As a matter of course, I label and archive your Answers weekly for future reference. The most I’m likely to never refer to and it becomes rather tedious to search the archives. Can you help with a suggestion with how best to selectively duplicate the occasional answer that I know I shall want to refer to on later occasions? For example, isolating a specific answer for and including and forwarding to a separate folder on my PC. Please forgive me. This is such a simple question that I ought to be able to sort it out on my own, but I don’t have the confidence.
In this excerpt from Answercast #9, I look at ways to organize webpage information on your computer, permissions in re-using articles, and suggestions for organization.
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Save to PDF
Not a problem at all. It’s not actually that uncommon a question. My recommendation for what I do (and in fact for almost any site on the internet that you want to save) is to install CutePDF writer or some other print-to-PDF program.
I mention CutePDF because I actually recommend it elsewhere on the website.
When you install it, you end up with another printer on your system. When you print to it, it does not actually print to a physical printer, but it creates a PDF file of whatever it is you’re printing. So hopefully, you can see where I’m headed. If you find an article on Ask Leo! or if you find an article on the web that you want to save for yourself, print it to PDF.
Organizing files
Then come up with your own strategy for folders and organization. That’s not something I can really dream up for you; but come up with something that makes sense for you and then drop those PDFs in the appropriate folder according to your organizational scheme.
It’s a fantastic way to keep things for future reference if you don’t want to rely on a website always being there.
Reprint rights
As a side note, if you print articles from Ask Leo! to a PDF, it’s not kosher to share them. There are copyright issues with that, but you’re absolutely permitted to print and save a copy for your own personal use on your own personal machine.
(Click here for more on reprint permissions)
In fact, I’ve done a little bit of tweaking. I haven’t tested it in a while, but if you print an Ask Leo! article, a bunch of things on the page will automatically not print. In other words, you won’t see the ad; you won’t see the footer (I think). There are a couple of random things on every page on the web that, if you print it to a PDF, or if you print it for any reason, will come out more cleanly. It won’t annoy you with ads that expect you to click on something… but you’re looking at paper so there’s nothing to click on.
Next – Can I delete Microsoft Office updates to free up disk space?
There is a small app called Readability (http://www.readability.com/addons). The Readability browser add-on installs buttons that let you Read Now, Read Later and Send to Kindle. It removes ads and almost everything else other than the main text. The text can be printed in pdf format.
I like Foxit Reader for all my PDF files but I’m not sure this is what’s needed in this case.