Saving valuable threads

[Random Orbital Bob]

A quick question....is it possible to archive or otherwise save offline any particular thread? There are some examples of either machine setup or methods of joinery that I would like to keep in a sort of personal library. I appreciate its all here and could be searched for....but the database is vast and ever increasing. By archiving I can cherry pick the bits relevant to me.

 

[Kalimna]

Hmm, not sure how you would do it offline, but I have a "useful threads" folder in my Opera bookmarks where I save links to such threads for ease of reviewing.

Adam.

 

[marcros]

print/save as pdfs maybe. or record thread number on a spreadsheet with a hyperlink.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

good ideas both. Thanks. So it seems folks are making shortcuts directly back to the landing point in the forum rather than archiving the content offline. Fair enough...I'll do that.

 

[JakeS]

good ideas both. Thanks. So it seems folks are making shortcuts directly back to the landing point in the forum rather than archiving the content offline. Fair enough...I'll do that.

Archiving offline has the advantage that if the original poster/s ever take their pictures offline you'll still be able to see them, of course. If you feel like keeping the data, it's certainly safer offline. Or perhaps in some kind of hybrid - saved offline into a DropBox folder or something? The only downsides I see to an offline archive are:
- You lose any further comments that are made to the thread (although you can always re-save over the top of your archive when this happens)
- It takes up a bit more space on your computer (but still not much)

Unfortunately there isn't any straightforward way I know of to view the entire topic on one page, so you'd still have to step through all the pages and save them off one by one. On the plus side, most modern web browsers offer the ability to save off the page complete with images and so on - just hit Ctrl-S and select "Web page, complete" or something similar, as opposed to "Web page, HTML only".

 

[AndyT]

There are several software packages aimed at helping you take notes, focused on noting things you see online. Evernote is perhaps the best known but there are browser extensions too. They would let you select just the bits you wanted and save them, complete with pictures.

Strictly speaking this may be in breach of copyright, but it's probably ok as 'fair use' and as we all post on here trying to share information rather than profit from it, I for one would not mind anyone saving my posts - I'd be flattered!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

And well you should be young man...your posts are some of the ones I find really useful

 

[twothumbs]

I did a quick check and can if you highlight what you want, save what by control C, and then open a new word page, then control V to paste, you can save each page or message. Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Jack (W)]

If you use Firefox, the free ‘Scrapbook’ extension would enable you to create your own personal Scrapbook ‘library’ on your computer for offline viewing. You can right-click and save individual web pages (and whole web sites it appears) in Scrapbook folders that you create, but saving ‘threads’ that are more than one page long would, I think, require you to save the pages individually.

http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/

Jack (W)