How to print only selected areas of any document?

[Alex Ethridge]

I want to be able to select a certain area of any document and send onlt that area to the printer, any document.

I know there are various different ways provided in some programs; but, I'm looking for a utility that will allow this from any document, whether it be a spreadsheet, word processor document, web page, etc.

 

[jdean]

A screen capture utility (for example, http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm) would allow you to capture part of the screen and send it to the printer. The requirement is that the area you want to print must appear on the screen.

 

[iltos]

A screen capture utility (for example, http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm) would allow you to capture part of the screen and send it to the printer. The requirement is that the area you want to print must appear on the screen.

i've never tried to print from it, but faststone has a "scrolling" capture function that allows the user to capture a long article, graphic etc.....

fastone will save the captured image as a jpeg, alex....making it possible to save various snippets and then organize them on a word doc

if you want to edit fonts, spacing, etc, i believe you are pretty much stuck cutting and pasting the pieces into your word processor.

 

[deubanks]

HP printer software has an option to "print selection."
Yours might also.

 

[Alex Ethridge]

I need more than will appear on one screen capture.

The HP thingy does not work with Firefox 3, although it does with previous versions. I would, however, like to know where I can find it. I ran across it by accident while browsing the web at another person's office today; but, I can't find it now. By the way, it is available as a separate download from HP.

I'll take a look at faststone.

 

[jdean]

I need more than will appear on one screen capture.

There is no solution that I can think of that will work with all applications. The reason is that an application can handle selection internally, in a way that cannot be understood by any other program. In this situation, the program would have to provide direct support for "printed selected".

 

[Alex Ethridge]

I don't like that answer; gimme another and maybe I'll like it better.

 

[jdean]

Sorry. As a software developer, I have worked on applications that did not support "print selected". Of course, this feature was always in the "to-do" list. ;-)

If you explain more about what you're doing, perhaps there might be another solution.

 

[Alex Ethridge]

There are lots of solutions; but, I need a single solution for non-tech-savvy people who don't want to do copy in one program, paste into another, which might work for text in a word processor ot text in a web page but is too cumbersome an operation and then use another program to copy pieces of a web page and send it to a printer with another program and then another method for still another program and then have to remember which method works with which program.

And I don't want to have to handle the telephone calls from people who say, "Now how was it you say I'm supposed to do this?".

I guess I was hoping for too much.

 

[jdean]

The only obvious solution is to say "these are the officially supported programs" and if users want to use something not on the list, then things will be more difficult for them. There are plenty of applications that support "print selected", and perhaps it won't be difficult to come up with a list that satisfies your users.

 

[Alex Ethridge]

I had one just yesterday to whom I tried to explain copy and paste. To him, it seemed too cumbersome a project with too may steps and too many programs to fumble with and he rejected it before I could finish explaining it. Besides, it doesn't work exactly the same in all situations so there would be additional details to learn. Then there is the problem of training his employees all these steps and details.

He has seen the HP print-selected utility and wanted something that worked similarly across all programs. I see now that isn't possible. Even that one didn't work with Firefox 3 and Firefox 3 is what his office uses.

I'll just inform him there isn't such a program and he can continue to print 3-, 4-, 5- or 40 pages and pull out and highlight the parts he needs. He makes a lot of money in that office and wasted paper and color toner is nothing to him compared to the value of his time.

I don't consider this problem "solved"; but, it seems we're at a dead end.

Thanks for your help. At least I know I don't have to look further.

 

[jdean]

I had another thought after reading your most recent message. If you are trying to reduce the number of printed pages, there is a solution that might work for you. It's called FinePrint. When you print to FinePrint, it will allow you to preview, reorder, and delete pages. This isn't quite as precise as printing a selected region but it might do the job.

I find FinePrint particularly helpful in this regard; for example, it's often the case when printing from the web that some pages contain no useful information, and these can easily be deleted. It's useful for documents because sometimes you'll spot a problem in the preview and you can go back and fix it before you've wasted paper.

FinePrint is not free but I think it's worth every penny: http://www.fineprint.com/

 

[Squashman]

I had one just yesterday to whom I tried to explain copy and paste. To him, it seemed too cumbersome a project with too may steps and too many programs to fumble with and he rejected it before I could finish explaining it. Besides, it doesn't work exactly the same in all situations so there would be additional details to learn. Then there is the problem of training his employees all these steps and details.

He has seen the HP print-selected utility and wanted something that worked similarly across all programs. I see now that isn't possible. Even that one didn't work with Firefox 3 and Firefox 3 is what his office uses.

I'll just inform him there isn't such a program and he can continue to print 3-, 4-, 5- or 40 pages and pull out and highlight the parts he needs. He makes a lot of money in that office and wasted paper and color toner is nothing to him compared to the value of his time.

I don't consider this problem "solved"; but, it seems we're at a dead end.

Thanks for your help. At least I know I don't have to look further.

If they can't understand copy and paste then they shouldn't even bother using a computer. I have always said Time is Money. If you can't take the time to learn the applications or the operating system you use on a daily basis then you shouldn't be using a computer at all. Once they learn, it will save them time and money. It is a win win situation.

 

[Alex Ethridge]

He makes a lot of money in that office and wasted paper and color toner is nothing to him compared to the value of his time.

I'll be sure to tell him he needs to stop using a computer.

 

[Gulo Luseus]

It may or mat not be useful, but what about PDFs? You can save pretty much any page, picture, etc as a pdf, then join togehter. I know its very cutty pastey, but might be the easiest way for the type of person youre trying to explain to