Back in 2007 I looked at two Firefox add-ons to prepare websites before printing them. Preparing in this case meant to remove unnecessary elements like advertisement, chat boxes or sidebar links from the page to save printer ink and get only the relevant information on a printed page (see best way to print websites).
At least one of the extensions mentioned in the guide, Aardvark, has not been updated in recent times. The last update dates back to February 2010 which more or less means that the extension is no longer actively developed. Some users have noticed incompatibilities with recent versions of the Firefox web browser.
That’s the main reason that Hack The Web was created. The Firefox add-on offers a similar functionality as Aardvark. Firefox users can use the extension to remove page elements from the active website.
Whenever you want to print a page you can right-click on the page and select to start Hack the Web.
You will notice then that you page elements are highlighted with a red border when you move the mouse cursor over them.
If you click the left mouse button the element will be removed. You can alternative press the r key to do the same. If you have deleted a page element by accident you can get it back by pressing u for undo. Other keys of interest are w for making the element wider, n for narrower, d for removing the width limit of the element, l for turning the background color to white, b for black on white text and I for removing everything but the selected element. The q key ends the editing mode.
Please note that all page elements will reappear if you reload the page or click on a link to open another page.
The extension offers several advanced commands that include adding global JavaScript variables, pasting a removed element in another location on the page or killing the selected element permanently which only works if the Remove it Permanently extension is installed.
Once you are done editing you can print the remaining elements of the web page on the printer. Removing elements saves printer ink and maybe even paper.
Firefox users can download and install the Hack The Web extension from the official Firefox Add-on repository.
© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: Firefox, firefox add-ons, hack the web, print websites, printing tips
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