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General discussion

Selecting and printing a part of a webpage or document

Nov 17, 2004 12:55AM PST

I learned in another thread that, at least in certain situations, a person can select part of a webpage or document and then print only that part. However, I, and I expect other Newbies, don't know how to do this. I tried to highlight a selection and print it but that doesn't work. I'm hoping someone will advise as to how this is done both in IE and Firefox. grandpaw7

Discussion is locked

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Re: Selecting and printing a part of a webpage or document
Nov 17, 2004 1:25AM PST

If you can "click and drag" which hi-lites the text to be printed, then hit Ctrl+P. This will bring up the printer menu,look in "print range" then make sure you check the "selection" in order to print the hi-lited text, otherwise the default mode will print the whole text/pages displayed. This won't work on HTML displays or a picture of text as it were, this isn't real text, but a picture, its handled differently.

good luck Happy -----Willy

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Re: Selecting and printing a part of a webpage or document
Nov 17, 2004 2:57AM PST

grandpaw7
If i'm not mistaken,I think you can also highlight the section you want to print, and copy and paste it into the Microsoft Works Word Processor, and print it from there.
If I am wrong someone will correct me.
Larry

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Re: Selecting and printing a part of a webpage or document
Nov 17, 2004 4:40AM PST

While you are not wrong, Larry, since just as you described can be done, it is not what Gramps was asking about. Nor is it the easiest way IF your browser and printer configuration can already support selected printing.

Gramps, as you already read above, just select your desired portion of a webpage, and either press the ctrl-P (if that is a valid command in your browser)
- or else select the File command, then select the dropdown Print command,
then see if, in the print options page, there is a "Selection" Range selection.

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Re: Selecting and printing a part of a webpage or document
Nov 17, 2004 6:13AM PST

Thanks Chuck,Willy and grandpaw7.
I just tried it and it is a lot faster. Learned something new again today.
Larry

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Still one second faster ...
Nov 17, 2004 7:19AM PST

make a selection with the mouse, then right click and choose print.

It's faster because you don't need to move your fingers to the keyboard to type ctrl-P, nor move the mouse mouse poiner to the upper left corner of the screen.


Curiously, I also have a 'websearch' in my right-click menu (IE5.5). Select a word, right click, choose websearch, and that brings me to a yahoo search site, WITHOUT the selected word filled in. Don't know why it's yahoo (never use it, can't find it in my Search Assistent setup, nor in Tools>Options) and don't understand why the selection isn't filled in. Can anybody shed light on this problem? An right-click google or alltheweb on a selected word might be useful, but this isn't.


Kees

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Re: Still one second faster ...
Nov 17, 2004 7:42AM PST

Hmmm

Doesn't happen for me. I use IE 6.

Ooops! I mean I don't use IE. At all. Never!

Mark

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Re: Still one second faster ...
Nov 17, 2004 11:56AM PST

Hello Kees,

I beleive you likely got that "Web Search" added to MSIE long ago by adding the additional Microsoft Internet Tools or the MSIE 5X Web Developer Accessories. Matter of fact I would bet on it.

They still work with MSIE 6 and can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/previous/webaccess/default.mspx

The "View partial source" option is especially handy.

By the way, you could easily change the search page from its default Yahoo search page to any other search engine by editing your %WinDir%\Web\selsearch.htm file.

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Thanks,
Nov 18, 2004 7:06AM PST

Edward,

As usual: well informed, right to the point, clear and useful.
The forum etiquette (home page) says to (only?) thank the moderators for their time and effort, but you certainly deserve it too.

Regards,


Kees

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Nothing works
Nov 17, 2004 8:01AM PST

I guess either my browser (IE and Firefox, I've tried both), or my printer (Canon i560), or both don't have the necessary features. I always get copies of the whole article and not just the part I have hightlighted.

Perhaps for me Larry's suggestion, though less convenient, is the only solution.

It would helpful to know what browsers and what printers feature selected printing; that might save those without same from failed dry runs.

grandpaw

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Re: I always get copies of the whole article
Nov 17, 2004 4:47PM PST

Gramps, BEFORE it actually prints, you should be looking at the print options page, where you can change you selection of printer (if you have more than one) and other printer preferences. On that options page, with IE at least, you should see the Page Range area.

In that Page range area there will be 3 radio selection buttons. (FYI, they are called radio buttons because selecting any one automatically de-selects any other, like a car radio push button).

The 3 selections are
(*) All
( ) Selection
( ) Pages [with a fill-in field]

Even if whatever you have selected is NOT supported, the "( ) Selection" will be there, but ghosted (grayed out).

If you are not seeing those 3 selections, with IE, then there is something seriously wrong with your IE, because it is part of the base code of the product.

You don't need to actually print anything to know if your selection print capability exists.

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EUREKA!!
Nov 18, 2004 12:37AM PST

Well, there it is, and was. Now, I know.

I got fooled in trying to find the Page Range options because, though I thought I had switched to IE from my default Firefox browser, I didn't realize that I was being automatically switched back to Firefox. I discovered that the Page Range options are not available in Firefox nor in offline printing.

Much thanks to all for the input.

grandpaw

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WRONG, WRONG, WRONG
Nov 18, 2004 9:45AM PST

Page is available in Firefox, though there it is called Print Range. grandpaw

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Re: Nothing works
Nov 17, 2004 6:31PM PST

How to you perform the print job? Too many people use the print icon or picture on the tool bar. Click on file at the top of the page then print. There you will get a dialogue box that will allow you to choose "selection". If you highlight a portion of a web page, document, e-mail, etc. and pick selection from the print dialogue box, it will only print the highlighted portion.

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Re: Nothing works
Nov 18, 2004 12:44AM PST

Hi, glb. I do print by going File>Print, but my trouble was that I was using Firefox rather than IE, and Firefox doesn't provide the Page Range options. grandpaw

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Re: Nothing works
Nov 18, 2004 6:14AM PST

One thing you will find not matter which program you are using, the option to print "selection" will only appear if you have something highlighted. If you don't, that option isn't available. So it you want to practice with different programs or browsers, remember to select or highlight something.

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Thank you GLB
Nov 18, 2004 7:16AM PST

I have been trying to figure that out for ages and besides the other great advice given by everybody on this thread, I was still having trouble printing only a certain part of the page. I just did what you said to highlight what I want to print, which unshades the "selection" option on the printer options and tried it and it worked like a dream. Thank you very much. Grin
Also thanks to Grandpaw, who always asks great questions IMO LOL

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Re: Thank you GLB
Nov 18, 2004 7:52AM PST

I'm glad to hear it worked. I wish I had know about that option years before I did. I could have saved myself a lot of paper and ink.

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Re: Thank you GLB
Nov 18, 2004 7:57AM PST

I KNEW there was a simple way of doing it by highlighting it but I never noticed before that the "selection" but became available then. I think I tried every other option under the sun BUT that one. The first thing I printed out that way was YOUR instructions so I could save them for the next time I forget. It only took ONE inch of paper. LOL Thanks again.

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Re: Nothing works
Nov 17, 2004 10:51PM PST

I wouldn't blame the browsers yet if nothing fancy has been done to them. The normal install of IE or any other browser shouldn't effect printouts. You *do* get the printer menu display with the "selection" checked and you are able to change it??? If not and its greyed out can't be changed, then the default will be whole text page(s) output. Offhand, I can't see the browser being the source of problems. As another poster mention, select the whole page display/document and save it in your favorite document folder. Then proceed to use a word processor to dump what you want. The only area I think offhand that may effect printout maybe "security" if set too high or you need to configure to allow actions from web pages. Here's it tricky as you effect alot more than just printouts, in "IE- tools options" find security and where is it set at or review at least. If the "selected" printout ever worked before, then use the restore feature to go to a date when it worked.

good luck -----Willy

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Re: Nothing works
Nov 18, 2004 12:46AM PST

Hi, Willy. Well, it turns out that my problem was that I was using Firefox which doesn't provide the Page Range options. grandpaw

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Re: Nothing works
Nov 18, 2004 11:12PM PST

Wellllll........

I'm using Firefox 1.0 and it did print what I selected. Are you using an earlier version, maybe 0.8c, then update to 1.o release. Plus, I thought you mentioned you tried IE too.

Anyways, glad you zeroed in on it. adios -----Willy

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I sit corrected, Willy
Nov 19, 2004 12:30AM PST

At my age, I no longer stand corrected.

You'll see that I did see my error and addressed in a recent post.

Thanks, grandpaw

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My Conclusions
Nov 18, 2004 9:43AM PST

One problem in researching the forum for answers is that, for example with this thread, a person is faced with the prospect of reading a large number posts to see where the answer might be, and then having to congeal all of the various comments about how to do it into a single answer.

There may not be a good way to avoid that, and I am hardly the person to try to provide the final word, but I am going to post the conclusions I have reached as a result of reading this thread as perhaps a small step toward making the answers more readily available.

To print part of a page in IE, highlight the part you want to print and then click File>Print. In the lower left part of the the Print window that is opened, you will see Page Range, with three options under it, one reading All, one reading Selection, and one reading Pages. You opt for Selection and click Print.

You do the same thing in Firefox, except that it uses the title Print Range rather than Page Range.

You can't print part of a document in MS Works this way because Print window you get from clicking File>Print in Works provides only two options, All and Pages.

grandpaw

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Re: My Conclusions
Nov 18, 2004 7:33PM PST

One problem with giving advice is, there is always more than one way to perform a task. People tend to use what they learned first.

For example, if you want to copy and paste, you can highlight the text then use the right mouse button. If you don't like that style, you can go to edit at the top of the page or use keyboard shortcuts. So when someone asks how to perform a task, you can get several answers that are all correct.

The same thing is true when printing. I never use the print icon. I always use the menu at the top of the page. Why? Because I like to use the draft or fast mode to save ink. That choice isn't available when using the icon.

So when asking a question on this or any of the forums, be prepared to sift through a variety of answers.

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Re: draft or fast mode ... isn't available
Nov 19, 2004 4:46AM PST

Actually, GLB you can probably make Draft mode the default mode.

One way is to just set your default settings of your printer to Draft.

Another way, and sort of more useful, but not as obvious, just install your same printer a 2nd time, so that you now have 2 printers in your Printers folder.
You can have more than one printer icon to the same printer in your Printers folder.

Then set one to have the default properties of draft, and rename it to let you know which is the Draft setting.
Then make it your default printer.

So, whenever you click your print icon, in your browser, it uses the draft setting of your printer.
And then, when ever you want quality printing either select your "2nd" printer (same printer, but with the quality printing settings) OR just change the setting of your already selected printer and change the setting from draft to quality.

I do this with my color printer. I have my default printer set to Black&While, and the other printer set to Color. Then I just select ?either printer" (both are the same - just different settings) and print in that mode.

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Re: draft or fast mode ... isn't available
Nov 19, 2004 5:01AM PST

I don't want to make the draft mode my default print setting. I do print enough other things that require normal or best mode. It really isn't that much trouble to click once or twice to pick what I want.

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Agreed
Nov 20, 2004 12:19AM PST

grandpaw

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''Pictures'' are worth a thousand words.
Nov 20, 2004 9:08PM PST

1. To print part of a page in IE, highlight the part you want to print and then click File>Print.

Or right-click the highlighted portion and select Print from the context menu which appears.

2. In the lower left part of the the "Print" (click to see a screen shot) window that is opened, you will see Page Range, with three options under it, one reading All, one reading Selection, and one reading Pages.

The Selection range should be available only if a part of something to print has been highlighted. To print that selection, use this option.

3. You opt for Selection and click Print.

After making the selection, you click the button labeled OK to print.