Vistors printing pages

[pepe_starr]

I have a problem with my website

http://www.miniaturerailwayworld.co.uk/

People can view it OK, but if they try to print something off only half the page is printed. What can I do with this template to make it printable in the same format?

Many Thanks
Peter

[Rob]

Essentially, all you need to do is use a print style sheet....

Build you site in such a way that the WIDTH of the page is controlled via CSS....

In the print style sheet, just set the overall width to around 600px and it'll print fine.

[pepe_starr]

Well I changed the Width on the CSS page to 600 and nothing seems to have changed. I don't know about the print style sheet though where that is.

Many Thanks for your help Rob

[Rob]

The problem you have is that your design is not liquid....

What I am looking at is around 900px in total, and far from being 600px.

Anyway, it's not the visible width you need to change... it's the width ONLY WHEN PRINTING..... this is done using a print style sheet:-

ie:-

Code: Select all

<link rel="stylesheet"
   type="text/css"
   media="print" href="print.css" />

[pepe_starr]

OK, so would I put your spreadsheet within the HTML body of the document? Sorry I'm abit confused and not very good at this stuff.

[Rob]

First off, it's a stylesheet.... i definitly wouldn't going linking to a print spreadsheet as you will have all sorts of headache's...

You need to link to the print stylesheet from the HEAD section of your page.

Your OVERALL page width should be controlled already with CSS (if it isnt, then back to the drawing board for you)

I havent looked, but I suspect you are controlling page width using the width attribute of table cells.... if this is the case, then you need to externalise those width metrics into a CSS file.

[pepe_starr]

Thanks Rob I will look into that.

[moojoo]

http://www.newbeginningsdesign.com/samples/print/

This example should get you started, I never really finished it due to various reasons but the main idea/function is there.

[pepe_starr]

OK, Thank you I will look at it and see if I can figure it out.

[Compumaniac12]

another alternative would be to have a php script that took the page and made a printable version (like when you see printer friendly version option)
generally thats a script that shows the same page but with nothing except text.

if your website doesnt use php/mysql then you could just make a printable version of the site, meaning its the same site but just the text.

[moojoo]

A print style sheet can/should work regardless of your layout assuming your site is laid out with semantic XHTML Strict/CSS for example. Here is a print style sheet I used for a site project I did that strips out everything but the actual content.

Code: Select all

body {
	font-family: Times;
	font-size: 12px;
	color: #000;
}

#calendar, #sidebar, #nav, #navmenu, #menubar, #menubar li a, form, fieldset, legend, #footer, .view, .email, .directions, .directorylist, #sidebar, #sidebar li a {
	display: none;
	visibility: hidden;
}

a:link, a:visited, a:hover {
	color: #000;
	text-decoration: underline;
}

.memview {
	border:0;
	padding: 0;
}

[pepe_starr]

I have tried my hardest getting this print style sheet to work and appreciate all the help, but it still dosen't work. Could anyone volunteer to have a look for me and help me put one in? If so please contact me by PM. I would be so grateful as my visitors at my site are complaning at this.

Many Thanks

[crimson]

Code: Select all

<link rel="stylesheet" href="Pictures/emx_nav_left.css" type="text/css" />

Under this line in your code put

Code: Select all

<link rel="stylesheet"
   type="text/css"
   media="print" href="print.css" />

Then create a stylesheet for your website called print.css that will make the page look
how you want it to when you print it.

It's really very easy, I see you've created a style sheet before, just create another one without any colours
and make the page width smaller.