Jeff Key

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MSDN killing trees/spirit unnecessarily

I've been bitten yet again.  I just printed the 28 page WS-Security Drilldown in Web Services Enhancements 2.0 document and found that the copy runs off of the page.  This happens all the time and I have to cross my fingers and re-print in landscape mode.

I don't like reading long articles on the computer and printing things lets me read them on the bus/train while commuting.  MSDN uses special printing magic so when you click the Print This Page link, a different, printer-friendly page is printed instead of the one you're currently viewing.  Selecting File|Print Preview shows the page as its rendered in the browser, not as it will be printed. 

Is it too much to ask to have printed documents fit on a portrait 8.5” x 11” page?  If not, how about a messagebox that tells me I need to switch to landscape mode?  If I had an even moderately sophisticated brain I could remember to always do this.  I don't, and I don't.

(Don't get me wrong, I love MSDN dearly.  I just don't like wasting paper/ink/toner/time.)

Posted: Dec 31 2003, 01:38 PM by jeffreykey | with 7 comment(s)
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Comments

Greg Duncan said:

Thank you for the sanity check! (i.e. I'm glad it's not just me :)

I run into this problem ALL the time when printing from MSDN... and I too get pretty pissed off when I print a bunch of articles only to have to reprint them so I can actually read them (though the "I bet this line ends with" game can be fun sometimes).

# December 31, 2003 4:11 PM

bertcord said:

how are you printing? I didnt look at this entire article but.....

If you print by goign to file rint the page is cut off. IF you click the print icon on the top of the main page it does not apear to be cut off
# December 31, 2003 4:14 PM

Jeff Key said:

I was printing by clicking the "print this page". Interesting about the Print toolbar item. I'll give that a shot next time I print something. Thanks.
# January 2, 2004 11:32 AM

Eric Brunsen said:

Personally, I would like for MS to offer long documents (>5 pages) in MS Word format as a download.

Eric
# February 5, 2004 1:54 PM

Jeff Key said:

Agree. They already do this for a good number of things already. My guess is that those docs are stored as XML already; transforming them into WordML shouldn't be hard at all.
# February 5, 2004 9:30 PM

Metawizard2 said:

I have found a solution; ironically, it requires using the Opera browser with the following stats:
Version 7.23
Build 3227
Platform Win32
System Windows XP

I open the MSDN page:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sql/reskit/sql2000/part5/c2161.asp

Then press the Print Preview button on the small toolbar twice. The view of the page changes from one that looks "weird", and then looks like a Word document. Printing at this point prints just the article, without trying to print the treeview menu, and the whole doc prints without getting cut off edges.
# February 25, 2004 3:40 PM

Metawizard said:

Forgot one thing:
When the MSDN article opens, right click on the frame that has the article, and choose Frame, and then Open in New Page.

Then you can use the trick with the Print Preview button.
# February 25, 2004 3:54 PM