Several forums I visit have a feature whereby a thread can be rendered in a printer friendly mode.  This is faster loading and the page is not cluttered up with announcements and extraneous pictures etc which are not part of the posts to the thread.  It is done sometimes as a blanket option for all threads and sometimes as an option chosen for the single thread being viewed at the time.  Some do it page by page while others display all pages of a thread chained together.  The later is what I prefer.

I think these forums would be improved by the addition of such a feature.

jere

Hey while we are doing this we need a chat too!!

Jere, I have used that "printable version" tool on other forums, and it comes in handy. However, my guess is this forum is probably not very easy to modify.

I would just like to be able to type two paragraphs and not have to "put the HTML in" so as to have a space between them.

Is that mode used for dial up users? For dial up I could see where that would really help...for hi speed connections probably less of an impact. I believe the issues that make this sight slow are different.

I want a CHAT too

I think a chat would be a good option if it is one.

Steve, all users.

Where I've encountered this it has been presented as an option on the page where a thread or topic is rendered in the traditional manner such as this site does.  Avatars and other parts of posters profiles, announcements etc.  are omitted from the "printer mode" renedered page(s). Where it really shines is when one wants to print or save a page - only the pictures which are part of the posts will be printed and all the extaneous stuff that would consume ink are stripped.  If a thread has many pages renered in the traditional form and the "printer mode" renders the entire thread rather than individual pages, one can choose that and read the entire thread w/o going from page to page.  I really like this feature.

I'm not aware of any site which offers this mode as a blanket option to individual users which they would specify in their preferences though that could be nice.

jere

I can think of a lot of things that would improve this site, but if something as simple as the forum remembering my log in information can't be accomplished ----------- Oh Well.


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