't use Chrome (in fact, can't use Chrome, since I still haven't gotten around to replacing my Vista desktop) but I checked to see if there was an (identical) FF version of that plug-in, but no luck. When I get the chance, or maybe the next time I really want the functionality, I'll spend some time browsing FF plug-ins to see if there's an equivalent. That would certainly be convenient, since there are other web forums that produce even less readable output than AT using just the browser's own print function and while the workarounds aren't a big deal for a couple or few posts, they get old, fast when you're trying to print out a long thread...<sigh> Sometimes I resort to just saving them as html files but (a) that doesn't always work, and (b) they're nowhere near as portable.

 

[Crono]

Reader might work for this. You may have to manually select blocks of text in order for it to parse more than just a single post, though.