Generally speaking, my advice would be to use print styles as part of the main stylesheet setup (possibly but not necessarily a separate CSS file) By tying your print-friendly styles to a script of any kind, you are forcing the user to find that link and be able to use it, in order to gain the benefit. It does depend a lot on what the site looks like to begin with, but try turning the question around, and asking yourself what the user would gain by being able to print the site exactly as it looks on the screen?
Regards, Mike > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lucien Stals > Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 6:18 AM > To: WSG > Subject: [WSG] Print style sheets > > > Hi all, > > I'd written a print style sheet for a site I'd done ( > http://www.swin.edu.au/ads/ltshowcase/inspire/presentations.html ), > but the feedback I got was that nobody knew it was there (unless they > printed the page). > > So I hit google for some suggestions on how best to do this. This has > lead to more confusion. > > One site I read suggested that print style sheets can confuse users > when what comes out of the printer differs significantly from > what they > saw on the page. This is true in my case where I hide the > navigation and > some background images. I also change the font and justification to > better suit print. > > So do people here think it's a good idea to have a print style sheet > that differs from the screen style sheet? > > In the end, I used some javascript to allow users to switch > between two > style sheets on the screen. One is designed for the screen, the other > designed for print. This way, if they print the page, they > get what they > see. > > What do people think about this approach. (If you are unclear from my > description about how this works, just visit the page and toggle the > "print friendly view" link near the top of the page). > > My approach has caused me a further problem: > > Because I used a link to trigger the script, clicks get added to the > browsers history, when technically the user hasn't left the page. Any > suggestions for how to get around this? Should I have used a select > list? > > Regards, > > Lucien. > > -- > > Lucien Stals > Multimedia/Web Developer > Academic Development and Support > Swinburne University of Technology > PO Box 218 Hawthorn, 3122, Australia > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > telephone: +61 3 9214 4474 > office: AD223 > > > Swinburne University of Technology > CRICOS Provider Code: 00111D > > NOTICE > This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended > only for the use of the addressee. They may contain > information that is privileged or protected by copyright. If > you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, > distribution, printing, copying or use is strictly > prohibited. The University does not warrant that this e-mail > and any attachments are secure and there is also a risk that > it may be corrupted in transmission. It is your > responsibility to check any attachments for viruses or > defects before opening them. If you have received this > transmission in error, please contact us on +61 3 9214 8000 > and delete it immediately from your system. We do not accept > liability in connection with computer virus, data corruption, > delay, interruption, unauthorised access or unauthorised amendment. > > Please consider the environment before printing this email. > > > ******************************************************************* > List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ******************************************************************* > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
