Print web page with login & password to clickable PDF

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anthony Susa
  • Start date Start date
A

Anthony Susa

How to print a web page to clickable PDF when a login/password is asked?

Given this working 3-step sequence to print to clickable pdf:
1. Start > Run > Acrobat
2. File > Create PDF > From Web Page
3. Enter the desired URL; then press "Create"

This simple sequence prints clickable PDF for all unrestricted URls, e.g.,
this Consumer Reports article on printer buying advice:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...PageIndex=1&resultIndex=1&searchTerm=printers

But, how does one print a web site to clickable PDF when a login & password
are requested?

For example,
STEP 1:
I use my default browser Firefox 1.5 on Windows XP to log into Consumer
Reports:
http://www.consumerreports.com

STEP 2:
After logging in, I navigate to a restricted login/passwd page such as:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...ters/printers/ratings/inkjet-photo-models.htm
I copy the desired URL into my clipboard for the next step.

STEP 3:
I start Adobe Acrobat Standard 6.0.3: Start > Run > Acrobat
I paste in the desired URL: File > Create PDF > From Web Page
But I never get the desired web page! :(

What happens invariably is I end up with a PDF of the Consumer Reports
login page! Not what I want! Even though I have a valid login and password,
there is no option in the Adobe Acrobat "Create PDF" "From Web Page" (that
I could find anyway) that allows one to specify the login and password of
the desired web page to print to clickable PDF.

How does one specify the browser login & password to the Adobe print to
clickable PDF mechanism?
 
Anthony Susa said:
How to print a web page to clickable PDF when a login/password is asked?

Given this working 3-step sequence to print to clickable pdf:
1. Start > Run > Acrobat
2. File > Create PDF > From Web Page
3. Enter the desired URL; then press "Create"
Click to expand...

Anthony-

What about:

1. Log into web page
2. File > Print > PDF > Save as PDF
3. Name the file and specify where to save it
4. Click Save.

It works on my Mac Mini.

Fred
 
How does one specify the browser login & password to the Adobe print to
clickable PDF mechanism?
Click to expand...

I should mention if I start up Firefox 1.5 and log into Consumer Reports
and navigate to the desired landing page and then print to the "Adobe PDF"
or "PrimoPDF", or "CutePDF Writer", or "eDocPrinter PDF Pro" printer
drivers, the resulting PDF does NOT contain the embedded clickable links.

The whole point is to have a PDF containing clickable links.

Can anyone print a clickable PDF of a web page (such as Consumer Reports)
which they are already logged into? I can't.

Tony Susa
 
If you already have Acrobat (and it appears that you do), "print" it to
Distiller with "dead" links, then add "live" links with the link tool.
Or, see if saving the complete web page to your hard drive, and then
converting the page to PDF with "Open Web Page," correctly preserves the
links.
Click to expand...

Hi PDFrank,

Thanks for the advice. I've been post processing PDFs of web sites for
years both adding back the missing URLs and adding the missing pages so I'm
very familiar (too familiar as I'm tired of it) with that process.

The wonderful thing about the newly found Adobe Acrobat ability to print an
entire web site (or as many levels deep as you like) to clickable PDF was
that it saved me all that work!

Having said that, I use Mozilla Netscape or Mozilla Firefox almost
exclusively as my browser (IE not having basic functionality such as tabs).

Since the Adobe Acrobat mechanism to print a web site to clickable PDF
doesn't have a GUI to allow login/password pages, then I'm forced to use
Internet Explorer (yuck).

Using Internet Explorer (to which Adobe Acrobat apparently adds a "Convert
PDF" explorer bar) for just those pages which force a login and password
isn't so bad (except that the "Convert PDF" explorer bar doesn't appear to
have the site-print functionality of the Adobe Acrobat Standard program) of
a workaround.

As this explanatory reply is getting long, I'll summarize separately in
another followup.

Tony Susa
 
As this explanatory reply is getting long, I'll summarize separately in
another followup.
Click to expand...

Short summary of the combined efforts of the PDF & web experts here:

1. The old way to print a web site to clickable PDF was to print to the
Adobe PDF printer driver a PDF sans links and then to post process that
linkless PDF using the Adobe Acrobat PDF editing program to create the
clickable links.

2. The new way to print a web site to clickable PDF is not to use the Adobe
Acrobat printer driver (which still can not print to clickable PDF) but to
use the Adobe Acrobat "File > Create PDF > From Web Page" mechanism (which
is totally different than normal printing to PDF).

3. The only major flaw in this Adobe creation of clickable PDF of web sites
is that it basically does not work for web sites that are password
protected, even if you have the login and password, as there is no
mechanism provided by Adobe to enter that login and password.

All in all, this is the best the experts can come up with and it's pretty
good - but not perfect (yet),
Tony Susa
 
All in all, this is the best the experts can come up with and it's pretty
good - but not perfect (yet),
Click to expand...

Why not use a free spider program to dl the whole site and then create the
PDF from the locally stored version?
 
Why not use a free spider program to dl the whole site and then create the
PDF from the locally stored version?
Click to expand...

Hi Ed Ruf,

I agree that using a web get spider such as wget (
http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html ) is another option, albeit no
longer a point and click solution.

We could first use the wget command line interface to download the entire
web site of Consumer Reports, for example, onto our hard drives. I haven't
used it but wget has a password mechanism. Then once we have the entire
site locally, we can use a freeware HTML to PDF converter such as HTMLDoc
(the elusive version 1.8.24 windows compiled binaries are here
http://users.tpg.com.au/naffall/htmldoc/HTMLDoc1.8.24.zip ) to archive that
entire web site to clickable PDF.

The whole point of PDF is to be an archive and, as we all know, an archive
of a web site without the links is basically useless.

I'm not sure the syntax but I suspect it's something like this:
STEP 1: Download the entire password protected Consumer Reports web site to
your local disk:
c:\> wget -pr -l0 --http-user=susaa --http-passwd=l00k1tup
www.consumerreports.com

STEP 2:
Run an HTMLtoPDF converter GUI which is intelligent enough to preserve the
links such as HTMLDoc.

If I get a chance, I'll test it out on just a few levels of hierarchy on
Consumer Reports. The good news is this is yet another way to archive an
entire password-protected site in two fell swoops to a single PDF file
containing all the links (as any archive without links is useless as an
archive).

Tony Susa
 
Hi,
One thought on the password protected sites, if using IE as the default
browser, go to Internet Options> Advanced> Security and see that "Do not
save encrypted pages to disk" is not checked.

It's a longshot, but it might be that Adobe needs to pull the pages from
cache and the encrypted pages aren't there.
- -
Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]
 
Internet Options> Advanced> Security and see that "Do not
save encrypted pages to disk" is not checked.
Adobe might need to pull the pages from cache and the
encrypted pages aren't there.
Click to expand...

Hi Don,

Thank you for taking the time and energy to help a fellow poster.
Currently the check box is empty (i.e., it is not checked) for:
WINXP IE 6.0.2900: Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Security
[ ]Do not save encrypted pages to disk

I never knew of this option which seems to currently save encrypted pages
to the cache (which is a different security problem altogether); but since
it was already not checked, it probably isn't the culprit in this case.

There must be SOMEONE with both Adobe Acrobat & a login & password to any
web site who can CONFIRM (or deny) they see what I see.

I'd like to ask if anyone else can perform these two quick steps:

STEP 1: Navigate to a password protected web site:
a) Start your default web browser & navigate to a protected page
b) Log into the password-protected web site
c) Save the resultant URL to your Windows clipboard

STEP 2: Create a PDF printout containing clickable links
a) Start Adobe Acrobat Standard (Start > Run > Acrobat)
b) ACROBAT: File > Create PDF > From Web Page
c) Paste the saved URL from your Windows clipboard

Did it work for you? Please post your experience.

Tony Susa

Note: We can all print password protected web sites to a PDF (using any of
a number of freeware "printers"; but the point is to print to a PDF file
which contains CLICKABLE links! That we haven't been able to confirm is
possible yet. Can you print a protected web site to PDF with clickable
links? How?
 
Anthony Susa said:
3. The only major flaw in this Adobe creation of clickable PDF of web sites
is that it basically does not work for web sites that are password
protected, even if you have the login and password, as there is no
mechanism provided by Adobe to enter that login and password.
Click to expand...

Tony-

I suppose you have already tried this, but thought I'd ask: If you are
logged into the secure web site using your favorite browser, does the
Adobe method work then? Since your machine is already logged-in, it would
seem that it would not need to log-in again.

I see that NetScape has an option to "View > Page Source", and you can
save it from there. That may be a way of recreating the web page on your
machine, but perhaps not any more convenient than inserting the links
manually.

Fred
 
Logged into the secure web site using your favorite browser, does the
Adobe method work then?
I see that NetScape has an option to "View > Page Source", and you can
save it from there.
Click to expand...

Hi Fred,

Thanks again for taking the time and effort to help others.

You'd THINK it would work to be logged into the password-protected web site
and then use the Adobe Acrobat program to create the PDF with clickable
links but it doesn't work (for me anyway).

STEP 1:
a) I open up both Firefox & Internet Explorer to the Consumer Reports' site
b) I navigate down to a protected web page on both browsers
c) I save the URL into my Windows XP clipboard

STEP 2:
a) I start up Adobe Acrobat (Start > Run > acrobat.exe)
b) I press <control + shift + o> to convert to clickable PDF
c) This brings up the darn Consumer Reports LOGIN page!

Even though I am already logged into a protected page in Consumer Reports'
web site (on both browsers), the Adobe Acrobat "Convert PDF" program still
insists on bringing up the login/password page again but it doesn't provide
the means for logging in!

Of course, I can easily File > Print to a PDF file but that resulting PDF
file doesn't contain clickable links. I'd have to add the links in
separately (which is too much of a pain to be worthwhile in the long run).

One would think the alternative is to bring up Internet Explorer, go to the
Consumer Reports web page ( http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home.htm ),
navigate to a password protected report (e.g.,
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...ters/printers/ratings/inkjet-photo-models.htm
), log into Consumer Reports, and then press the Internet Explorer "View >
Explorer Bar > Adobe PDF" menu, and then press the "Convert PDF" icon in
the IE explorer bar.

But that dialog box says "Starting Acrobat Conversion Engine" which does
the same thing as running the PDF conversion manually in Adobe Acrobat. You
end up with a PDF of the login page. Sigh.

I guess we're ready for the sad conclusion,
Tony Susa
 
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