Print Only One Page

[dukeofbroadway]

Is there a solution for my users to print only one page of a topic? I would like to use a print button for this.
Thanks,
Duke

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Duke. If you are referring to printing a page of a CHM file there is already an inbuilt facility when the print button or menu item is used. The user is asked whether they wish to print only that topic or all the topics under it in the TOC.

[dukeofbroadway]

I'm actually using RoboHELPHTML X5 WebHelp. Any solution for this?

[Roger_N]

Duke -

If you want a button on the page itself, the print(); function will work for this. If you want it in the toolbar or elsewhere, you'll have to specify the frame as well. Here is a thread about printing from frames:

thread about printing from frames

[dukeofbroadway]

Just for clarification before I start checking frames: I want to have a button, pref on the the toolbar, that will let the user print the topic page that he/she is looking at. Some of my topics have several pages. I want the user to be able to print only one page. Will your solution enable the user to print a single page?
Regards,
Duke

[Peter Grainge]

Within RH outputs if the user clicks in the TOC frame and then clicks the browser print button, the TOC will print. If they click the topic and then the browser print button, the whole topic will print.

There is no concept of pages in an HTML topic so you cannot provide something to assist them to just print a particular page. On screen the topic is continuous so how would you / they know what page is to be printed?

Once the user has clicked print, the browsers print dialogue appears and the user can elect to print just a particular page as at that point the print driver has split the topic into pages.

[dukeofbroadway]

Unfortunately, the printer will only print out either the first page of the topic or all the pages of the topic (according to my test). If a page is in the middle of the topic, for instance, and I click my cursor there &printed, I would not get that specific page. But thanks anyway.

[Peter Grainge]

I just went to a topic that would take three sheets to print. Went to Print on the menu and changed the pages to 2 in both boxes and it just printed page 2.

[dukeofbroadway]

Hi Peter,
Yes, it does work the way you state.
Thank you

[Guest]

Good morning, Your Grace.

I had a similar problem with long pages (client wanted complete end-to-end procedure in one numbered flow; users wanted one screenful of text at a time). I split the procedures into workable chunks (topic.htm, topic_a.htm, topic_b.htm) with little 'More' links at the bottom of the page.

It was a little more work for me (if I edited a topic and it got longer, I had to redistribute the text into the following topics), but if this is going to be pretty stable, I would try it - because the users LOVED it. Only be sure to test it yourself on the user-typical resolution so that you know that the topics are indeed one page both on the screen and printed.

My .02 USD,
Elisa

[dukeofbroadway]

Hi Elise,

I understand your solution also would work, but for now I guess I will follow Peter's suggestions since I have inherited topics of over 40 pages in some cases and I just don't have the time to start breaking them up into their own topic sections at this point and still meet my deadline.

Thanks everyone!

[Chet Zeshonski]

I believe another option exists: the user can highlight the desired text, open a print dialog, and select the "print selection" option. This gives the user more control, although you'll need to explain the process somewhere in your documentation. Given the length of some of your topics, I'd think a handy little "Printing Topics" topic will be very helpful. You can explain the various printing methods there.

Here's another option: Use RH to generate printed documentation for each topic in Word format, separating the topics as you do so via the print wizard. Next, provide a "printer-friendly version" link in each topic that links to the generated Word verson of the topic. If a user wants to print a particular page of a topic, he clicks the link, opens the Word file, and then prints the desired page. Because you can number the pages, the user will be able to see exactly what he is printing. (Peter's suggestion will work, but I suspect that a user won't ever be certain what "page 2" of a multi-page unnumbered frame contains.)

-Chet

[dukeofbroadway]

The use of word files is an interesting solution. However, (1) I suppose I would have to regenerate the word file everytime I make a change to its corresponding topic and (2) where would the best place be to put the generated Word verson of the topic--a folder or in the root of my RH source files?

[Chet Zeshonski]

Yes, you'll need to update the Word document each time you make a change to the corresponding topic. However, this process shouldn't take too much time. You should consider using the Status field for each topic, which can be set to "In Progress," "Ready for Review," and "Complete." Assuming that each topic is marked "Complete" when you begin making this month's changes, you can:

1. Mark each edited topic "In Progress."
2. Sort by Status in RH's Topics tab to identify all WIPs.
3. Generate printed output that includes only those topics.
4. Reimport the Word document.

As for where to store them - I don't see any harm in generating to the root of the source file. Personal preference, however, would lead me to store the files in separate folders. It really depends on your folder schema, in my opinion.

-Chet

[Chet Zeshonski]

Oddly enough, if you generate printed documentation to the default SSL folder and then attempt to link the output to the CHM file, you will NOT be prompted to copy the file to the root project directory, and the link will NOT work. (It didn't work for me, anyway.) So I'd generate to the root directory.

-Chet

[dukeofbroadway]

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[dukeofbroadway]

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[dukeofbroadway]

Yes, the link works if the doc is in the root. Thanks

[dukeofbroadway]

Sorry for the repeats, there seemed to be a problem with the server this morning.

Anyway, I've been find that word is not the answer because when I print it (selecting a page or page range) the hardcopy numbers are not reflective of what I selected. Probablly has something to do with the RH codes.

PDF keeps the numbers in tack but the problem is that when I click the link for the PDF the PDF open out of the RH frame: It looks bad. If anyone knows how to keep the PDF in the RH frame, please let me know.

Thanks