When the email arrived and then re-arrived from our editor asking for articles for this month’s newsletter, I was at a loss as to what to pass along this month. Because I tend to work better under pressure I just waited until the last minute for something to pop onto the scene. (That’s okay… my wife doesn’t buy that "works better under pressure" scenario either … she calls it procrastination.) Our newsletter editor told me to go out and buy something new so I would have something to write about. Good idea, but a little drastic, especially after what I spent to write last month’s article. So, I just waited until the last day when the pressure got really strong, and low-and-behold, there it was, right in front of me… HP’s Web PrintSmart™.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of printing of web pages, and usually not with the results I was expecting. Well, I remember a few months back trying a new program from Hewlett Packard (HP) called Web PrintSmart, but I wasn’t too impressed. It was a little cumbersome and didn’t really do what it promised, at least for me anyway. I receive a free newsletter regularly from HP called HP at Home that’s loaded with ideas, solutions and tips for home computing customers of HP products, which I happen to be several times over. Recently I remembered reading in this newsletter that HP had upgraded Web PrintSmart so I went looking for it. Frankly, I went to HP.com but could not find it. So I did a search for it using Copernic (http://www.copernic.com) and ended up at: http://www.software.hp.com/. I clicked on Internet and Security and had a choice of two versions of Web PrintSmart. One was a Plus version for $29.95 and one was a Beginner version for free. Which one do you think I chose? Right again! The difference being, as far as I can tell, more control over page formatting such as changing the fonts and appearance of the page on the one you pay for. The size of the file download is 4.5 megabytes or you can opt to have a CD ROM mailed to you for $9.95 plus $7 shipping and handling. Either way, just fill out a short registration form and it’s yours – FREE! Okay, what is it and what does it do?

The basic concept behind Web PrintSmart is collecting web pages you want to print, and then printing the collection as a single document. This collection can also be saved as a file for later retrieval and you can save as many different collection files as you choose. However, you can only work with one collection at a time. I mean, it is free!

So, what would you want to collect from the web? How about information on a new computer you're planning to purchase. This collection could contain web pages of the manufacturers about the brands and models you're considering, price comparisons, reviews from computer magazines, and contact information for vendors. Or what about the student who is working on a research paper. This collection could contain the best results of your web searches on the topic of interest. Or how about a personal daily summary. This collection could contain your company's web page with press releases or news stories related to your product and your competitor’s products, and reports posted to the web by your people in the field. Get the idea? These collections can actually be whatever you come across on the web.

The Web PrintSmart application window is divided into two areas, or "panes". On the left is the collection pane, which lists all the web pages in the current collection. On the right is the browser pane, which functions generally like other web browsers. You use this pane to find web pages for your collection. To start, I just find the pages using a search tool or search engine in my regular browser and then copy the initial link into the URL line in the right pane and off I go. Or once you find the page in your browser, switch to PrintSmart and use a shortcut key to automatically transfer the URL into PrintSmart. When you find a web page you want in your collection just click the ‘Add to Collection’ button. The web page displayed in the browser pane gets added to the collection and you will see its title appear on the list in the collection pane. If you already have a lot of pages in your ‘Favorites’ list just import your favorites list into PrintSmart and print what you choose.

Even in this free version there is still a lot of flexibility in the way you can format the printed output by choosing from several pre-defined style sheets, which determines the fonts and colors, or just print all text in black. You can also choose to add a cover page, table of contents, index of links, exclude/include certain paragraphs or pages and add headers and/or footers. Choosing which page to print is easy enough. Just put a check mark in the box next to the page in the collection pane and that’s it. Or, if you choose, you can use automatic marking to mark a web page and all its linked web pages. This enables you to print all those pages without marking each of them manually.

One little trick I use is that my printer has the ability to print multiple pages per sheet of paper and print booklets and tablets. By printing two pages per side and on both sides of the paper I not only save paper (and trees) but I also save ink and money. And the quality is the same just smaller.

And in case you’re wondering, you don’t have to own an HP printer; it works fine on my Epson also. Actually, you don’t have to own anything made by HP. This program is free to anyone who fills out the registration. Web PrintSmart is one of the better freebies I’ve ever come across on the Internet, and it also goes to show that just because you try a program the first time and you don’t care for it, be open minded enough to try it again at a later time. Sometimes they do get better, even if they are FREE! u