21 Re: re: re: a way …

Replying to No. 18

… the page that had most recently frustrated me does not have the @media print{} in thier css it’s instead in the header as a link rel=�stylesheet� media=�print� …

Well, in the case of Chris Pederick’s Web Developer extension, it’s not editable in that way; however, if using that extension it gets even easier: go to the WD tool bar -> CSS -> Disable -> Print Styles. Now print it. Ta da!

posted at 11:16 pm on October 24, 2006 by John Lascurettes

22 Untitled

Feh! Blasted Textile. WD tool bar > CSS > Disable > Print styles. Print it.

posted at 11:18 pm on October 24, 2006 by John Lascurettes

23 Simplify

It seems like losing the back button is too high a cost to incur given functionality that can be achieved by offering a print preview button or hyperlink leading harmlessly to a new page containing the same content.

posted at 07:27 am on October 25, 2006 by Andrew Hoffman

24 Print button on the preview

would it be an idea to show the page with the print stylesheet as a preview, and then displayin the good ol’ print button in this preview… This way the user can see the preview and print it without knowing about how to print from the browser.

posted at 11:47 pm on October 26, 2006 by Flemming Hoffmeyer

25 Preview before Print

The example shown in the article gives the print dialog immediately, on top of the preview window. I think it would be a bit better to show a preview first, then allow the person to easily print. Flemming’s suggestion above is a good one for this.

Also, it seems to me that the old familiar link text “printer friendly version” (or something like it) is still in widespread use. I like this because it’s familiar by now, and it doesn’t leave any surprises in store: you know you’re getting a version suitable for printing, and there’s no wondering whether you’ll get a print dialog box, a preview, or both.

posted at 07:25 pm on November 2, 2006 by John G

26 Expectations

As a user (and infrequent web designer) I generally despise print stylesheets. I expect that printing the page I see in front of me will give me the page I see in front of me. If you assume you (as the web designer) know which parts I find redundant, you’ll be wrong often enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth. If I want a dry, content-only page, I would much rather have a “printer-friendly” link (a link that opens in the same window so I can use the Back button), see what I’ll get, and print that.
I also strongly agree with Nathan Jones above; I use “printer friendly” pages more often to read long articles without all the cruft.
To sum: give me a printer-friendly link, and keep the print stylesheet as minimal as possible.

posted at 09:54 pm on November 5, 2006 by Daniel Wachsstock

27 Cunning way to show preview

I don’t know if this will work, but it’s something I’m contemplating – any suggestions welcome!

I will continue to use a print stylesheet, because despite what a couple of people here have said, my experience is that most people prefer pages to print without “fluff” (menus, ads, etc), nicely filling the page.

What I would like to do is to add a “view page as it will print” link that shows them a preview – but without having to do any recoding. What I’m thinking is to (using _, obviously) have a link that opens a new window with target name of “print”, and then use an unobtrusive Javascript to @import (again by _[removed]) the print stylesheet with media=all, overriding the screen stylesheet, if the window has name of “print”.

I don’t use server-side scripting or CMS, so short of making a copy of every page linked to the print stylesheet, I can’t think of an easier way of achieving this. The question is … will it work?

posted at 04:34 pm on November 6, 2006 by Stephen Down

28 Re: Cunning way to show preview

Stephen:
Using [removed] makes for very hard to debug javascript. You’re better off manipulating the DOM directly; just use the alternate style sheet code from the classic A List Apart article by Paul Snowden to change the stylesheet

posted at 09:44 pm on November 6, 2006 by Daniel Wachsstock

29 would it be a right idea

would it be an idea to show the page with the print stylesheet as a preview

posted at 06:33 pm on November 7, 2006 by Hemant Kumar

30 Print Preview

would it be an idea to show the page with the print stylesheet as a preview

I’m not sure exactly what you mean here.

If you use the “print preview” function of your browser, it will render the page according to the print stylesheet.

If you mean having a link or widget on the page that will switch to the print stylesheet for screen display, that is one of the things that has been discussed here – and in particular, is exactly what I was talking about in #27. The question is the most effective way to do this.

If you run a database-driven CMS then it’s probably fairly easy to set up. For static .htm pages, not so easy without loads of Javascript.

posted at 03:24 pm on November 9, 2006 by Stephen Down