Personally Backing up BBF Discussions

[Brian McKenna]

What is the best way to back up BBF discussions?

I want to transfer material to MS Word. How do I go about it without getting all the extraneous icons, headers, etc.?

I know that on some sites one can click a "Printable Version" button and it will clear most of that out. Any suggestions?

[Brian McKenna]

Nevermind, delete thread if you like. I found it.

[Mattingly]

What was your solution? Copy & paste?

[Brian McKenna]

I found the "Printable Version" under "Thread Tools." Never looked there before. It cleans up most of the icons. Yes, then I copied and pasted. Thanks.

[Mattingly]

I've actually never used that "printable version" thing, so everyone learns something new every day.

If you have a PDF software such as Adobe Acrobat (there are others), you can also save to a PDF, and that way, you can always email someone a copy of a thread that you'd like to save. Otherwise, your only copy of a thread would be a printout, which could easily get lost.

[Brian McKenna]

I actually don't plan on printing anything out. Just keeping a Word file with the info - which I'll back up on a disc(s).

As you know, Word is very easy to search for specific names or words.

[Mattingly]

Sounds good. I was just saying that Word has many verions, but I consider a PDF file more transportable, in that everyone is pretty much expected to have this. However, MS Word is highly popular also.

If you create a PDF file, you'll have some proof that someone actually said something, rather than just a file which purports to show what someone said. I mean, how can you demonstrate that I've posted this if you have an editable file as proof? With a PDF file (which can also be made "searchable", then the sequence from one forumer's post to the next forumer's post will demonstrate how people's thoughts have built up.

Still, please feel free to use whatever you feel does the job sufficiently. Just keep everything into a safe place on your hard drive where you can easily access things.

[Brian McKenna]

True enough.

My purpose for backing up has more to do with my future use (and easy copying of that material) of my research. It is also a benefit that I could see the flow of conversation and the opinions and added material of the posters here at Fever.

I see what you're saying about PDF but I not really sure where for the purposes of research that banter in a forum would require a level of proof.

[Tango Tiger]

After you bring up the printable version, do: File/SaveAs. That saves the file in HTML format, easily the best format to save it in.

First off, it's readable by any browser, which is the most ubiquitous of all programs on your compter.

Secondly, it preserves it exactly, since that's the format it was rendered in to begin with.

Thirdly, it's easily cut/pastable if need be.

[Brian McKenna]

I see what you're saying Tiger - it's quick and easy too.

The thing though:
1) It creates a separate file for each thread - which has its pluses and minuses
2) Multiple files would be needed per thread for each page

[Tango Tiger]

Point 2 is not true:

http://www.baseball-fever.com/printthread.php?t=73464&pp=99

Just add that "pp=99" to all your URLs. Try pp=999 and see if that works.

As for point 1: that is how all our files are! That's what a windows directory is for. You put every thread in its own file, and then use SEARCH to look for what you want. There is no minus to having things in separate files. Can you provide one?

[Mattingly]

I see what you're saying Tiger - it's quick and easy too.

The thing though:
1) It creates a separate file for each thread - which has its pluses and minuses
2) Multiple files would be needed per thread for each page

In that case, the first point would be ideal, since you can categorize each thread. If you have something about Web Improvements, you could put this subfolder under a "BBF" subfolder. Any topic of discussion covered across various threads could all be lumped into a subfolder with that topic.

Whether html or PDF, you'd need multiple files for each page. These files show whatever is on the page, and what's on the page is one (1) single page of discussion.

If you have the regular or Pro version of Acrobat, and likely other PDF programs, you can combine those files into one file (preferably in sequential order, of course), so that you won't need 50 different files to view an entire 50-page thread.

[Tango Tiger]

No, like I said, add the following to the URL:
&pp=99
and you will get 99 posts on one page.

Click my link in post 11, and you will see.

[Mattingly]

No, like I said, add the following to the URL:
&pp=99
and you will get 99 posts on one page.

Click my link in post 11, and you will see.

How does that "&pp=99" trick work? When I tried saving a mult-page file, such as using "filename.htm", adding "&pp=99" kept this on the standard "25 posts per page". Should I use "filename&pp=99.htm" or something else?

[Tango Tiger]

Click the link in post 11, and you will see the URL.