Techspertise: How to "PDF" Web Pages

Do it yourself PDF is not hard at all!

How often do you come across a tutorial on a blog and think, I'd like to save that as a PDF?

Ever since Craftsy's pattern marketplace bit the dust, I haven't been overly motivated to create PDFs for my tutorials. (The last one I did was for the Quilted Hanging File Organizer from over two years ago.)

These days, bloggers who go to the trouble of PDF-ing their tutorials usually charge for them. I don't want to get on board that boat, but I do realize that some folks like to have the option.

Therefore, for those of you who may want some of my more recent tutorials — or anyone else's for that matter — in PDF format, today's tip is for you. You can actually diy your own PDF fairly easily, without any extra software, plugins or apps.

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The easiest way is to let your browser handle it via its PRINT function. The downside is that it will include everything that you see on your browser screen.

For example, using my last tutorial, the Chrome generated PDF looks like this:

Web browser generated PDF saves "everything"...

You probably don't want to have the left hand sidebar content saved to your file, but that's how a browser PRINT generated PDF works.

And unless you indicate a precise number of pages to process, this option will also include stuff you likely don't need from the bottom of the post, like this:

Last page of your PDF likely not needed also...

To avoid extraneous content from the end that you don't want, you can always PDF it once, check it out and then do it again, specifying how many pages to include.

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The method I've always used to create PDFs is to copy the content into Microsoft Word, which many of us have. This process gives you control over what to keep; after everything is copied, you can delete whatever you don't need.

If you've never copied web content before, it's really no different from copying anything else. Assuming you're using a computer — because doing this on a device where you don't have an actual keyboard can be annoyingly tricky — click your mouse at the spot where you want to start copying, hold down the [SHIFT] key, scroll down to where you want to finish copying and click the mouse again. Everything in between should be highlighted.

Web page contents selected (highlighted) for copying...

Press [CTRL]-C to copy, open up a blank Word document and press [CTRL]-V to paste. You can now scroll through and delete whatever is not essential to the tutorial. I would also suggest downsizing any large images.

Note that this can simply be saved as a Word doc for your personal use. If you want to be able to access it across multiple devices, however, it's easier if you complete the final step of saving it as a PDF.

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Depending on what version of Word you have, this could be slightly different for you. Generally speaking, choose the File tab or menu and then select Save As. Choose a location, and then from the drop down list beside Save as type, choose PDF. Give your file a name and click the Save button.

Word's save as PDF option...

That's all there is to it. If the option for Open file after publishing is checked off (as shown above), once you save it, the new PDF will open up automatically.

I've said this before and it bears repeating: things that you see online may not be there later when you look for them. Merely bookmarking them won't help. To prevent disappointment, I highly recommend that you make your own copies.

And now it's become easy to save web content as PDFs without any special tools or skills!

'Til next...