print options

[geezer]

I print a lot of documents to files for financial purposes.

The print dialog has the option to "print to file" which then allows the user to pick the directory in which to print the file.

At first I had to navigate completely through the directory structure from the HOME directory to the desired directory. At some point a particular directory was added as a default directory and I could go directly to that directory.

At some later date another directory was added as a default directory.

I have no idea how the 2 directories were added to the default directories, they just appeared "magically".

Is there some method for adding/deleting the default directories to which a file can be printed so that navigating the directory structure can be minimized. This would be especially helpful since the majority of documents I print to file go to a very limited range of directories.

[bobcollard]

Re: print options

I print a lot of documents to files for financial purposes.

The print dialog has the option to "print to file" which then allows the user to pick the directory in which to print the file.

At first I had to navigate completely through the directory structure from the HOME directory to the desired directory. At some point a particular directory was added as a default directory and I could go directly to that directory.

At some later date another directory was added as a default directory.

I have no idea how the 2 directories were added to the default directories, they just appeared "magically".

Is there some method for adding/deleting the default directories to which a file can be printed so that navigating the directory structure can be minimized. This would be especially helpful since the majority of documents I print to file go to a very limited range of directories.

When you click "Print" and then "Print to file" in Open Office there is a menu that comes up asking for a file name and an option to create a new folder. You do not mention the application used. Open your Documents and create your own Directory (Folder) and use that for all of your documents, then point the "Print to file" to that folder.

[geezer]

Re: print options

I print a lot of documents to files for financial purposes.

The print dialog has the option to "print to file" which then allows the user to pick the directory in which to print the file.

At first I had to navigate completely through the directory structure from the HOME directory to the desired directory. At some point a particular directory was added as a default directory and I could go directly to that directory.

At some later date another directory was added as a default directory.

I have no idea how the 2 directories were added to the default directories, they just appeared "magically".

Is there some method for adding/deleting the default directories to which a file can be printed so that navigating the directory structure can be minimized. This would be especially helpful since the majority of documents I print to file go to a very limited range of directories.

When you click "Print" and then "Print to file" in Open Office there is a menu that comes up asking for a file name and an option to create a new folder. You do not mention the application used. Open your Documents and create your own Directory (Folder) and use that for all of your documents, then point the "Print to file" to that folder.

Doesn't answer my question - I can create folders - creating folders is no problem.

I guess I wasn't clear.

What I want to know is how to get the folder created onto the list of default folders for the "print to file" print option. When I choose to print to a file, the dialog opens a means for me to specify the file to print to. There is a means of specifying the folder in which to create the file. When I started originally way back when there were 4 options for the folder: "home folder", "desktop", "file system" and "other".

As time went by, the dialog added another option for the folder: "Documents"

As more time went by, the dialog added another folder: "financial"

How the dialog knew to add the last two folders is a complete mystery. I have found no documentation on how the fodlers were added or how I could control the process of adding folders.

If it isn't on that list, my only option is to constantly navigate through the directory structure to the created folder. That process gets tedious very fast when you are printing a lot to files. Originally Firefox used it's own method of specifying the file to print to and it always used the folder last used, and it was possible to click on a file in the list to use as a "template" to create a new name. Firefox in the last iteration or so, dropped it's own method for the "system" method, which in the case of KDE is as dumb as a wall. I mentioned this to the Firefox developers, but they just said that dropping the code saved the developers time in code maintenance. I politely pointed out that the code was already written and bug free and that saving the developers a couple of thousands of hours of time, wasted millions of hours of time for the users. I always had this same argument with my managers and they were always overruled by the user's managers when those managers bothered to sit down and do the time math. The Firefox developers told me I was a "jerk" for pointing this out to them and so I quietly abandoned the Firefox developers communication channel since it was obvious they didn't really want any constructive suggestions.

I have been looking for a means of adding a folder to the list, but have not found a method for doing that yet.

Does anybody know of a means of doing so?

[bobcollard]

Re: print options

I print a lot of documents to files for financial purposes.

The print dialog has the option to "print to file" which then allows the user to pick the directory in which to print the file.

At first I had to navigate completely through the directory structure from the HOME directory to the desired directory. At some point a particular directory was added as a default directory and I could go directly to that directory.

At some later date another directory was added as a default directory.

I have no idea how the 2 directories were added to the default directories, they just appeared "magically".

Is there some method for adding/deleting the default directories to which a file can be printed so that navigating the directory structure can be minimized. This would be especially helpful since the majority of documents I print to file go to a very limited range of directories.

When you click "Print" and then "Print to file" in Open Office there is a menu that comes up asking for a file name and an option to create a new folder. You do not mention the application used. Open your Documents and create your own Directory (Folder) and use that for all of your documents, then point the "Print to file" to that folder.

Doesn't answer my question - I can create folders - creating folders is no problem.

I guess I wasn't clear.

What I want to know is how to get the folder created onto the list of default folders for the "print to file" print option. When I choose to print to a file, the dialog opens a means for me to specify the file to print to. There is a means of specifying the folder in which to create the file. When I started originally way back when there were 4 options for the folder: "home folder", "desktop", "file system" and "other".

As time went by, the dialog added another option for the folder: "Documents"

As more time went by, the dialog added another folder: "financial"

How the dialog knew to add the last two folders is a complete mystery. I have found no documentation on how the fodlers were added or how I could control the process of adding folders.

If it isn't on that list, my only option is to constantly navigate through the directory structure to the created folder. That process gets tedious very fast when you are printing a lot to files. Originally Firefox used it's own method of specifying the file to print to and it always used the folder last used, and it was possible to click on a file in the list to use as a "template" to create a new name. Firefox in the last iteration or so, dropped it's own method for the "system" method, which in the case of KDE is as dumb as a wall. I mentioned this to the Firefox developers, but they just said that dropping the code saved the developers time in code maintenance. I politely pointed out that the code was already written and bug free and that saving the developers a couple of thousands of hours of time, wasted millions of hours of time for the users. I always had this same argument with my managers and they were always overruled by the user's managers when those managers bothered to sit down and do the time math. The Firefox developers told me I was a "jerk" for pointing this out to them and so I quietly abandoned the Firefox developers communication channel since it was obvious they didn't really want any constructive suggestions.

I have been looking for a means of adding a folder to the list, but have not found a method for doing that yet.

Does anybody know of a means of doing so?

Well, at least I know which application you are using now . Here is a screen shot showing Print to file on firefox. Blow it up until you can see the cursor pointed at "Other" That is where you get to choose where you want to copy the file.

[barbolani]

Re: print options

I think that the original question is still not answered. I'm now on my netbook, which is using Ubuntu and I think that what the OP is referring to is the list of bookmarks.

When you choose print to file, at the bottom of the print dialog options there is a file selection list. Choosing "Other" opens the file selector. Right clicking in a folder there should give you the option boomarking it, and you'll be able to choose that folder directly without going to the file selector the next time.

Does that answer the original question?

[geezer]

Re: print options

I think that the original question is still not answered. I'm now on my netbook, which is using Ubuntu and I think that what the OP is referring to is the list of bookmarks.

When you choose print to file, at the bottom of the print dialog options there is a file selection list. Choosing "Other" opens the file selector. Right clicking in a folder there should give you the option boomarking it, and you'll be able to choose that folder directly without going to the file selector the next time.

Does that answer the original question?

Ahh somebody that understands the question.

And YES, that is the answer I need.

Just tried it and it works. The method is simple once known.

Is the method documented anywhere? The document containing that answer may also contain answers to other questions that come.

Now that I know about that method, I looked a lot more closely at the dialog window opened when "other" is chosen. On the left side of the dialog window is a pane labeled "places". At the bottom of the pane are two buttons "add" and "remove" to add and remove folders to the default list of folders. So there are 2 methods to accomplish what I want, one lurking in plain sight and one hidden behind that right mouse button.

[barbolani]

Re: print options

geezer, I don't remember reading about that anywhere, I just discovered them a while ago and started to use bookmarks to access frequently used folders.

This also explains the logic behind FF developer's decision, as this functionality is present in the three GUI frameworks I use (Windows, Gtk, Qt) so it does not make much sense to replicate it in Firefox. They could, however, have pointed you to the equivalent native functionality.

[geezer]

Re: print options

geezer, I don't remember reading about that anywhere, I just discovered them a while ago and started to use bookmarks to access frequently used folders.

This also explains the logic behind FF developer's decision, as this functionality is present in the three GUI frameworks I use (Windows, Gtk, Qt) so it does not make much sense to replicate it in Firefox. They could, however, have pointed you to the equivalent native functionality.

Did some more investigation on the native KDE functionality.

Using FF, access a web page. Then click on "File", then "Save Page as".

That brings up a dialog window in which you can navigate the directory structure and the default folders are listed as in the "print" dialog window.

The difference is that in the "Save Page as" dialog window, you can access the default folders, navigate the directory structure AND click on a file name to use as a template. Once the file name is clicked on it is put in the area for specifying the file name and can be edited. That makes it very easy to save multiple pages under slightly varying names. The dialog also remembers the last folder used. That is really helpful when doing multiple operations to the same folder.

That is the functionality that FF used to have for the "print" option.

So, it would seem that KDE needs to replicate the functionality of the "Save Page as" system call that FF uses in the "print" system call that FF uses. Since the code for the functionality is already written and debugged and being used, KDE would probably actually reduce the amount of code to use the same functionality in both calls.

Now having written that I don't really know if FF is using 2 separate system calls to KDE to do the operations, or whether FF has used calls to build separate dialogs according to FF specifications. If the former then it seems that KDE needs to clean up their functionality. If the latter, then FF needs to clean up their code.

[barbolani]

Re: print options

Without being an expert on the subject, I think that the situation is a bit more complicated than what you describe. FF is a multiplatform application, that is, runs on Windows, Linux, Mac and who knows what else. FF developers do not code for each specific app, they code for a cross platform GUI library that abstract services. In Unix, where there are two major window managers: Qt, which is used to build KDE, and Gtk, which is used to build the Gnome desktop. FF GUI layer calls the Gtk/Gnome layer and thus uses the stock toolkit provided by Gtk, which includes the standard file selection dialogs. So KDE is not at fault here.