Save web-pages as (pdf) file.

[Mickey330]

Just wanted to jump in here and say thanks to astein [for starting the conversation] and Knut for my new ownership of the nifty app WebToolBox+ ($1.99 at the app store).

I was intrigued by the idea of saving a web page as a PDF file, so I tried it: launch WebToolBox+, load the PDF converter script, put a "g" in front of the http:// part of the PDF site and watch it open (as a PDF file) in Goodreader for later reading/editing. Way cool!

I also found out that if you send the page as a link, it'll be a PDF that you send, which you can open with Acrobat (or, you can copy the link in the email on your iPad and then paste that link in Goodreader ... should you forget the "put the 'g' in front" trick). Kewl!

But, this is more about WebToolBox+. So, far, I've loaded scripts to search within web pages and format web pages (to make them more text-like), in addition to installing the tool to convert to PDF. If I do no more tool loading, it's been well worth the $1.99.

In short - thanks, Knut, for the WebToolBox+ tip. Nice!

Marilyn

P.S. Please note I'm not affiliated with anything to do with apps - I just want to express my thanks and give a mini review on a cool app... As always (I should put this as my signature line!) - YMMV.

 

[billpool]

I use an App called WebToolBox+ which saves a webpage to a pdf file and displays it in safari. Then I go to the http address line and insert a g in front of http and the PDF file is opened in goodreader.

Does t his help?

Knut

Thanks a bunch for the tip 'bout the app. Sorely needed it.

 

[lrrry]

Just wanted to jump in here and say thanks to astein [for starting the conversation] and Knut for my new ownership of the nifty app WebToolBox+ ($1.99 at the app store).

I was intrigued by the idea of saving a web page as a PDF file, so I tried it: launch WebToolBox+, load the PDF converter script, put a "g" in front of the http:// part of the PDF site and watch it open (as a PDF file) in Goodreader for later reading/editing. Way cool!

I also found out that if you send the page as a link, it'll be a PDF that you send, which you can open with Acrobat (or, you can copy the link in the email on your iPad and then paste that link in Goodreader ... should you forget the "put the 'g' in front" trick). Kewl!

But, this is more about WebToolBox+. So, far, I've loaded scripts to search within web pages and format web pages (to make them more text-like), in addition to installing the tool to convert to PDF. If I do no more tool loading, it's been well worth the $1.99.

In short - thanks, Knut, for the WebToolBox+ tip. Nice!

Marilyn

P.S. Please note I'm not affiliated with anything to do with apps - I just want to express my thanks and give a mini review on a cool app... As always (I should put this as my signature line!) - YMMV.

Do I understand that WebToolBox+ is a requirement to using the g to download the page to Goodreader. And will it download all pages on that link. I've got a file with ~600 pages to save as a PDF.

Larryo

 

[Mickey330]

@Irrry:

In a way, yes. If you put a "g" in front of any http (at the beginning of the web addy), it will then open Goodreader. But, I can never get Goodreader to see anything. It can't open the web page...

If you buy/download the WebToolkit+ app and [important] install the "make a PDF" script, and RUN that script - after that, when you put the 'g' in the front, Goodreader will open and download that web page as a PDF document (by the way, it's a regular PDF document, so you can edit it or change the name of it).

Note that you put the 'g' in the addy AFTER the PDF has been created (a new web page will have loaded, which you know is a PDF because 'PDF' is right at the beginning of the new web addy.

Whew! Hope all that made sense! Good luck.

Marilyn

 

[Kricke]

@Marilyn Thanks.

For me it is different. For example I just typed the g in front of this threat's http line and goodreader downloaded it and when I tapped on the file goodreader displayed the threat. Of course in its own window.

And as far as I remember, the possibility to download a web site with g from goodreader was available before I bought webtoolbox. But here I can not verify this functionality.

Knut

 

[Mickey330]

Huh. It's really weird...

I just did what you did, put a 'g' in the front of this thread - and Goodreader opened and opened the web page just fine. But yesterday, Goodreader wouldn't open a different web page. Guess sometimes computers just want to do what they want, yeah?

Thanks.

Marilyn

 

[kjkwitte]

You guys seriously rock with all of the help. I just installed toolbox and successfully saved my first PDF. It opened in iBooks (I don't have Goodreader). Now I need to know how I can highlight text and save it in the PDF. Is it possible to do that in iBooks or do I need another app?

 

[Sridhar]

I use an App called WebToolBox+ which saves a webpage to a pdf file and displays it in safari. Then I go to the http address line and insert a g in front of http and the PDF file is opened in goodreader.

Does t his help?

Knut

Awesome app. Not just for the ability to show the PDF version of a webpage, but also for the several other bookmark lets it comes with. Thank you.

When It shows the PDF version of a web page, I simply tap once and find the button to take the PDF to Note Taker HD to annotate/edit it.

 

[kjkwitte]

I went on and got the Goodreader app both for the ability to hi-light text and to also sort into folders. It seems like a great app. I crashed it once and when I went back there was a tip so I wouldn't do it again. Pretty cool.

 

[Hasty]

That popping a g in front of a web address is very handy in practise.
I often save stuff for reference that way.

It may seem fiddly to do but just highlight the url and select all/cut, then type your g and paste the url back before hitting return.

Haven't tried webtoolbox, what else can it do?

 

[pluto6]

It looks like the web toolbox is a set of bookmarklets (which I am just learning about) and not really a stand alone application. Most of the functions it describes are things that can be done with a JavaScript program from within Safari.

For instance the bookmarklet for save a page to a PDF is

javascript: pdf_url=location.href;location.href='http://pdfmyurl.com?url='+escape(pdf_url)

If you copy and paste that into the address field of a bookmark,(remove the space between the colon and the p) pressing that bookmark will turn that webpage into a PDF. Credits go to Mickey330 who taught me how to do this.

I did not know about the g in front of the http: great find. I wish good reader could internally covert things to PDFs.

 

[SimplyBea]

It looks like the web toolbox is a set of bookmarklets (which I am just learning about) and not really a stand alone application. Most of the functions it describes are things that can be done with a JavaScript program from within Safari.

For instance the bookmarklet for save a page to a PDF is

javascript: pdf_url=location.href;location.href='http://pdfmyurl.com?url='+escape(pdf_url)

If you copy and paste that into the address field of a bookmark,(remove the space between the colon and the p) pressing that bookmark will turn that webpage into a PDF. Credits go to Mickey330 who taught me how to do this.

I did not know about the g in front of the http: great find. I wish good reader could internally covert things to PDFs.

I have just recently downloaded iAnnotate and it downloads AND converts web pages to PDF.
I am not sure if it will do it for all web pages but it has worked so far with the ones I needed.

 

[4phun]

I have just recently downloaded iAnnotate and it downloads AND converts web pages to PDF.
I am not sure if it will do it for all web pages but it has worked so far with the ones I needed.

I had forgot about this thread. Since then my skills have improved considerably with the iPad.

There is nothing I can not convert to a PDF except a video and crap that is rendered only in flash.

The easiest tool is free and it is called Joliprint. if you do not have that stop reading this thread and go and find the Joliprint web site and get it.
I will wait. while you are there get the Joliprint RSS feed from their blog as they are constantly taking that thing.

If you haven't a copy of GoodReader grab that too. GoodReader should come with every iPad! Last if you are a student grab Pages and definitely iAnnotate. Those two are for the pros who really need to use the iPad and there is a learning curve which must be dealt with in using them.
Do mot grab too many 'free' apps for working with PDFs. That can really mess you up as there is a ten app limit for registering the extension PDF for apps that can be found in OPEN IN, that is a iOS limit. Many of those 'free' apps are sheer crap anyway for what you want to do.

Are you back?

JOLIPRINT

This works in Safari after you create a bookmarklet following their instructions. I placed that on the bookmarks tool bar to make it easy to find.
to use just surf the web and when you spot a web page you wish to make your own PDF you find your Joliprint and tap,on it. it takes you current URL and creates a popup window with q link to your new PDF which you can download into Safari or email to someone. the generated PDF is neat because it includes pictures (in most cases) and ACTIVE LINKS. Yes the links in a Joliprint PDF can be used to link to the web while reading a PDF in GoodReader or iAnnotate. Joliprint also formats your web page into a two column format and drops all the flash advertising leaving you the meat of the web page.

SAMPLE WEB PAGE URL
Here is an example of a gruesome web page about the Japanese Quake.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-Rescuers-pick-way-apocalypse-wasteland.html

That is a long web page, about thirteen pages if printed out.
Tap at the top of safari to goto the top of the web page. tap on Joliprint and it will return with quick link that looks like this
http://prin.tt/gwiTHA which is to your Joliprint PDF. You can email, or post to twitter and facebook directly from Joliprint.
Of course most will select Download to Safari to see the new PDF, from there send to GoodReader or iAnnotate.

IAnnotate

Suppose you wanted to have that as a thirteen page PDF with large pictures. well an iPad PRO could use iAnnotate's feature to DOWNLOAD FROM THE WEB. You open your web page in IAnnotate's web browser and after it loads completely you choose convert to a PDF. It helps not to have too many background apps taking up memory for big web pages using this process.

CRYPTIC PDF NAMES

Select some suitable text from your PDF, copy that and rename the PDF if it has a cryptic name in GoodReader or iAnnotate.

JOLIPRINT ADVANCED FEATURES

Joliprint is slick for what it does but it can change your life if used to it's fullest. You can email up to ten URLs to Joliprint in a single email and It will return a big compiled PDF called my reading list. Try it by sending an email to [email protected].

I use Joliprint to look up more information while reading a web page that has additional reference links by just copying the whole page and dropping it into an email to [email protected]. I don't bother filling in a subject as I am interested in fast and least effort. If I have more than ten links I either break it up into multiple emails or edit them down to ten that I actually want. I don't worry if there are more than ten as Joliprint returns the first ten links it finds.

If I get an email with links in it I just forward the whole thing to [email protected] and let Joliprint look them all up for me.

While using Reeder I don't bother looking up a web page in the RSS link, I just click on the popup to email link to [email protected].
When my PDFs come back I read them and delete them or save them to the iPad and eventually my DROPBOX.

Since the PDF is attached to your email you could just archive them and leave them in the 7GB Gmail account for later reference instead of deleting them.


There'd is more, a lot more but that should get you started.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[Mickey330]

I had forgot about this thread. ... [snipped a whole bunch of stuff about Joliprint...] ...

Holy timesaver, 4phun! This tip about Joliprint is awesome. I've now got [email protected] as a Mail address so I can do what you so eloquently described.

I've been using various scripts to save web sites as PDFs, but Joliprint is w-a-y better. Plus, the whole "e-mail a link and get back a PDF" option is very, very handy.

Thanks MUCHLY for this!

Marilyn

[Who now will be very/more diligent at checking out older posts in case nuggets like this come much later on in the post...]

 

[4phun]

Holy timesaver, 4phun! This tip about Joliprint is awesome. I've now got [email protected] as a Mail address so I can do what you so eloquently described.

I've been using various scripts to save web sites as PDFs, but Joliprint is w-a-y better. Plus, the whole "e-mail a link and get back a PDF" option is very, very handy.

Thanks MUCHLY for this!

Marilyn

[Who now will be very/more diligent at checking out older posts in case nuggets like this come much later on in the post...]

Thank you for your gracious note Marilyn, my wife is Marielan.

As I mentioned there are a ton of related tips about PDFs.

Since you picked up on [email protected] here are a few points related to using it.

some times there will not be an immediate response for [email protected] if it has trouble figuring out what you want to do.
Just for the fun of it I looked up an online Bible found one at Watchtower.org. after finding a bible book I noticed they had numerical links to chapters that you could click on to to read them. I copied only ten numbers and nothing else and pasted that into an email to [email protected]

I just assumed that didn't work when I didn't get anything back within a few minutes. Fourteen hours later I received ten chapters of the Bible in one big PDF! The only thing I can figure is they had a human look that up to figure out what those ten numbers meant. Who knows?

Sometimes you will run into a web site that will not cooperate with [email protected], I use iAnnotate to get around their restriction or make q note not to use that web site again. Life is too short to worry about those few web designers who think too much of themselves.

Instead of using a bookmarklet in Safari or if you are using one of those non native browsers from the iPad use the universal feature of mailing a link to the page you are on to [email protected] in order to generate your PDF. Normally the PDF comes back to your iPads default email account. I have twelve email accounts on this iPad including one for my wife so she can read her own email. that means if she creates a PDF using [email protected] she wants to read it, not me. Therefore she uses a trick in the iPad email that allows you to click on the from field and change the sender account for that one email. [email protected] sends the reply directly to her email account!

You can shunt the email replies to your work address, student address, or just an email account you may have set up for research on some subject using the feature of changing the from field and a drop down list of choices that scrolls.

Another reason for doing this is that 12 Gmail accounts give you 84GB of free online storage for PDFs. Actually more since each of those accounts give you 12 Google doc accounts where you can secrete another 12GB online in the cloud. If you need more than that create more Gmail accounts!



Try some of that out and if you have additional ideas post them here.

Sent from my iPad using iPF