Printing & Saving Tips

General printing tips

Whenever possible, use the print feature provided by the database (not just the browser print) or the printer-friendly version of a web page. Always choose to reformat for printing if this is an option. You may also be given choices about what information appears in the records you save (e.g., citation, abstract, full record).
If you are not using a database with special print options, you will need to use the browser’s print function.
If you can't get one browser to print the page properly, try a different browser.

Under the browser File menu, choose Print Preview. From this screen you can see what page numbers contain the information you wish to print. You can then enter the appropriate page numbers in the browser print box before printing.
Alternatively, highlight the text you wish to print. From the File menu, choose Print (don't use the print button on the browser toolbar). In the browser print box, choose Selection, and click Print.

Make sure to click in the frame containing the desired information before clicking the print button. Blackboard often has a very small frame located above the frame containing the main information that you want to print.
Print from the browser's file menu rather than the browser's printer icon button.
Try going through print preview and click the print button.
Highlight the text you wish to print. From the File menu, choose Print (don't use the print button on the browser toolbar). In the browser print box, choose Selection, and click Print.
If the frame contains a link to a Word document that is not printing, open the frame in a new window.
In some browsers, you may have to right click the open the document and choose "Open frame in a new window." If that isn't possible, you might have to back up one screen and right click the link to the document and chose "Open in a new window."
Some browsers give you the option to "print frames as displayed on the screen" when you print from the File menu.

Once you have marked a record, use the database’s navigation buttons (not the browser’s) to go forward, backward, or perform a new search in that database.
Make sure to verify if there is a limit to how many records can be marked at one time, and don’t exceed that limit.

Whenever possible, use the save/download/export feature provided by the database (not the browser “Save As” function). You may be given choices about what information appears in the records you save (e.g., citation, abstract, full record).
If you are not using a database with special download options, you need to save each Web page individually. Under the browser File menu, choose “Save As."
You should name the file to be saved (without any .xxx extension) and choose the appropriate destination drive (e.g., A:\). When using the browser "Save As," be sure to change the format of the page to “plain text” (not html) if you want to bring up the text in a word processing program later.
E-mail is often an option for saving records in some databases.

Occasionally these types of files overload the printer's memory, particularly if the file size is large.
To avoid problems printing large files, try dividing the document into print jobs of no more than 5 to 10 pages each, or try reducing the file size in Adobe Acrobat Pro (compressing a file may alter image quality).