Add “Print This” to Your WordPress Blog Posts with WP-Print Plugin

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17 Responses

  1. Tom Colvin says:

    I agree, wp-print is a very useful plug-in. I see that Dustin himself will have to add that one to homework list for blog management!

    There’s another tactic I use, especially with recipes that I pick up from various sources: the good old “Cut and Paste” into my word processor method. That way I keep my recipes files away in Windows Explorer — I print one out only on occasions when I am actually going to cook the dish.

    By the way, I love wasabi — guess I gotta next visit your blog.

  2. Lisa Hendrix says:

    And yet you don’t seem to be using the plug-in currently. Is there some problem with it?

  3. Dustin says:

    Uh, Tom and Lisa? Try clicking the “Print This” link under the title of the post.

  4. Lisa Hendrix says:

    Hi, Dustin — I was actually “speaking” to Stephanie and referencing her posts on Wasabimon. The Print This link appears on her sample post above but I do not see it on her current postings and I’m wondering why. Did it not work with the most recent iteration of WordPress, or is there some other reason she’s not using it?

  5. Dustin says:

    Ah. Sorry about that — I guess I misread.

    Stephanie and I discussed her options a while back — which discussion led to her writing this post — and as I recall, she wanted to try out several different solutions to see how they worked. For a recipe site, a good alternative to WP-Print is to attach a PDF to the post, like the cooking blog Brownie Points (see, for example, this recipe for vanilla marshmallows – http://www.browniepointsblog.com/2006/04/15/basic-vanilla-marshmallows/ – which, by the way, I’ve made and they’re delicious!).

    Another solution is to create a separate stylesheet for printing; this takes a little coding expertise, but done right it eliminates the need for a print this” button — you just print as usual and the correctly-formatted post is sent to your printer.

    I’m not sure which solution Stephanie will settle on, but since she was playing with WP-Print, we thought it would be cool for her to write up her experience for other WTC readers.

  6. Dustin says:

    Actually, it looks like she implemented WP-Print site-wide just while I was writing that comment. Funny, that…

  7. Stephanie says:

    Hi all –

    I installed the plugin many moons ago, so I’m not sure what the confusion is. You have to click the individual post for the option to print it. See here, under the title:

    http://www.wasabimon.com/archive/light-zucchini-hummus/

    Dustin, I thought that you actually looked at the printing functionality on my blog way back when?

  8. Stephanie says:

    Also, I would not have been able to implement the plugin for just one post. In order to include the sample, it would have had to have been installed site-wide.

  9. Lisa Hendrix says:

    Ah…There’s the key. I thought it would show on the main blog page under the post title. I didn’t realize you had to go the the individual post pages first. Sorry about the confusion. Thanks for clearing it up.

    This does look like a nice plug-in–the printable file is very clean and compact. I’ll keep it in my file of options. Thanks to you both for pointing it out.

  10. Stephanie says:

    No problem. 🙂 I debated adding printing links to the non-archived pages, but decided against it. Perhaps I should reconsider.

  11. Dustin says:

    Stephanie: I might have looked — I remember looking at the test page, but I can’t remember what else I looked at. Yesterday, I think I did the same thing Lisa did — I checked the front page and didn’t see the “Print this” link. Of course, since I’m running WP-Print on this site, I technically knew that the link doesn’t appear on the front page, but what can I say? Moving has made me far too tired and scatter-brained to put thoughts together in rational ways. My bad!

  12. Stephanie says:

    I understand. I may be moving myself in the next few weeks. Not looking forward to it!

    I hope your move is going well!

  13. Shufgata Naz says:

    well… i visit your website first time and found this site very usefull and intresting !

    well… you guys doing nice work and i just want to say that keep rocking and keep it up !!!!

    Regards
    shufgata Naz

  14. Siva says:

    Thanks a lot for your information. I have done it and it’s working fine in my blog. If you are a newbie or stuck in the middle, check it out my blog at http://www.techbuzzy.com

  15. Janelle says:

    I have this plugin working on my site. It does do as you said with new posts/pages, but for some reason, the print link does not appear on any of my archived posts.

    Since they are mostly recipes, this is pretty important, as people will be searching through the menu for what they want, and will not have that print-friendly screen on those posts.

    Any help would be appreciated.

  1. October 25, 2008

    […] at Dustin Wax’s writing blog, The Writer’s Technology Companion. My first post is about adding printing functionality to WordPress blogs. […]

  2. October 25, 2008

    […] at Dustin Wax’s writing blog, The Writer’s Technology Companion. My first post is about adding printing functionality to WordPress blogs, and I’ll post about the others as they’re […]