Patience is not my forte...and having to replace my printer cartidge
frequently is not fun either....so I almost never print the page as
it appears on the LBNA website. If I am going boxing, I copy the
clues (just the text,,not the banner/frame) and paste it into a
wordpad or notepad document. Then I can put several boxes on a
page. i delete any extra stuff (after reading it first...historical
background, notes on wildlife, scenic beauty etc that are not needed
to find the box), use a smaller font and do away with most of the
margins. Then of course I print it out on re-used paper (hey who
cares what is on the other side?)and use the "FAst" setting and then
I will have 1 0r 2 pages of clues in no time. It also helps from
shuffling thru pages and pages of clues...or worse, losing pages on
the trail.

Anyone else got good tightwad/time-saving/better boxing tips?

Mim

At 10:07 AM 2/10/2005, you wrote:
>Anyone else got good tightwad/time-saving/better boxing tips?

I use a program called FinePrint (http://www.fineprint.com/) that allows me
to print 2 pages on 1 sheet of paper. We also reuse office paper by
printing on the other side. I frequently copy text into Word as well and
then reformat it to make sure that doesn't take more pages than necessary.

Also, the "Print this Page" link on the top of any clue page on
letterboxing.org displays the text without the background graphic and
links, so the pages are shorter and will print with less ink than if you
simply print from the clue page itself.

Doug


|-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-|
Silent Doug, P49 F712 X133 E16
silentdoug@letterboxing.info
http://www.letterboxing.info

--- In LbNCA@yahoogroups.com, "jceg5540" wrote:
>
> Patience is not my forte...and having to replace my printer
cartidge
> frequently is not fun either....so I almost never print the page
as
> it appears on the LBNA website.

Yes, I've cut and pasted the clues into word and I'm still in excess
of 300 pages! I haven't yet played with the fonts, though. I also
live by 'fine print' so we can print 2-4 pages of text on 1 sheet of
paper but my laser printer just dropped dead and I'm forced to rely
on my 6 year old back up desk-jet that prints about 4 pages a
minute. :( This is why kinkos may truly get this printing job--just
so we can get out the door with 'hardcopy' clues in hand!

Thanks for the helpful hints! I've loaded many of the clues into my
laptop but can't visualize myself walking a trail with an open
laptop in front of my face. ;) That's usually the dead giveaway of
a geocacher (GPSr glued to hand, eyes fixated on the satellite
trackers on the screen)--and people often ask us how we know they're
geocachers when we meet them along the trails!!! ;) The clues are
just on the laptop for those critical times when we're in a spot
where we know a letterbox exists but we don't have access to the net
to get the clues--saves on the cell phone minutes! ;)

Take care,

dvn2r ckr

At 11:46 AM 2/10/2005, you wrote:
>Thanks for the helpful hints! I've loaded many of the clues into my
>laptop but can't visualize myself walking a trail with an open
>laptop in front of my face. ;) That's usually the dead giveaway of
>a geocacher (GPSr glued to hand, eyes fixated on the satellite
>trackers on the screen)--and people often ask us how we know they're
>geocachers when we meet them along the trails!!!

I've been thinking of getting a PDA onto which I can download all of the
clues from letterboxing.org on a regular basis. That way I'll always have
the clues handy. Does anyone do this or have any recommendations? I had a
Palm Pilot (one of the originals) and then a Palm VII many years ago that I
used faithfully for a long time, but I don't know the best mix of software
and hardware to accomplish this now -- anyone have any suggestions?
(Someone recently told me how they were doing this, but I don't remember
who or where it was in all my letterboxing journeys!)

And, yes, I have used my laptop while in the car to review clues and look
at maps in Microsoft Streets & Trips software.... Almost as bad as trolling
from my car for an open wireless connection to check email....

:-)

Doug


|-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-|
Silent Doug, P49 F712 X133 E16
silentdoug@letterboxing.info
http://www.letterboxing.info

On Atlas Quest, if you print the clues with a modern-day browser, it
actually prints in a smaller than normal font, and it will
automatically strip the pictures (if the user uploaded one), ads, and
the menu bar at the top that will take you back to the main AQ website.

Pre-CSS browsers it'll still print everything, but for 95% of the
people surfing the web that print clues listed on AQ, it does its best
to help reduce paper use, and wasted ink. (And thus, does not need a
seperate "Print Version" of the page like you see on LbNA.)

Well, there is one exception to the smaller text--if someone has as
part of their preferences a "large text" format for the website, it'll
print clues in a larger text as well. (Approximately the same size as
LbNA would print at.)

It does a few other alterations as well. It removes links from print
outs (after all, you can't link on a piece of paper!), turns the text
black (in case the user set the web version to some other color),
turns the background color to white (again, in case the user sets the
web version to some other color), and minor things like that that most
people wouldn't even notice unless it's pointed out to them. =)

But if you want to get more than one clue on a single page, use even
smaller text, or remove some of the "fluff" some people add to their
clues, you'll still get better results copying and pasting into
WordPad or Word and doing it yourself. There's only so much that can
be automated!

I'm thinking of adding a print size option so users can specify
exactly what size print jobs should print at (to a minimum of 1/72nd
of an inch--if that would even print legably!)

But in any case, this only applies to clues that are actually hosted
on AQ. Otherwise, it's whatever the default value is set at for that
particular website.

On another note.... it does this sort of thing for all the pages on
Atlas Quest--slight changes from what you'd see on your monitor to
what actually gets printed out. If you wanted to print out a
tutorial, it WILL leave in the pictures (since they're an intregal
part of the tutorials), but it'll strip the navigation bars, AQ title
bar, and other minor changes like that. CSS is SOOO cool! =) If you
want to know how something on Atlas Quest will look when it's printed
out, definitely do a "Print Preview" before actually printing.

-- Ryan

For PDA users, I suspect it wouldn't be hard to setup an Avantgo query
to snag the clues every time you hotsync, if you have a windows
computer, and then just view them when you need them.

I haven't done that yet-- Avantgo doesn't like Macs.

--Stephanie

--
Stephanie Bryant
mortaine@gmail.com
http://www.mortaine.com

I too copy the text to a word file, and edit it down to just the clues(I just know one day there will be a clue in something I delete). We stamp onto our clue backs cuz we like to have them together. I print out clues in big batches(ones I'd like to do) and keep them in a binder, with tabs seperating them by area, so I always have them with me. (Got that idea from Anna(and the kids))
WW


jceg5540 wrote:

Patience is not my forte...and having to replace my printer cartidge
frequently is not fun either....so I almost never print the page as
it appears on the LBNA website. If I am going boxing, I copy the
clues (just the text,,not the banner/frame) and paste it into a
wordpad or notepad document. Then I can put several boxes on a
page. i delete any extra stuff (after reading it first...historical
background, notes on wildlife, scenic beauty etc that are not needed
to find the box), use a smaller font and do away with most of the
margins. Then of course I print it out on re-used paper (hey who
cares what is on the other side?)and use the "FAst" setting and then
I will have 1 0r 2 pages of clues in no time. It also helps from
shuffling thru pages and pages of clues...or worse, losing pages on
the trail.

Anyone else got good tightwad/time-saving/better boxing tips?

Mim






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Ok--here's the way NOT to print if you're on a tight budget.

I transferred all clues from boxes in which we're interested to a
word file and purged them of extraneous bits of info, but included
occasional mapquest map insets and such--since we're not familiar
with many of the areas we may be visiting. Dumped them all into
files entitled CA letterboxes or LA letterboxes, etc. Then, printed
them via word to my fine print program. Then printed them from
there to the FedExKinkos print to a store software program I just
downloaded from them. I splurged and had the clue sheets bound with
a comb binding so I wouldn't have to go through the tedious process
of punching holes and filing into a binder before we leave for our
trip. The comb binding should allow you to remove and replace clue
sheets as you go along so you don't have to carry the whole book
with you on a hike.

Now, I printed a file for all clues to boxes in Way North
Northern/Western CA and Coastal to I-5 Oregon corridor--(the ones we
haven't yet found spanning from the Pacific Coast to about I-5 from
Chico & Marin County up). That print job with 2 pages of text
printed on one sheet of paper each was about $9 after tax. Without
the binding, it was probably $5.50 or so.

Then, I sent another file with clues from all of San Diego, Los
Angeles and a couple of East Bay area boxes (i.e. like 6 boxes or
so) we'll attempt and that print job cost around $15.

I can only imagine how expensive it would have been had I printed 1
page per sheet or clues to letterboxes in the ENTIRE state of CA!!!
Oh, going double sided was MORE expensive for some reason.

So, that's my spur of the moment, last minute solution to printing
up clues to a saturated boxing locale we haven't visited in ages.
Yes, this hobby has certainly grown exponentially in the past couple
of years!!! I remember the days when all the clues to N. CA boxes
fit in a 1 inch binder with plenty of room to spare!

Yes, I wish my PDA was still working. It would be really awesome to
be able to avant go letterbox clues to entire regions of the US on
the spur of the moment. I've been trying to do that with MS
Internet Explorer's Favorites 'make available offline' function with
links 1-2 pages beyond the first linked page but it's not working
for some reason. Argh! That would be ideal if I could get it to
work!!! Then, if that was working, being able to link that to a PDA
would eliminate the requirement to print all the pages every time
you head out on a trek. Then, your only problem would be to
remember to resynch every so often and then carry extra PDA
batteries on the trail with you. ;)

We'll see if this works in a few days, I suppose! ;)

dvn2r ckr