Here's how to save a large topic from the forum

[waltk]

i do it all the time. you need to set the "print preview" to print ALL the pages, not just the one you're looking at.

Hmmm....  So Cute PDF Writer will actually navigate to other pages by driving your browser behind the scenes?  That's very surprising.  I wonder how it knows what to send to get from one page in a multipage topic to the next.  Wouldn't the navigational commands be different for various forum software?

[pinkjimiphoton]

i just used cute pdf writer to archive the first 11 pages of the ludwig phase II tech notes into one pdf file, bro. want me to send it to ya so you can see?

for real...apparently in the free version, 11 pages is the max it will do. but that's including graphics, backgrounds, avatars, even smileys and stuff. if ya wanna print a 100 page thread, you'd have to go about 10 pages at a time, but it works.

hang on a sec, here's a sendspace of the first 11 pages of the thread i mentioned, in pdf format:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/azhdyz

check it out...first 11 of the 23 pages right there, with ALL graphics, even backgrounds.

[defaced]

That's only the first page of the thread.  It takes 11 pages to print, but it's only 1 of 23 pages of the thread. Walt is talking about getting all 23 pages of the thread into one document.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i know what you're talking about. i understand hypertext, have webmastered for years. just offered a way that may be easier for some people....they may find it easier to print to a couple pdf's than having to go thru the html code and change all the links to graphics so that the downloaded pages will work for offline viewing.

do what ya want. sorry, dude, trying to be helpful. feel free to do whatever ya wanna do.

me? to me, it's easier to print a couple pdf's with a couple mouse clicks, than to go thru huge hypertext files fixing code. but that's just me.  looking at it, you're right, it's only the first page of the thread...which would take 11 pages to "print". oh well.

later.

[waltk]

That's only the first page of the thread.  It takes 11 pages to print, but it's only 1 of 23 pages of the thread. Walt is talking about getting all 23 pages of the thread into one document.

Yep, I think we're talking about 2 different things - print pages vs. forum pages.  Turns out that using a PDF writer can still only print one forum page.  One page in a forum topic actually produces several virtual PDF pages when you print it.

I got the idea for this topic because I was looking at a topic that had 125 forum pages (that actually produced 438 print pages).  The goal of this topic was to demonstrate a way to save a file with the entire thread (including graphics) for offline browsing purposes.

I also prefer PDF documents, and I use a commercial PDF writer to produce them.  The Cute PDF writer is a great alternative (especially because it's free).  Thanks for suggesting that (pinkjimi)!

As far as "going thru huge hypertext files", what I offered to do in the original post was to write a small utility that does it for you.  Now that the topic has exceeded one page, I guess I'll have to man up and write it.  (I expect it to be trivial, though, as all it needs to do is apply one regular expression to the entire file.)

[waltk]

OK, so here is the software that will take your saved 'Print' version of a topic, and convert the image references back into true image tags.

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=46078&g2_GALLERYSID=56273756c9e85f5ead1f66d4270edfa0

It's a zip file that contains a single executable.

Basic info about it:

• It is written VB.Net and requires the .Net Framework 4.0 to run.
• It has a user interface with a short instruction and one button. (no commandline interface).
• When you click the button, it prompts for a file (the HTML file you saved with the forum print button).
• You can pick multiple files, and will process them all.
• The original source file is not changed, the changed version is saved with an 'X' appended to the name.
• It works for me, but I don't guarantee it will for you.  There are no warranties of any kind.

[waltk]

OK.  So I already noticed one minor bug.  It doesn't have any impact on how the program works, but here it is:
After a file is converted, the status bar at the bottom of the window tells you the name of the output file.
It says the output file name is the same as the input file with an 'X' appended.
In reality, the 'X' is inserted before the extension (.htm), so you can just double-click the output file to open it in your browser.

[jbgron]

Nice work Walt.

[waltk]

Well, I guess most people didn't find the little utility I wrote very useful, 'cause there have only been a couple downloads.  Personally, I like to be able to archive certain threads.  You never know when some valuable schematic or layout image will go missing.  Also, it's nice to be able to search an entire thread.  ..but I guess that's just me.

Anyway, before I let this thread fade into the sunset, I've uploaded one last updated version of the utility.  New features include:

• In addition to image links that end with JPG, PNG, and GIF, references to links in the forum gallery are also converted
• Other things that look like HTTP references are converted to hypertext (<a>) links
• After the conversion, a summary of all the posters in the topic is displayed  - and also added to output file
• A list of the converted image links is added to the output file

Here's the download link: http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=46108&g2_GALLERYSID=56273756c9e85f5ead1f66d4270edfa0

[defaced]

Thanks!  This will come in super handy in the near future. 

[jazbo8]

Just tried the program, it worked like a charm, highly recommended!

Jaz