Offline viewing

[omro]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a way I can download these forums or regularly download the more recent posts in certain threads, so that I can view them offline?

I've tried printing pages into PDFs, but the format this forum results in when I try and print is pretty horrible. Am guessing there's no way to turn an entire thread into a linear less formatted print off?

There's a lot of current and past information on here that I'd like to read, but most of my reading time is while on the london underground, which being underground has no 3G signal.

Thanks!

[flar]

Hmm, I don't know. You could leave open a zillion tabs in your web browser.

You might try posting this in the forum issues section to see if anyone else on the site knows.

[ryan_mcgreal]

One easy way around this is to bump up your browser cache to the maximum, load up all the threads and pages you want to read, and then set your browser to work offline. That allows you to read cached copies of the pages without an internet connection.

In Firefox and IE, you would do this with:

File -> Work Offline

I assume most other browsers have a similar or at least equivalent function.

[omro]

Great ideas, much appreciated.

I'll look for that other forum that you suggested Flar.

I've tried your idea before Ryan and it works well, unfortunately my work laptop is a little large to be reading on a crowded tube train.

I have an iLiad ebook reader which can pick up RSS feeds, though I've never tried it.

The one thing I have tried to do is print threads to PDFs and take them that way, but... this site formats printout really badly and is very hard to read unless highly magnified.

Thanks again though

[ryan_mcgreal]

Originally Posted by omro

The one thing I have tried to do is print threads to PDFs and take them that way, but... this site formats printout really badly and is very hard to read unless highly magnified.

If you're feeling ambitious, you could always save the forum pages to your desktop in HTML format and then write a custom stylesheet to render the content in a format that's conducive to a print format (i.e. PDF).

[omro]

Originally Posted by ryan_mcgreal

If you're feeling ambitious, you could always save the forum pages to your desktop in HTML format and then write a custom stylesheet to render the content in a format that's conducive to a print format (i.e. PDF).

That's a little outside my area of expertise. I was always terrible at coding. Problem solving in IT Support I usually can do, but coding websites or coding in general, for some reason my brain doesn't seem to grasp it.

Hopefully the post in the other forum section will reveal an inside into the workings.

In fact that did help, in the "thread tools" menu on the top right, there is a printable version. However that still breaks a multipage thread into pages.

[crhayes]

Originally Posted by omro

That's a little outside my area of expertise. I was always terrible at coding. Problem solving in IT Support I usually can do, but coding websites or coding in general, for some reason my brain doesn't seem to grasp it.

Hopefully the post in the other forum section will reveal an inside into the workings.

This particular forum has the CSS styles embedded in the HTML page (rather than on an external stylesheet). All you need to do it save the page on your hard drive as an HTML file and all of the formatting will be intact (the only things missing will be the adverts and the header/avatars).

This too will break the thread into multiple pages. I think the only way to show all of the posts on one page is to hack vBulletin (and change the SQL SELECT and whatever code they use for pagination).

[holymoly]

Originally Posted by omro

I've tried printing pages into PDFs, but the format this forum results in when I try and print is pretty horrible.

Even if you select Printable Version (under Thread Tools)?

[omro]

Annoyingly the number of postings on a page can be controlled by a variable called pp, however it's limited to 25

[crhayes]

Originally Posted by omro

Annoyingly the number of postings on a page can be controlled by a variable called pp, however it's limited to 25

Yeah, you can set that in your profile. It's probably designed that way to limit server load...

[waterloowarrior]

the archive versions are easier to read, and also good if you are at work

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/archive/index.php/f-283.html


http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/arch.../t-161172.html

the pages are much larger

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/archive/index.php/t-146837.html

edit: the only problem is that quotes don't work and show up as part of the post.. and images don't work :p