Printing Screen Content from Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q

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1 Printing Screen Content from Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q Normally, when you want to print the content of a screen displayed in a browser, you simply use the browser s print function. In Learn, while printing screen content is much improved in Learn 9.1 Q4 2015, there are a couple of tricks that make the outcome more controllable than simply clicking on the browser Print button. These instructions were prepared to help faculty 1 and students print what they see on a learn screen, without having to resort to capturing the screen in an image and printing out the image. Instructions are given for current releases of Windows browsers Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Internet Explorer, and Mac browser Safari 6.2. Scroll down to find instructions for your browser. The Content Area in Learn is the area on the screen that is displayed on the right side of the screen, e.g., folders, learning modules, text and pictures, etc. The area on the left side of the screen is called the Course Menu. These instructions cover methods for printing out the Content Area. Course Menu and Content Area only are seen (no learning module) Course Menu, Learning Module Table of Contents, and Learning Module are seen. Preparation What to Hide on the Screen. Normally you will see the course menu on the left. In the content area on the right, if folders and other course items are used you will see these items. If learning modules are used you may see the Table of Contents for the current learning module and the page that is currently open. You ll most likely want to print ONLY the material in the content area, not the table of contents. If you don t hide the items as described below they will appear on your printed output, the material from the content area will be 1 Faculty may find it useful to print out all of the items in a folder or learning module, as they build their courses. Methods described in these instructions can be used to do this. T-PrintingfromBlackboardLearn.docx 6/26/ of 5

2 narrowed to about half of the page, and the table of contents may overwrite part of the content area. In other words, it may look very messy. If you are printing content from a Learning Module, 1. Hide the Table of Contents for the learning module click on the small bar icon: 2. Hide the Course Menu click on the gray bar. The learning module page should now fill the full width of the window: [To restore the Table of Contents, click on the small Icon. To restore the Course Menu, click on the gray bar on the far left of the screen.] If you are printing content from a Folder or another item, in order to print the contents of the Content Area, just hide the Course Menu as in step 2 above. If the contents don t look right in the print preview (below), try selecting the content you want to print and then choosing Print Selection in your browser, below. This works in Chrome and Internet Explorer, but other browsers may ignore the selection. T-PrintingfromBlackboardLearn.docx 6/26/ of 5

3 Print the contents of the Content area At this point, regardless of whether or not you are using learning modules, your Content Area will occupy the full width of the window. If you have the ability to produce a pdf file, you will be able to preview what you will print, and then print from the pdf file. One downloadable free pdf creator that works pretty well is CutePDF it s available here: (select the freeware version). Note that your print-out won t be pretty there may be some extraneous marks or text on the page but it should be readable and usable. Now follow the instructions for your browser, below. The browser versions shown are those that were current at the time these instructions were revised. Later versions should work, but sometimes the producers of the browsers make changes that are incompatible with other software. Chrome Version (Windows) 1. Click on the menu icon in Chrome, in the upper right corner it looks like this:, or right click in the content area of the screen. 2. Click on Print on the menu. This will bring up a preview of what will be printed, plus some printer controls on the left. 3. In the printer controls, select the Destination printer. Notice that Chrome will produce a PDF file for you if you select Save as PDF on the Change button. 4. Under Pages, you may select All, or you may select the specific pages you want to print from the preview. Scroll down in the preview screen. If there are pages you don t want, or blank pages tacked onto the end, type the page numbers you want in the Pages box. Click on the radio button next to the box, and then specify the page numbers of pages you want to print. 5. Select or change other options, if needed. 6. Click on PRINT (if it is going to a printer) or SAVE (if your output is being saved to a pdf file). You can also print a selection from the content area in Chrome. Before you select Print from the Chrome menu, select and highlight what you wish to print from the Learn screen, and then select Print from the function menu as in step 1 above. In the Print Controls on the left, you will see Options at the bottom. Click on More Settings and then Selection Only to print just the selection. You will see what will be printed in the preview panel on the right. Depending on what you want to print, sometimes printing the whole page is more readable, while other times printing the selection is more readable. T-PrintingfromBlackboardLearn.docx 6/26/ of 5

4 On the Print control screen, select your printer, and make sure that the Selection box is clicked in the Options section. Then click on Print. Firefox 54.0 (Windows) As of this writing ( ), Firefox 54 sometimes works and sometimes prints only one page. For now, we recommend that you use a different browser. (Printing the content area from Firefox has worked on some Windows 10 installations, not others. Under investigation.) There does not appear to be a way to print a selection. When it is working, use these steps. 1. Click on the functions menu icon in Firefox, in upper right corner it looks like this: 2. Click on the Printer icon. This will bring up a preview of what will be printed, plus some page set-up controls on the top of the Print window. 3. Select any options that you want to use. 4. Click on Print which will bring up the printer control window. Set your printer options and click on Print. Edge (Windows 10) the Screen, above), follow these steps. Note that there isn t a way to specify Print Selection. 1. Click on the in the upper right corner of the window to bring up the Edge menu. 2. Click on Print. 3. This brings up the Print Preview window. Select the options that you want to use from the list on the left side of the preview window. Note that one of the options for Printer is Microsoft Print to pdf, which creates a pdf file. 4. Click on the Print button at the bottom of the preview window. Internet Explorer Version (Windows) IE is the least preferred browser for Learn, but it does allow you to print selections from the content area. the Screen, above. NOTE: In some versions of IE you can t hide the Course Menu, but it doesn t show up in the printout of the screen. Make sure you hide the Table of Contents in Learning Modules.): T-PrintingfromBlackboardLearn.docx 6/26/ of 5

5 1. Right-click in the content area, and select Print Preview from the menu that appears. 2. At the top of the preview window, you will see a bar containing print options. Select those that you want, and then click on the Printer icon at the upper left at the bottom of the window.. You can select page views 3. To print a selection, first highlight your selection, then right-click in the content area and select Print Preview. At the top of the preview, you should see a menu whose first item is As laid out on screen. Click on this menu and select, As selected on screen Click on the Print button in the upper left corner. On the Print control screen, select your printer, and make sure that the Selection button is clicked in the Print Range section. Then click on Print. Safari (Mac) 1. Press Command-P, which will bring up the printer screen. 2. Select the printer and options for printing on the screen that pops up. 3. Click on Print. T-PrintingfromBlackboardLearn.docx 6/26/ of 5