Printing the Newsletter

Discussions about the Newsletter Tool at LDS.org.
mmkids6
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Location: Tremonton, Utah

#1

Post by mmkids6 »

When we can print a whole newsletter rather than just an article. Of which, is there a better way to print an article versus the print preview.
jdlessley
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#2

Post by jdlessley »

[Moderator note: this thread was split from the Who can Publish thread because it addresses a different topic.]
mmkids6 wrote:When we can print a whole newsletter rather than just an article.
This has not been requested before. You are the first to ask.
mmkids6 wrote:Of which, is there a better way to print an article versus the print preview.
Whenever I click the printer icon to print an article I get the print dialog box and not a print preview. I can select any system printer just as expected. I do not see a way to get a print preview.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
failproof
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#3

Post by failproof »

It took me just a minute to understand what was being asked about here, since at first initial view I wasn't seeing a print icon. So looks like it is only available when you have clicked on an article title to display only that one article. The only way I can see to print the entire newsletter is to simply use the print function from the browser (usually ctrl+p if not available in a menu or button on the browser toolbar) rather than looking for one designed into the web page/application. It of course then prints everything displayed on the page, generally the same way it shows on the page, but it is at least an option.

As far as print preview, it looks like to me it is just opening printer dialog as JD Lessley pointed out, however, for some browsers that includes a print preview (it's what I get in Chrome, but I don't get a print preview from IE)
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aebrown
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#4

Post by aebrown »

failproof wrote:The only way I can see to print the entire newsletter is to simply use the print function from the browser (usually ctrl+p if not available in a menu or button on the browser toolbar) rather than looking for one designed into the web page/application. It of course then prints everything displayed on the page, generally the same way it shows on the page, but it is at least an option.

However, if an article is very long at all, it will be truncated with a "More" link (which you can expand for each such article). And no more than 5 articles will be shown on a page at one time. So using the browser's print function is a rather weak technique for printing all the articles.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
jdlessley
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#5

Post by jdlessley »

failproof wrote:So looks like it is only available when you have clicked on an article title to display only that one article. The only way I can see to print the entire newsletter is to simply use the print function from the browser (usually ctrl+p if not available in a menu or button on the browser toolbar) rather than looking for one designed into the web page/application. It of course then prints everything displayed on the page, generally the same way it shows on the page, but it is at least an option.
The browser print function can be used to print all the newsletter articles in one printing and not include extraneous web page objects. The steps used in Firefox are:
  1. Click "All" under "Categories". This collects all the newsletter articles into one web page for display.
  2. Click anywhere within the body of a displayed article. This selects that browser object, which you want for printing.
  3. Click the browser "File" menu item and then one of the print menu items, such as "Print..." or "Print Preview". (Click the "Print..." button from within Print Preview to print the newsletter.)
Print keyboard shortcuts can be used instead of the browser menu. Just click within the body of a displayed article to identify the browser object (the newsletter articles) you wish to have printed.

This print method works for any standards-compliant browser. IE 8 and earlier versions are not standards-compliant. Because IE 8 is not standards-compliant the print output using the method provided above includes other web page objects other than just the articles.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
jdlessley
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#6

Post by jdlessley »

aebrown wrote:However, if an article is very long at all, it will be truncated with a "More" link (which you can expand for each such article). And no more than 5 articles will be shown on a page at one time. So using the browser's print function is a rather weak technique for printing all the articles.
I couldn't check the maximum length since we only have two articles. And I also forgot to mention that the "More" link to expand the article(s) before printing.

So I guess there are limitations to printing the complete group of newsletter articles.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
jhowell2000
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Location: Clayton, NC, USA

#7

Post by jhowell2000 »

We have 14 articles and the above method just prints the five that are displayed on the home screen when you log on (it does print the expanded file if you click on the "more"). Also, the articles attach pdf files which are not printed; I would expect that to be the case.
thematthews
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Re: Printing the Newsletter

#8

Post by thematthews »

I also am wondering if it is possible to print the entire Newsletter. We would love to use this newsletter service for our ward newsletter that we can hand to our ward members monthly. This would be a great feature if we could categorize the newsletter to pull up all entries and sort it per month that the article was written. This would enable us to pull all July articles and pictures and print them for our newsletter. Please let me know if this feature can be implemented.

Thanks
jdlessley
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Re: Printing the Newsletter

#9

Post by jdlessley »

thematthews wrote:Please let me know if this feature can be implemented.
I am not a church employee. Therefore my comments are only from years of practical experience and years of involvement in the forum.

What is asked is technically possible. We cannot tell whether it will be implemented. If it is, we do not know when. Development schedules are seldom released.

Feedback is best provided using the LDS.org feedback link found on the main LDS.org page and many, but not all, other LDS.org pages. While ICS employees may visit the forum, we infrequently get input from them about enhancements that are discussed in the forum by community members and whether these inputs get put on a consideration list. We do know the LDS.org feedback gets routed to the appropriate individuals even though there is little return feedback.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
mevans
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Re: Printing the Newsletter

#10

Post by mevans »

thematthews wrote:I also am wondering if it is possible to print the entire Newsletter. We would love to use this newsletter service for our ward newsletter that we can hand to our ward members monthly. This would be a great feature if we could categorize the newsletter to pull up all entries and sort it per month that the article was written. This would enable us to pull all July articles and pictures and print them for our newsletter. Please let me know if this feature can be implemented.
It seems the main thing you need from the Newsletter is a way to identify in which month an article was written. There is no month sort at the moment. A way you can simulate this now with the newsletter is to create a category for each month, such as "July 2013 Newsletter". You can tag each article with multiple categories, so it could be tagged with both "Relief Society" and "July 2013 Newsletter". If you filter by the "July 2013 Newsletter" category, you'll see all the articles you intend to publish in the July newsletter.

In the admin screen you can order the categories, so you might want to feature organizations at the top and the newsletters at the bottom. Your category list is going to get long, so you might want to only keep each respective monthly newsletter category for a few months, then delete it (this won't delete the articles, just the category tag you created).

There are some differences between getting good print results and good results on the web. Here are some things you may want to think about:

You'll have to manually copy the text from each article and paste it into whatever app you're using to do the newsletter. You'll get formatted text, which may not necessarily be the formatting you want. You're going to have to know how to deal with this in your app.

You'll have to deal with any graphics separately from the text. I haven't looked to see what happens with uploaded images, but the newsletter might adjust uploaded graphics for the best web browser experience and not necessarily the best print experience. If that's the case, you might have poor print quality for the images you copy from the online newsletter. You might need to save original images somewhere besides the newsletter for use in your printed newsletter.

In addition, you need to decide if you're going to print in color or black-and-white. Color's come down a lot in cost, but it's still nowhere near the cost of black-and-white. A color image printed in black-and-white doesn't always come out well, and a color image that looks good on your screen doesn't always print well in color.
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