The Underscore Archives

										On 10/25/06, Iwein Dekoninck <iwein at 3sixty.co.uk> wrote:

>
> http://www.alistapart.com/articles/printtopreview talks about using
> javascript to put a print preview button on your web pages. It brings up
> a print dialog. It also allows 'switching back' to web layout.
>
> It's advantages to doing the stylesheet switch server side (and
> effectively going to a different page) seem to be: no page reload
> required, and tying the print dialog.
>
> It's disadvantages seem to be visitors who browse javascript-less.
>
> Your opinion?


(just catching up with underscore a bit)

I've used various approaches to this before, but a technique we used
recently was a request by the client and I was initally skeptical, but now I
quite like it. The idea is that when you click a printer icon you get a
preview of how the page looks using the print stylesheet, albeit with a
links to print the page or go back to the screen version. These links don't
actually show when using the print stylesheet for real (i.e. when printing).

here's an example: http://www.ubiquitysoftware.com/company/about (click the
printer icon)

The downside is that it requires multiple clicks to actually get to the
print dialogue, but it does manage the users expectations of what they will
actually get when they print. non javascript enabled users would have to use
the print function of their browser - I suppose I could have written the
"print this page" link in using DOM to make it degrade more gracefully

-- 
Rick Hurst, Web developer, Bristol, England
http://www.rickhurst.co.uk | http://www.netsight.co.uk