Client wants website to be printable - after it's designed!

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

I could rag on this client for letting me build the site and not mentioning this until it's already done but that won't solve the problem.

Essentially the site is already pretty much done. I designed it with very small monitors 800x600 in mind with centered tables 750 pixels wide.

Most browsers will automatically resize a page to print but, of course, iExp on Windows doesn't seem to do this.

Any suggestions? This is going to be a pain in the neck if I have to do the thing over again.

[email protected]

http://www.alogical.com

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Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

Did you use standards and set everything in the CSS? (doesn't matter if you used tables or not, only that the width, et cetera is set in the CSS).

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

No I didn't use CSS to set the table sizes.

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

Sounds to me like you need to redo most of the site using CSS and make a print stylesheet.

On a side note: Are you getting paid by the hour? If you are then its the clients loss...if not then...:S

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

Renegade wrote: Sounds to me like you need to redo most of the site using CSS and make a print stylesheet.

I'm trying to find out how to do this now. Can you give me some hints?

[email protected]

http://www.alogical.com

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Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

What I do is put as much as I can into classess, ID and stuff and make different stylesheets for it.

I do that for all of my sites, a perfect example would be NetHelp

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

Thanks you guys. This is a problem you'd think everyone would have come up against. But I've looked around and very few sites print on iExp on windows correctly.

[email protected]

http://www.alogical.com

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They have: 160 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

Here's a very interesting solution:

http://www.richdoughty.net/

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

... did you read the article?

The problem is that you can't create a simple print version with stylesheets if you don't create the site with stylesheets in mind. Both require expertise that is much different from table-based development.

Using a server-side solution to choose the stylesheet isn't unique, nor does it alleviate the need for the site to be stylesheet-compatible in the first place.

They have: 160 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

Suzanne,

I'm ending up doing it over completely. I learned enough from the links to do a quick and dirty version. So far it's been working fine.

I'm actually having fun. This is more like quark in a way. Think I'm hooked on it.

Thanks for the help.

[email protected]

http://www.alogical.com

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He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

I believe there are plenty of perl and php scripts available that will strip a page of any non text content and leave you with a printer freindly page.

Try here:

http://www.hotscripts.com/CGI_and_Perl/Scripts_and_Programs/Content_Management/more3.html

Andy

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