Finally! Print the Recipe!

Ever wish you could print recipes without wasting ink and paper on the banner and the sidebars? Me too! Here's how to print just the introduction and the recipe, skipping A Veggie Venture's banner and sidebars and JUST UPDATED! -- reader comments.
  • LOCATE THE RIGHT BUTTONS First, find the 'print' button in your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.), there's often a one-click printer icon. But also find (something like) File/Print and take note if there's (something like) a 'page range' option for 'all', 'pages 1 to x' and 'selection'. (Don't do anything with these yet, just find them.)
  • MAKE SURE YOU'RE ON THE RIGHT PAGE Now, make sure you're on the page you want to print.
    • If you're on the home page, either
      • click the post's title at the top of the post (nearly always, this is the recipe name but for example, on this page the post's title is Finally! Print the Recipe!)
        ~ or ~
      • click 'page permalink' at the bottom of the recipe you'd like to print.
    • If you're starting from any other page, you're already there -- and you'll know because the post's title (again, nearly always the recipe name) will be in the URL displayed in your browser's navigation bar. For example, this page's post title displays in the URL like this -- http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2007/03/finally-print-recipe.html

  • TO PRINT THE ENTIRE POST If you want to print the entire post (that's the introduction, the recipe and the comments), that's it, just click print!
    • For the record, this print function will work on your other favorite food blogs too -- except that unless the blogger has done some technical stuff in the background, the header and sidebars are likely to print too. To check what will print, click Print Preview.
  • TO PRINT A PORTION OF THE POST If you want to print only a portion of the post -- just the recipe itself, say, or the recipe and the comments-- use your mouse to 'select' the text you want to print, then click File / Print, and then under Print Range, choose 'Selection'.
    • The technique for selecting text varies from one browser to the next. But usually, it's done by placing the cursor at the spot you want to start selecting/printing. Then, holding the left clicker on your mouse, draaaaaag the cursor downward, highlighting the entire area to select/print, until you reach the place you'd like to stop selecting/printing.)
    • For the record, this technique will work with your other favorite food blogs and other websites too.
    • It's possible that some (older? I'm not sure) browsers will print the shadowing behind the selected text, making the printed page hard to read. Try once, if it's a problem with pages printed from my site, it will likely be a problem on other sites as well.
  • NEW! TO PRINT A RECIPE WITH YOUR OWN FORMATTING, a suggestion from a reader: Use your mouse to 'select' the text you want to print. Open a new document in your word processing application (such as Microsoft Word), then click Edit / Copy or simultaneously click the Control key and the C key. This will copy the selected text into the document. If you like, format the recipe name, add your own notes, etc. Then print!
  • I soooo agree -- a simple print should be much, much simpler. Now if only the Technology Gods thought so too and made it thus.



NEVER MISS A RECIPE! It's easy to print recipes right from an e-mail too. Sign up for an e-mail subscription to A Veggie Venture. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box and you can print-print-print to your heart's content.



For the inspiration for this print feature, thanks much to the behind-the-scenes tech support department at Kalyn's Kitchen (inspired by Zoe, one of Kalyn's faithful readers who knows a thing or two about web sites) who cracked the code for Kalyn's South Beach recipes. My own behind-the-scenes folks knew just how to repeat the 'recipe' and Kalyn generously allowed me to offer the same convenient feature. (Thanks, Kalyn!)


A Veggie Venture is home of the Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and vegetable inspiration from Asparagus to Zucchini.

© Copyright 2007
Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. Woo Hoo! Very cool. I'm happy I could help, although I could never tell you how they did it. Anyone who knows about html is welcome to look at my source code and use the idea if they can figure it out! I'm just thankful for Zoe, Rand, and Bradley to help me do it.

    I print your recipes pretty regularly, so I'll love it.

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  2. Hooray! I'm glad I'm helping to spread the printer-friendliness. :-)

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  3. So are WE, Zoe! Thank you!!

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  4. Congrats. What a great idea. Any chance of printing the directions on Food Blog Scool?

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  5. Hi Faith, sorry I can't, it's in the CSS and so beyond my own technical knowledge. But if you've got someone who helps with your blog, I bet you could ask them to look at the source and figure it out.

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  6. Thank you a million times for the recipes AND for the instructions on how to print ONLY the selected text. For the longest times, I've used my mouse to select and copy the text I wanted

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  7. AnonymousJune 22, 2008

    Good Job! :)

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  8. You can also print just the recipe by selecting it, right click, click print, then print selection. You can go to file, print and print selection, too.

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  13. AnonymousJuly 05, 2013

    Try the http://www.printfriendly.com/ link.

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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna