To Print Or Not To Print

Looking at different sites approaches to printing, and rules or guidelines at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) sites. What I've been trying to ascertain, is what is the agreed approach, i.e. what should a user expect when they go Ctrl-P or press Print?

Curious that some sites seem to implement what I thought was a standard, i.e. page content prints, and navigation doesn't. Others don't, and just print everything, worts and all. What's also irritating is the discovery that the style standards on the intranet I've been working with doesn't seem to adhere. Or, rather, that it seems to use some strange quirks of IE and it's interpretation of CSS. The DOM model isn't a figure of a semi-famous Saturday morning kids TV presenter, you know ;-)

In this search I've found some rather cool sites on standards, best practice, and how not to do it. And how it's noted that most people approach HTML, by hacking and making work, rather than sitting back and coding as if writing software. Hmmmm, familar. Lessons learnt in some cases, and changes already being implemented ;-)

About Alan Bell

Lapsed: electronic engineer, scout leader, project controller.
Now: Oracle Primavera training consultant, business support manager, occasional website designer.

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This page contains a single entry by published on November 23, 2005 12:34 PM.

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