Interesting discussion. I agree that one shouldn't introduce an extra step when printing a page or recreate browser functionality within a page (say no to text size control widgets!).
Where I work we use a CMS (Plone) that automatically creates a "Print" icon which uses Javascript to print the page (formatted with the print stylesheet). On earlier sites we used the same icon alongside the text "Printable version" to render a printable (i.e. non-templated) version of the text that the user then had to choose to print using browser controls. In defence of "Printable version", I would say it acts as a "print preview" and it can give some users the confidence that what they are printing is the page content itself and not the associated page template which can often be difficult to read. It also gives them the opportunity to control the output of the page (by adjusting font size, margins etc.). I often use the browser's "Print preview" to see what I'm going to get anyway and then make any adjustments I need to, so I introduce this extra step. Also, to use a widget that invokes Javascript to print the page will work for the majority of users with Javascript enabled but not for those without Javascript (arguably very much the minority these days). I'd be interested to see the results of any user tests done in this area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39823 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
