No PDFs to print cachelisting / not printable listings

[m*sh]

The last time I printed out cachelistings was in december (AFAIR).

 

Yesterday, we wanted to go for a few caches, and noticed first, that the link to save a cache-listing as a pdf is missing.

Well, this is IMHO bad for several reasons but I could live with that.

 

Even worse I had to notice that I can't print the cachelistings from the website.

The printer just produces empty pages with a dozen special characters )-:

 

(Tested with opera and Iceweasel as a browser)

 

THIS IS AWFUL.

The only solution ist to copy and paste the content into a text-document... No, this can't be true.

 

So, why is the pdf-export missing???

[+dakboy]

Because it had a number of problems and developer time was better spent elsewhere. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=214184

[+wkmccall]

The last time I printed out cachelistings was in december (AFAIR).

 

Yesterday, we wanted to go for a few caches, and noticed first, that the link to save a cache-listing as a pdf is missing.

Well, this is IMHO bad for several reasons but I could live with that.

 

Even worse I had to notice that I can't print the cachelistings from the website.

The printer just produces empty pages with a dozen special characters )-:

 

(Tested with opera and Iceweasel as a browser)

 

THIS IS AWFUL.

The only solution ist to copy and paste the content into a text-document... No, this can't be true.

 

So, why is the pdf-export missing???

 

If you have acrobat installed, why not just print it to the Acrobat Printer to produce a .PDF file.

If you don't have Acrobat installed, download a freeware copy of a acrobat creator software.

Edited March 1, 2009 by wkmccall

[+dakboy]

If you have acrobat installed, why not just print it to the Acrobat Printer to produce a .PDF file.

People who have Acrobat installed, know they have it & how to use it.

If you don't have Acrobat installed, download a freeware copy of a acrobat creator software.

"Acrobat" isn't a document format, it's an application. You're looking for a PDF creator or PDF print driver like CutePDF. Which have been linked to many times on these forums in the past 3 weeks.

[m*sh]

Because it had a number of problems and developer time was better spent elsewhere. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=214184

I didn't have any problems for years. So I can't see why any developer should spent his/her time on this one.

[m*sh]

If you have acrobat installed, why not just print it to the Acrobat Printer to produce a .PDF file.

Cause I am on Linux.

If you don't have Acrobat installed, download a freeware copy of a acrobat creator software.

I've tried a postscript-printer for saving and printing. I can display the saved page but I can't print it. It always results in a bunch of special characters that are printed on the paper.

 

I will cancel my PM if I can't print the listings - or if printing persists to require me copying and pasting the contents into a text-editor... )-:

[+dakboy]

If you have acrobat installed, why not just print it to the Acrobat Printer to produce a .PDF file.

Cause I am on Linux.

Plenty of ways to create a PDF on Linux.

If you don't have Acrobat installed, download a freeware copy of a acrobat creator software.

I've tried a postscript-printer for saving and printing. I can display the saved page but I can't print it. It always results in a bunch of special characters that are printed on the paper.

That's a problem with your setup, not the site.

 

I will cancel my PM if I can't print the listings - or if printing persists to require me copying and pasting the contents into a text-editor... )-:

Your premium membership costs a lot less than the amount of time that Groundspeak was going to have to spend to fix up the PDFs - or make any changes to the functionality in the future.

 

The fact that you didn't have a problem doesn't mean that there was no problem. I personally found the PDF pages wasteful (and they worked right for me), I think the new method is much better.

[+tozainamboku]

It sounds like PDF was working fine for some people. I'm not sure why Groundspeak choose to drop it. If I recall, prior to PDF there were lots of complaints about the old print friendly format. Lots of people wanted a more compact format so that most caches would fit on a single pages. Many ask to be able to leave off part of the print out they felt was unnecessary. The programmers at Groundspeak started looking at ways to support what people were asking for. One of the first things they discovered was that they could produce a PDF in a nice compact format. Many people liked this option, but there were problems with decrypting hints and with some cache pages that had a lot of HTML in the description. Some people didn't like the format and kept asking for a more flexible solution. And there was the coding error that resulted int he formating of the PDF being different on certain browsers.

 

The programmers at Groundspeak kept looking for solutions that satisfied the most people. They soon discovered DHMTL. Using dynamic HTML they created a print friendly page where the user could select which sections to print and even the order in which they print. The format was not as compact as the PDF but it satisfied the people who wanted to leave out certain sections.

 

Around this time, Groundspeak dropped the MobiPocket ebook format for PQs. One alternative that was discussed here was to produce a PDF of the PQ which could be viewed on any device with Adobe Reader on it. Nothing came of this.

 

For whatever reasons Groundspeak dropped working on PDF. They stopped investigating the few problems with the PDF on the cache page and they never pursued the idea of PDF as a replacement for MobiPocket. Then in this past release they simply took away the PDF option all together. They must have know that many people were getting the PDF files so it seems weird that they would just drop it. They reversed the descision to strip DIV sections from user profiles after enough people complained. I don't see why they shouldn't put back the PDF option for those that prefer it to the print friendly format. If there are bugs in the PDF that they don't currently have resources to fix then simple say these won't be fixed a the current time. If the fact that a feature is buggy is reason to drop it, then why not drop bookmark lists or travel bug mileage?

Edited March 3, 2009 by tozainamboku

[+klossner]

The old "print friendly" pages still work and I use them every week. (Thanks to the unnamed lackeys who haven't yet killed it.)

 

When you're looking at a cache page, the URL near the top of your browser looks like:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c0703aba-13dc-41c2-9e9c-39b7fc902475

Click on the end of this URL and type these additional characters:

&pf=y&log=y&decrypt=y

then hit ENTER.

[+CTC42]

This is my first time at this forum and I don't understand exactly how to do it. I've just spent over an hour trying to find out what happened to the PDF one page 5 log print outs we used to print and take with us to the geocaches. We really liked them. They were compact and saved lots of paper and one page I can fit in my pocket. Now the same info often takes 3 or more pages of paper. I'd like to see you go back to the PDF format!!!!!. The new system is taking more time and is a disaster for those of us that have a slow internet connection. It takes a lot of the fun out of geocaching. Give us back the 5 log PDF printing option.

[+Markwell]

I'm confused. I used the Printer Friendly link here:

 

And after some minor tweaking, got this. Plus with all of those little arrows I can choose what I want to display and not display. Infinitely more adaptive that forcing me to use a pre-prepared PDF. I use DoPDF to print to PDF.

[+Markwell]

Oh, and when I printed I used to use the condensed HTML of GSAK. Now I have the condensed HTML of GSAK saved as a Word document on my Blackjak.

[+CTC42]

I guess we must be in different computer worlds. I have a very slow internet connection it take 4-5 minutes to load each page I switch to on the web. I need a one click button to bring up a page to print. I'm using Internet Explorer ver.6 with XP SP3. When I bring up the print 5 logs page, I see the little arrows and collapse some of the stuff I don't want but there are still large spaces between the items. The hint is decripted because I did that before I sent it to the print page. The decript matrix is still there taking up space. If it's decripted what do I need the decript matrix for? After collapsing some of the items I don't want using the arrows, a window pops up and says Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and has to close and then it's over for another 10 minutes while I get back to the geocaching page I was on. This Internet Explorer closing does not happen on any other websites. Now on to your other comment. What and where is condensed HTML? What is GSAK? and what is a Blackjack?

 

I use a Delorme PN-20GPS, a Lowrance Expedition and a Garmin Fortrex 101. The Delorme PN-20 does download some of the data, but not all, the info from the geocaching page. I really need a one click printed page with the same stuff that is on the 5 log print page. Often there is a lot of empty space on the print page and It would seem there would be room for the map on that old PDF format page too. Still seems to me that they had a good thing going with the PDF 5 log print page. It admittedly had some issues, but it is a lot better than what we have now that requires manipulation of the print page, crashing Internet Explorer, etc. Geocaching seems to be making the print page less friendly and a lot harder to use for those of us with slow Internet access and only average computer expertise. I'm all for change for the better, but this isn't it.

 

I thank you for your reply and hope you can shed some light on how I can single click a single page and print it. Why make it hard. As Full time Rv'ers, for us it's the great places geocaching takes us not the hunt and definitely not the time I spend on the computer getting the cache info. Because of our mobility in our Motor Home our lack of income to buy an air card for the internet connection, we use our Sprint Phone as the internet connection tethered to our notebook computer. It runs at speeds from about 50-200kbs depending on how strong and clean the Cell phone signal is. I'd sure like to decrease the time I spend on the computer getting the cache info. When I sit down to get info for 4 or 5 caches it often takes about an hour. Now with the new print option I'm printing 3 pieces of paper instead of one. It takes a lot of the fun out of geocaching.

[+Markwell]

As a premium member, you can get Pocket Queries e-mailed to you. The results of the query are a GPX file that can be opened in software like [http://gsak.net]GSAK[/url] and contains most of the information about the cache, including the last five logs.

 

This software, which doesn't rely on internet connections, can also print in what is called "condensed HTML" - I can usually get about 4 or 5 caches on a page.

 

When I'm going out caching, I highlight, copy and paste those results to a Microsoft Word Document, and send that file to my hand-held device (phone, email checker and micro computer all in one) a BlackJack.