Workshop: Save paper and time when printing

Start by paying a visit to the HP Smart Web Printing page at www.snipurl.com/2yfhj. Here it is possible to view a demonstration of how the software works. Scroll down the page slightly and click the ‘Free download’ button before scrolling down the page and clicking the ‘Download only’ button. Select the option to save the file to the Windows Desktop and wait while the download completes ­– at around 6.6MB, this should not take too long. Double-click the file to start the installation process.

As the installation wizard points out, it is possible that some firewalls and anti-spyware tools will be triggered by installing HP Smart Web Printing. Should an alert be displayed, it is safe to click the permit, allow or unblock option. Click Next to start the installation, agree to the terms of the licence, choose where the software should be installed and click Next. Tick the box on the final screen to launch Internet Explorer and then click the Finish button.

A new button will immediately be visible in the Internet Explorer toolbar. Start by clicking the small arrow next to this button and select Preferences from the menu that’s displayed. To ensure the latest version of HP Smart Web Printing is installed, select the option labelled ‘Please check automatically (recommended)’ and then click on OK. The same method can be used in Firefox. Additional options will be displayed, but we will look at these later ­– they can be ignored for the time being.

When working with HP Smart Web Printing, sections of various web pages can be selected and copied to a special clipboard. It’s useful to have this displayed when selecting online content, as it makes it easier to keep track of what has already been copied. To display the clipboard in Internet Explorer, click the black arrow to the right of the toolbar button and select Show Clip Book or press Ctrl and K on the keyboard. In Firefox, select Clip Book from the menu or press Ctrl, Shift and K simultaneously.

To start collecting content from web pages, click the new toolbar button (the label ‘HP Smart Select’ will be displayed if you hover the mouse pointer over it). Now the pointer will change into a crosshair when moved over a web page. Using the left mouse button, click somewhere on the web page and draw a box around the content that is to be captured. Upon releasing the mouse button, select Clip from the context menu that appears. Text and pictures that are collected will be displayed in the Clip Book sidebar.

As more content is added to the Clip Book, a scrollbar will appear to allow for easy navigation. As content can be copied from a number of websites, it can be helpful to rearrange the clips to make them easier to manage. Simply use the left mouse button to drag and drop clips to a new location. When it comes to printing out content, it is possible that not everything is required –­ use the tick boxes to select several items or click the arrow beneath the Edit button before clicking Select All.

Clips that are no longer needed can be removed from the Clip Book by clicking the relevant tick box and then pressing the Delete button in the Clip Book toolbar (the red cross icon). Quick and easy printing can be accessed by clicking the printer button in the toolbar. After configuring printer options, all the selected clips will be printed out and arranged so that the minimum amount of paper is used. As many or as few clips as required can be printed out in this way.

Once all the required clips have been copied to the Clip Book, it’s time to create a page ready for printing. Select the clips that are to be printed out and click the Edit Clips button at the top of the Clip Book panel. By default, the page that appears will list all the clips in the order they have been captured, but these can be rearranged by simply dragging and dropping into new positions, making it possible to place related clips next to each other.

To ensure that the printout makes the best possible use of paper, it’s a good idea to adjust the page margins. Click the Page Setup button in the toolbar (next to the Print button) and make sure the correct paper size is selected. Edit the values in the Margins section to indicate how close to the edge of the paper the clips should be printed. Depending on the size and shape of the clips, it may also be useful to change between portrait and landscape modes. Click OK when finished.

To help fit more on to a page, it’s possible to reduce the size of individual clips. Click on the clips with the left mouse button and a border including blank and green handles will appear. By moving the green handles in or out, clips can be enlarged or reduced in size as necessary. Use the black handles to crop in on a clip by cutting out any sections that aren’t needed. Repeat this process for all clips and rearrange as necessary.

If clips have been copied from a number of sources or relate to a number of topics, it can be helpful to add text labels to make them easier to differentiate. Click the Insert Text button on the toolbar ­– the one next to the view dropdown menu ­– and then click on the page in the location the text box should be placed. The text in this box can be formatted using the word processing-style controls in the toolbar and the box can be positioned and edited as described before.

Clips that are no longer needed can be removed from the page by first selecting the clip and then clicking the red cross button in the toolbar. Unwanted changes and deletions can be cancelled by clicking the yellow Undo button in the toolbar. When working with a large amount of information, it may be necessary to edit the page in more than one sitting. Click the Save button at the bottom of the screen to retain the edits that have been made for the next time the Edit Clips window is opened.

Completed pages of clips can be easily shared with others while retaining the desired layout by saving the page as a PDF. Click the ‘Save As PDF’ button at the bottom of the screen, choose where the file should be saved and enter a suitable name. The resulting file can then be emailed to others or simply stored on the hard disk to allow for easy printing of the same document in the future. By using the PDF format, the document will look the same when viewed on any other computer.

When it comes to printing out the arranged clips, all that needs to be done is to click the Print button in the toolbar at the top of the screen. After configuring any desired printing options, click OK and the page will be printed. Don’t forget that even more paper can be saved when printing multiple-page documents by opting to print on both sides of the page, although with most printers it will be necessary to manually turn over the paper for double-sided printing.