I have another issue regarding switching from a PC to a Mac. On the PC, I could select a region of a document or web page, then click the File-Print and select "Selection" to tell it to print just the selection. I can't seem to do that on the Mac. I'm wasting paper and ink printing the whole web page every time. Is there a way to print just the selected parts?
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how to print just the selection
- Thread starter Mosey
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Press the following keys together:
Apple Shift 4
You will be rewarded with a cross-hair looking thingy. Click and drag through your section. A png file named Picture 1 will appear on your desktop, print that!
Apple Shift 4
You will be rewarded with a cross-hair looking thingy. Click and drag through your section. A png file named Picture 1 will appear on your desktop, print that!
Command-P to open the print dialog.
PDF button at the bottom of the dialog: "Open page in Preview".
With the Preview selection tool, select the area you wish to print.
Command-K to crop the page to the selection.
Command-P to open the print dialog.
Sounds complicated, but it accomplishes the task.
BTW, you can save the cropped Preview pages for printing later.
You can also combine a group of cropped pages for printing them on fewer sheets of paper.
ie: ten half-pages could be printed on 5 sheets of paper.
PDF button at the bottom of the dialog: "Open page in Preview".
With the Preview selection tool, select the area you wish to print.
Command-K to crop the page to the selection.
Command-P to open the print dialog.
Sounds complicated, but it accomplishes the task.
BTW, you can save the cropped Preview pages for printing later.
You can also combine a group of cropped pages for printing them on fewer sheets of paper.
ie: ten half-pages could be printed on 5 sheets of paper.
It is even better in Leopard, the cross hairs call out the screen coordinates so you know the files size if you are making a presentation.
Thanks. The cross hairs thing is working OK. But, it's more steps than on a PC. On the PC it was 4 steps: highlight the area, File-Print, click on Selection, click on Print. On the Mac it is 5 steps: Apple-Shift-4 (which I found awkward, so I remapped it to a function key in System Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse), highlight the area, open the Picture file, Shift-P, click on Print.
I'm disappointed! Is there a way to get it to leave the Picture file up on the screen? That would eliminate the step of having to open it.
Also, the PC has a printer icon that I can click on to print, which is faster and easier than Shift-P then Print. I'm surprised the Mac doesn't have that also.
I'm disappointed! Is there a way to get it to leave the Picture file up on the screen? That would eliminate the step of having to open it.
Also, the PC has a printer icon that I can click on to print, which is faster and easier than Shift-P then Print. I'm surprised the Mac doesn't have that also.
If you are in safari, right click on the toolbar, click customize, drag the "print" icon to the tool bar.
A little creative use of Automator can reduce this process to basically just the step involved with selecting the area you wish to print.
Everything else is handled automatically without further user input.
Everything else is handled automatically without further user input.
Didn't know that was in Firefox but it needs to be in Safari or better yet, as an OS X service.
As for the discussion at hand. Isn't it a whole lot easier to copy and paste the text into a text document? Print from there.
You can also install the print selection service and be able to print selections from all services-aware applications in OSX, including Safari.
The command will be located in the application menu under services.
ie: Safari > Services > Print Selection.
The command will be located in the application menu under services.
ie: Safari > Services > Print Selection.
Print Selection - Safari vs Firefox
The Print Selection 1.0 program works as mentioned above in Safari, however, it's not so in Firefox 3.0.3. In Firefox, the Services' Print Selection option is grayed out. However, the good news is that the old Firefox Print menu option that allowed you to print a selection is visible once more. You go to File, Print, then there's a drop-down menu headed by Copies and Pages. Firefox is once more a choice and opting for that one allows you to print the selection (plus other things.)
The Print Selection 1.0 program works as mentioned above in Safari, however, it's not so in Firefox 3.0.3. In Firefox, the Services' Print Selection option is grayed out. However, the good news is that the old Firefox Print menu option that allowed you to print a selection is visible once more. You go to File, Print, then there's a drop-down menu headed by Copies and Pages. Firefox is once more a choice and opting for that one allows you to print the selection (plus other things.)
Mac OS X really needs to have this built in, It's annoying that I have to open Firefox just to print something out.
Print Selection works with other programs, not just Browsers
I agree that MacOSX should have it built in. Having used Windows for a very long time, there are many other things I miss in the Mac environment. Nevertheless, this Print Selection program allows you to highlight just about anything and print it; you don't need to open Firefox to do so.
I agree that MacOSX should have it built in. Having used Windows for a very long time, there are many other things I miss in the Mac environment. Nevertheless, this Print Selection program allows you to highlight just about anything and print it; you don't need to open Firefox to do so.
I have the same version and still have the print selection option so it's not an issue with the Firefox version. Long ago I'd had that option disappear on me but it is now back. Try re-installing Firefox or disabling some plugins... Just a thought.