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General discussion

why don't you allow for a normal print function in forums

Mar 20, 2011 11:25AM PDT

I have used a lot of forums and yours is the least friendly that remember ever seeing, especially in that it somehow prohibits any use of the normal print functions of Windows, let alone that you don't provide a print-friendly button to make it easy as many others are now doing. I like your other sites, in some cases despite some problems, but I cannot say that about your forums. If you are testing some changes to the forums as one clue I found indicates, then this is an area literally crying out to be addressed. Of course, I can always use the printscreen function or a screen capture program, but the point is that I shouldn't have to and newbies won't know how to. In case you are so dense that you don't know why people need to print out your forum pages, all I can say is that you must have someone else to do all your computer work for you, because it is essential in many, many cases to turn off Windows or even the computer itself in order to follow the steps necessary to fix the problem that is addressed by the computer, and in order to remember all the steps and do them in the right order, the most logical thing to do and be efficient (and not go back to horse and buggy days--oops, I said buggy--I hope it's just a bug that is causing this problem and not a conscious intentional decision on your part to prevent printing of forum comments, which after all usually come from a third party and so are hard to understand why you should so jealously guard them against normal printing when so many other forums do not.) Well, I've said enough, and probably made a grammatical mistake or two, but I hope I at least made my point. The question then becomes how you will decide to respond to it.

Discussion is locked

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For my part
Mar 20, 2011 11:04PM PDT

I would Copy/Paste.

I have never found printing web pages to be wholly satisfactory, for any web site, so if I ever needed to I would copy/paste text into my word processor, or if I am not too concerned with formatting, into Notepad.

But lets see what others here say.

"conscious intentional decision"? I strongly doubt it, but then I am just a volunteer here, so who am I to say otherwise?

Mark

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I generally do the same, but...
Mar 21, 2011 8:27AM PDT

There is a print option for much of CNET's other content, from news articles to product reviews. Printing a forum post makes even more sense since many people do not have the option of reading the instructions on one computer while working on another, and that's one of the reasons I suggested it as a new feature. The forums are indeed being updated soon, and although I don't know when a print option will make an appearance, I fully expect it to be coming in the not-too-distant future. It's simply too beneficial not to be added, and the suggestion was generally well-received in the past.

In the interim, though, copying-and-pasting the content into Notepad or another word processor and printing from there, as Mark suggested, is your best option.

Regards,
John

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IMHO, it isn't necessary if printer allows for . . .
Mar 24, 2011 2:02AM PDT

Sure there are different printers out here but regarding the options I have to print with my Canon MX860 all I have to do is click once with the cursor at the beginning of the text I want to start from, move to the section where I want printing to end and while holding the "Shift Key" click once more at that spot to highlight the block of text wanted (this without having to hold the mouse key and moving the cursor through the text area). I click File, Print, and when the print options are displayed, I select "Selection" (instead of the default option for printing pages) and I get printed exactly what was highlighted.

It sure beats printing entire web pages since you get everything from beginning to end.

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what I do
Apr 4, 2011 5:01AM PDT

I use PDF Creator, available from CNET's download.com site to take in the whole page, usually with the setting for paper size at Custom for 100 inches long, which gets most things onto one page. If you really intend to print it, then might be better to keep standard page sizes when sending to PDF Creator. It then opens in my old Full Version Adobe Acrobat 4 and I crop the part I wanted. If it's just a screen shot needed, instead of several pages long, then that's not necessary of course. All that only takes moments to do once you've gotten the knack of it.

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Here's an example
Apr 4, 2011 5:06AM PDT
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I tried the pdf route
Nov 19, 2011 1:59AM PST

But it came out just like if I had printed it with all the left side info running on top of the posts. Probably matters what pdf program you use? I used an old version of Scan Soft PDF Create. I think I have a couple other ones I can try.