Printing specific pages

[Jim Campbell]

  	Paul H. Gray wrote:
  
  We are an academic library with 10 Internet access stations running
  Netscape in our Reference area. Patrons often need to print only a
  brief selection from the middle of a lengthy Web document.
  
  Unfortunately - if the document is standard html (as opposed to a pdf
  file) there is no convenient way (that I know of) to print just this
  portion.  Yes - the print dialogue allows you to print from page x to
  page y -- but there is no way to know which 'page' you desired info is
  on.  The only option I have been able to suggest so far is to go to
  'Print Preview' and page through until you reach your information. Not
  very workable if what they want is on page 40 out of 75.


One solution would be to switch to Internet Explorer 4.0. From
the very beginning Netscape tantalized us with a Print
Selection option that was an inactive gray. Now Microsoft
(whatever you think of their corporate practices) has figured
out how to print part of a Web page. With 4.0 you highlight a
section with your mouse and then print it, just as in any
other application. The blocking is both table and frame
sensitive, that is, you can block text in only the left column
of a table. I have tried this only with the Win95 version and
don't know if it's available for other operating systems.

There is of course a catch to all this wonder. In 4.0 the
Print button is an immediate Print Document to Default Printer
that gives you no choices. To see the Print Selection option,
you have to use the Print command on the File menu, a major
pain for user education. We're only beginning to look at 4.0
and Active Desktop as an interface for public workstations, so
I haven't checked yet to see if the IE Administrator's Kit
would let us change the Print button.

    -  Jim Campbell
    Director, Library Technology Services

    University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA
    campbell at virginia.edu * Tel: 804-924-4985 * Fax: 804-924-1431