4.9. Printing Web Pages Some Web pages look awful when printed. The page's entire right side disappears beyond the edge, for instance, or the bottom half prints on a second page. Or you may just want to print a few paragraphs, but all the graphics, ads, and borders that come along for the ride drain your inkjet's nozzles dry. Sometimes a simple border fits the entire first page, leaving the text to run down the second page. These Web pages don't print well because the Web site's creators don't really care about your printing problem. They have enough trouble making sure the page looks good on different- sized monitors and different types of computers using different operating systems and different Web browsers. To see how a page will look when liberated from the screen, choose File  Print Preview from your browser. If youre lucky, and it looks perfect, click the Print button to send the page or pages to the printer. If the Web site doesn't cooperate, try these tricks. -
Printer format . A few Web designers feel your pain, so they design special versions of their Web pages that look nice on standard-sized sheets of paper. Look for the words "Text Only" or "Print Format"usually near the page's top, right corner. -
Print only the part you want . Highlight the section you're afterthe text of a news article without all the surrounding ads, for exampleand then choose File Print. When the Print dialog box appears, choose Selection from the Page Range section. -
Print only the page you want . Some long Web pages extend six printed pages or more, but in many cases you want only one pagepage three, for instance. To print only that page, choose File Print Preview. When your browser shows you how the site looks on paper, click the Page arrows along the top until you find the page with your coveted information. Then print only that page using your printers Page Range setting (Section 4.4). -
Print in Landscape format . When printed, the right edge of some Web pages disappears off the paper's edge. To give the page more space, tell your printer to print in Landscape (horizontal) mode rather than in the vertical-oriented Portrait mode. -
Don't print the background . Some Web sites spruce up their pages with a patterned background. That golf course's Web site may look nice in Burberry, but printing those colors sucks your ink cartridges dry. Turn off backgrounds in Internet Explorer by choosing Tools Options Advanced. Scroll down to the Printing section, and turn off the "Print Background Colors and Images checkbox. (In Firefox, choose File Page Setup Print backgrounds.) -
Reformat in a word processor . From your browser, choose Edit Select All Edit Copy to copy the entire Web page to Windows clipboard. Open a full-featured word processor like Microsoft Word and then choose Edit Paste. The Web page turns into a convoluted jumble of tables, ready for you to pick apart. Use this labor- intensive procedure as a last resort. Internet Explorer's Print menu (File Print) offers an Options tab, letting you print frames large banners of stationary menus or ads that cling to the site's top or side as you move between pages. Few sites use frames these days, so this option doesn't mean much. To select a particular frame for printing, hold down Ctrl and press Tab. When you're inside the desired frame, choose File Print Options tab to send the page to the printer. If Ctrl+Tab merely jumps between the Web sites address and the page itself, the site doesn't use frames. |
