Hi Dave,

Right now, the only option I see for printing the details about a plant in the database is to use my browser's "print" button, which prints the entire page. I want to just print out plant names, characteristics, and the primary photo of the plant (an option to choose to print "all photos" would be a nice addition).

Is anything like that in your to-do list, or is there already a print button that I'm just not seeing?

Here's my background for this request.

1 - I'm visual/kinetic. I need paper in my hands when I'm thinking/planning stuff. And I have a plethora of daylilies to rearrange because last fall I just shoved them in the ground. Now I need to plan my beds. I also want a binder of my plants with their traits so I can check things out without being online. Not all of my DLs are in my plant list yet, and even if they were, printing my plant list only gives me name/photo/status/comments, not the detailed info about the plant.

2 - Since I believe in dreaming big, the ideal "Print this page" option would let me select which of the categories I wanted to print. For instance, I would de-select the section that tells me how many members have this plant, and for my DLs I would de-select common name (daylily) and botanical name (hemerocallis) cause I don't need to print that. I would probably de-select the general plant info, because it's the same for every DL. But I would select the portion that includes the AHS link and the traits. That would give me everything I cared about in my binder, in a standard format that's easy for me to read and big enough print that I don't strain my eyes. I *might* select to print all photos, or I might prefer to only print the representative photo -- that depends on how many photos there are for a particular DL. (I *do* understand copyright concerns about the photos, and have no idea who to work around those)

If I were printing some other plant from the database (my witch hazel tree, for instance), I might prefer to include the botanical name, etc. That's why my ideal "print this page" would let me select individual sections to print.

As it is right now, all I can do is bring up the database page, hit my print button, and compost the unwanted pages. Given the price of paper and ink, I'm *really* wishing there were another way, since I wind up with a minimum of two pages, and usually more if there are lots of photos.. I can go other places and find the info in one place, like the AHS database, but it's not as nicely formatted, is harder to read, and besides, I want ATP to be my one-stop-shopping spot for 'all things plants.'


Thanks for thinking about it!

I should add that Yes, there are workarounds (for instance, choose to only print pages 1-2), but it's not elegant. If you DO create something like the above, it would be nice to be able to save my print preferences as a default setting that I could override at any time when I was printing something else.

Well, that's a lot of programming to do all that you're asking for here, so I can say for sure that I can't take the time to make the full list of features on your print-a-page idea.

But, in the meantime, have you tried copying the page into an office program? That's what I do. Copy the whole page into open office and then you can remove the parts you don't want. When you're finished print away.

As I said, there are lots of workarounds, but none of them are elegant. My solution is to print, and tell it only print the first 2 pages. That gives me what I need/want most. It's just not elegant. If you even had a more basic "print this page" option like you have for our plant list, that stripped the banner and side panels, that would be awesome. I believe I *did* say that my entire idea was more of an ideal, because when I dream, I dream big.

And seriously - thanks for thinking about it. I don't expect you to implement every wild idea that flies through my curly head.

A basic print this page like we have in the plant list is fairly easily do-able.

dave said:A basic print this page like we have in the plant list is fairly easily do-able.

See, there's IDEAL, and there's PRACTICAL. I can be practical when I have to. Thanks, Dave!


(continuing my dreams, any chance to eventually have an export to spreadsheet option on either the database or our plant lists?)

Did we have a separate thread about exporting to spreadsheet? If so, please bump that one and let's keep this thread about printing issues.

I'm not finding any thread regarding exporting to spreadsheet, but it does sound like a nice idea. Mary, do you want to start a thread on that subject?

The export thread is here : The thread "export options?" in Site Talk forum

About printing, the actual feature is not very practical when you have a long list. For example, my roses collection is on 6 pages so I have to copy and paste all the pages to one file and print each pages separately.

What about a PDF export to print the list in only one file ?

Hi Andrea,

What browser are you using? Google Chrome has very powerful printing features. You can click on "Simplify page" and that removed the header, footer and navigation, and makes it much more print friendly. You can then tell it what pages to print or what part (selecting text.)

It's really nice. I feel like the future of printing pages will lie in the area of letting the browser do the custom work.

side note - If you are using Windows 10, it comes with native support to Print to pdf. When you go to print a page, simply change the printer over to the PDF printer.

If you do not have a PDF printer listed then there are free ones available online (I have used a application called Bullzip in the past)

@Dave, I also use Chrome but where do you find this "Simplify page" ?

@PlantMania Yes each page can be printed to a PDF file (1 by page) but I would prefer only one PDF with all the pages.

Andrea,

Here are some screen shots to find the Simplify in Chrrome

Thanks a lot !

I just try it but when you try to print your personal plant list the "simplification" keeps only the header and the plant list disappear !

I know this is probably not want you want but if you put your cursor to the left of your first thumbnail photo in your list (Silver Wattle) - press down you left mouse button and drag the mouse to highlight everything from this point to your last comment on the page (April 10, 2015: Obtained plant.......) and release the mouse (If you already know how to do this I apologize)

With everything Highlighted - click the pull down menu for your Chrome Print

If you review your printing options - you can select to print Only the selection that you have highlighted



You do not get every single entry but at least you get 20.

Hope this helps

OK I know I could do this but when you have lots of page to print I think this is a quite long process.

That's why I propose a feature that would send all the list to a single PDF file. Then you can either save it or print it in a second.

Well, there is a "Print this page" option there on the top of your list that gives you a greatly simplified list.

Yes. But this option prints only the current page so if your list has 10 pages you have to click 10 times on "Print this page"

Adjust how many items you see per page through your preferences.

You have 101 roses. If they take up 6 pages, you must have your "items per page" preference set at 20. Go to your profile page and change your preference to 120 items per page. All of your roses will then be on one page.