backing up a log

[Knocklouder]

Hello, can someone tell me how to back up my entire log please?  For example, I want to back up Ramsey's mermaid pirate ship.  Please explain to me how to do it so I can show my son how to do it.  Thank you. If I try I will delete something lol  

[James H]

The forum software won't cater to that, but it's easy enough through your browser.

 

Ok, I'm using Safari on Mac here, but this should be available on most, if not all browsers. Just export each page as a PDF and save to your computer.

 

[Richmond]

HI James - I did this on someone else's log and it took ages - and was wondering at the time whether there was a possibility to print (to pdf) the complete log with 'one click' - seeing you response I am assuming that is not possible.

 

Richmond.

[James H]

2 hours ago, Richmond said:

HI James - I did this on someone else's log and it took ages - and was wondering at the time whether there was a possibility to print (to pdf) the complete log with 'one click' - seeing you response I am assuming that is not possible.

 

Richmond.

 

No, we have nothing that can do that, or access via third-party plugins. Browsers are generally equipped to export as either a web page or PDF, and also to print whole pages you are on. It make take time over a large build log, but there's nothing we can do about that. We keep several backups of MSW at all times, and backups are made 4 times per week, into several different locations. If you feel you need to back up your build log, for whatever reason, you'll have to do this manually.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  If there are photos of details/techniques that I want to save for future reference, I'll just use a partial screen capture option (differs by computer type and system) to 'grab' the area of interest and it appears on my desktop as a 'screen shot' - which is dragged into the applicable sub folder in my photo file.  

[VTHokiEE]

Edit: Deleted - don’t do this, I got myself blocked doh

Edited January 2, 2023 by VTHokiEE

[Knocklouder]

Well what can I say, my son read this and looked at me and said right click and save. All browsers are different, my question is too vague.  I was not trying to back up, just copying that page for the grandson so he can see it some day, on his computer.

 He taps me on the back of my head and said  ask ship questions lol not computer questions 😅 🤣  We can green check  this lol

 

  sorry!!  Lol

Edited January 3, 2023 by Knocklouder
Typo of course

[VTHokiEE]

I'm currently trying to see if I can pull together a stand alone piece of code that will automatically generate pdfs of logs. After a little tinkering yesterday I currently have a Bash script that will create a PDF of a complete log on MSW. There are probably some tweaks to make the pdf look better but it does work. 

 

Ideally this would be turned into a plugin for the forum, but I'm not certain that I will be able to do that so I will see if I can create a standalone program that users can run. You would enter the topic url (for example: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/30186-hm-sloop-echo-1781-cross-section-by-vthokiee-148/) and the program would out output: 30186-hm-sloop-echo-1781-cross-section-by-vthokiee-148.pdf

 

It isn't perfect - smiley faces seem to render incorrectly and sometimes the @ username disappears (like @VTHokiEE vanishes) but hopefully I can get it off the ground and usable for people.

Edited January 3, 2023 by VTHokiEE
I did mean can :-)

[hollowneck]

1 hour ago, VTHokiEE said:

I'm currently trying to see if I can pull together a stand alone piece of code that will automatically generate pdfs of logs. After a little tinkering yesterday I currently have a Bash script that will create a PDF of a complete log on MSW. There are probably some tweaks to make the pdf look better but it does work. 

 

Ideally this would be turned into a plugin for the forum, but I'm not certain that I will be able to do that so I will see if I can create a standalone program that users can run. You would enter the topic url (for example: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/30186-hm-sloop-echo-1781-cross-section-by-vthokiee-148/) and the program would out output: 30186-hm-sloop-echo-1781-cross-section-by-vthokiee-148.pdf

 

It isn't perfect - smiley faces seem to render incorrectly and sometimes the @ username disappears (like @VTHokiEE vanishes) but hopefully I can't get it off the ground and usable for people.

I believe you meant to say you CAN GET IT OFF THE GROUND.... Yes? If so, I suggest you contact James (by PM) with your "Bash" script for proof-of-service.

[hollowneck]

I have just completed a Build Log and I am interested in archiving it offline onto my computer.

 

As a test, I exported the first page of my Build Log to a PDF ( I am, like @James H on a MAC - with a Safari browser). The export took a couple minutes (there's a LOT of data in just a single "page" of the Build Log), and the single first page of my log was diced-up into six (6) vertical graphic files that totaled approximately 15 MB. It eventually opened (with some substantial lag time) - just fine.

 

From beginning to end, my Build Log is 17 pages long. Assuming a compiled PDF file of my log will be an average of 15MB, my complete Build Log downloaded to multiple PDF files would total something in the area of 250MB - in 17 separate files. This isn't an unmanageable file size, but it is quite large for a PDF and will take a rather long time to scroll through one's log - depending upon how much RAM you have in your computer (my system has 32GB).

 

An issue that concerns me with my test is that this PDF Export routine froze my browser. After saving the PDF, I re-started my browser, no problem. However, I attempted to export my PDF test file to a PowerPoint format (so that it can be annotated and opened by either a MAC or PC) and I ran into the Adobe pitch to buy a $250 single year license. Were I still operating my marketing business, I'd already have this requisite PDF Pro program expensed as a necessary yearly overhead.

 

I MAY have need to do this file extraction and saving exercise - oh, let's just say - once, maybe twice a year. Would you want to spend $250 for a program that you'll use once or twice in a year and then spend another $250 the next year to efficiently save your next Build Log?

 

I do hope that @VTHokiEE has a workable script that can be run on a MAC OS to get a workaround to this restrictive situation.

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by hollowneck
grammar

[Knocklouder]

Wow, this is all over my head,  I just wanted to send my grandson  his build log, My son said don't worry about  all of this, but now James is going to get involved, he's a busy man don't bother him.  The son knows of my fear of authorities tells me if James is getting involved  your getting  booted lol. And I have not learned how to make water yet. lol.

 Was not my intention to cause a problem 

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Knocklouder
Yep typos 😒

[hollowneck]

4 minutes ago, Knocklouder said:

Wow, this is all over my head,  I just wanted to send my grandson  his build log, My son said don't worry about  all of this, but now James is going to get involved, he's a busy man don't bother him.  The son know of my fear of authorities tells me if James is getting involved  your getting  booted lol. And I have not learned to  how to make water yet lol.

 Was not my intention to cause a problem 

 

@Knocklouder, this is not contentious and James isn't going to "boot" any member on the basis of posting legitimate investigations on computer questions. Saving a complete Build Log with a more simplified method than the one I described in detail here would be a GIANT and very usable feature for MSW if it could be implemented. Let's see where this legitimate query ends-up.

 

Despite my gripe about Adobe's business practices, If there was an easier (and faster) method to save a Build Log to a single, compiled PDF file, then I might-  just might- pop for an Adobe PDF Pro converter to have full access to my log in a workable, native presentation format like PowerPoint or Keynote.

 

[VTHokiEE]

1 hour ago, hollowneck said:

As a test, I exported the first page of my Build Log to a PDF

As a follow-up to your test I downloaded your Sphinx log, the script took a little over 7 minutes to pull all 17 pages down and merge them into a single pdf (mind you the "page" structure still exists - it doesn't look like 1 flowing page if that makes any sense) which was almost 260 MBs in size (the log is around 650 pages - though probably 15-20 are wasted because of the end of pages being joined). I quickly tried some compression algorithms but didn't really save much (which isn't that surprising given that the images are jpegs and the size is somewhat reduced on them already).

Edited January 3, 2023 by VTHokiEE

[VTHokiEE]

@James H Is there a more appropriate place to put updates for people who are interested?

 

Small update, I am making progress and have migrated everything over into a javascript (.js) file and cleaned it up pretty well so that I'm starting to feel confident that I'll have something to use (assuming the merged pdf is useful, @hollowneck what did you think of the final pdf?). This side project will be a little bit of a background task so it may take me a little bit of time to get something final out but I wanted everyone to know that progress is being made. 

[James H]

11 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

@James H Is there a more appropriate place to put updates for people who are interested?

 

I think here is fine. Many people will have seen it here and can continue following. 

[hollowneck]

18 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

@James H Is there a more appropriate place to put updates for people who are interested?

 

Small update, I am making progress and have migrated everything over into a javascript (.js) file and cleaned it up pretty well so that I'm starting to feel confident that I'll have something to use (assuming the merged pdf is useful, @hollowneck what did you think of the final pdf?). This side project will be a little bit of a background task so it may take me a little bit of time to get something final out but I wanted everyone to know that progress is being made. 

I have successfully opened @VTHokiEE's compiled Build Log for my HMS Camilla. For others reading this post, your file is 259 MB with a total of 648 pdf pages conforming to a "normal" print-friendly format of 8.5" X 11." Outstanding. I haven't perused all 648 pages, but I intend to over the next few days to double-check the fidelity; on a brief first pass (approx. 100 pages) I noticed only one graphics page (pg. 14) didn't successfully load; every text page appears intact.

 

Thank you for your work to make this happen. I can recommend to @James H that this works very well. Where we go from here is not clear to me but I do suggest the obvious: do contact @James H and see how he can implement this tool on the site.

 

[hollowneck]

…looks like I might need to invest in an Adobe Acrobat Pro application…🤨😁😳

Perhaps a good time to “cook” my 650 page pdf into a PowerPoint one, another item on my 2023 hobby punch list. For the moment I’m shooting lot'sa photos for a final gallery post for ...

HMS Camilla

Leaving Spithead, bearing West, So’west for North America

August, 1776

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by hollowneck
added text

[robert952]

I send my thanks and appreciation to those who have done some investigation on a process for the website. 

 

I had never thought of this aspect, but I definitely see the value of having a PDF of a build log. 

 

If you are only concerned with an archived copy to have on our PC's hard drive, I offer the following.  These work by just pasting in a URL and clicking a convert button.  I just wanted to post the option if others wanted to investigate free services.  

 

I googled 'web page to pdf" and got to this link:  Top 6 Online Webpage to PDF Converters

 

Note:  the link to the article is hosted by Wonderware.  They have a fee based service but it's still fairly high for the very casual user.  They do have a one-time $130 version.  But they say you may have to pay for 'major updates.'  They cover the downside of free services and have a sales pitch at the bottom of the article.  They are spot on for the downsides.  But if you only do one or two a year, why pay a high fee.  

 

I started running some 'tests' and will give more details next week.  The admiral is packing our bags for a weekend road trip.  So, I won't finish my checks until late Sunday or sometime Monday.  (And, before the rest of the Admirals post anything:  Yes, I do pack my own stuff.)

 

Two of the top six do produce good results so far: PDF on Fly and PDF Crowd.  

 

I couldn't get  Web Page to PDF to load.  At HiPDF site I did not see a web to PDF button though the article indicates it will do that conversion.  I haven't looked at the last two:  Web2PDF and FreePDF Maker.  I'll look at those when I get back home. 

 

Outputs for the ones I tested open well in Adobe Acrobat, Google Chrome and PDF Fusion. 

 

The latter is the PDF creator I have used (apparently I updated in 2020) avail from Corel ($55 US).  The software has some issues that I have learned to live with since I don't create a lot of PDFs. For some reason, using either of the above converters, PDF Fusion displays some of my capital i's and lower case L's in bold face.  A minor issue if I only want an archive copy of my build log. But I can also use other viewers.  Chrome and Acrobat display the text as on the web page.  I haven't done any hard prints of the outputs, just viewed on screen.  

  

The outputs, while PDF, differ in spacing, font size and margins, whether they show the banner or not, have an 'ad' at the bottom, etc. More details later. (I also don't know if they have limits on document length.  678 pages is a lot of pages and I am sure long conversion times.  One (PDF on Fly) definitely has a daily limit on number of conversions. 

 

I used my own build log that's not a full web page long. So, the process was short time frame with relatively few pages.  PDF on Fly - 17 pages tiny font; PDF Crowd - 26 pages using same sized font as web page but has 'ad line' on bottom of each page.  PDF Crowd my favorite so far.  I can live with the small tag in the footer area of each page for an archive copy considering the price I paid for the conversion.  😁

 

Hope you found this information useful. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by robert952
Delete duplicate lines.

[VTHokiEE]

1 hour ago, robert952 said:

These work by just pasting in a URL and clicking a convert button.  I just wanted to post the option if others wanted to investigate free services.  

 

The main "issue" is that these links (or simply doing a print to pdf as mentioned above) work great for a single page log but become very tedious when you have to do it for many "page" logs. The log mentioned above was 17 webpages which would require you doing the manual print 17 times and the merging all pdfs. It can be done, but it isn't always fun.

 

I have an executable built for Windows and for OSX (though I need to test on a few more machines tonight to verify - especially OSX as my only test has been my developer machine) that will backup your log. It requires Chrome to be installed though (sorry I couldn't bundle it together) and is driven from the command line:

 

Example usage:

 

Windows:
 

mswPdfLogBackup.exe https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33665-backing-up-a-log/ 

 

OSX (Mac):

 

./mswPdfLogBackup https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33665-backing-up-a-log/ 

 

Both these commands will save a copy of this thread in the same location as the executable is run. The same url format will be expected for other topics. I hope to make this a little more flexible on a further revision but hopefully this will be a good starting point. Fingers crossed that this evening's testing goes well and I post the files tonight or tomorrow.

[robert952]

I see the issue. 

 

As I said I hadn't done too much experimenting and hadn't done multiple web pages yet.  But the output was very clean which would be my goal.  

 

I can see the pain that would be.  

 

Edited note.  My apologies.  My previous comments were out of line.  I reread my post.  I am not sure what I was thinking when I wrote them. I did not intend for them to come across as they did.  

 

I really do appreciate the effort pit forth to make the task easier..  

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by robert952
Apologize for previous statement.

[mtaylor]

I'd like to recommend that the title of the "Log to the PDF Tool" be changed to "Log Backup App" or "Log Backup PDF" with a note early on maybe in the title referring to This Discussion for issues, comments, etc. to keep the download post clean. Otherwise, I'm afraid any changes/additions to the app may get lost in conversation.

[Jaager]

If it is your own log that you want a copy of,  I have a copy of mine by doing this:

Use WordPad to compose the log.   The .TXT   from it can be Copy Pasted from WordPad to this site.

A file of JPEG can be used as the source for what gets Saved in the WordPad document and a place marker in the TXT file can mark which and where the JPEG go for the site log.

 

I just checked and the TXT here can be Copy Pasted into a WordPad document and the images can be also.

The  from you to the site part would not take very much more effort than composing and formatting directly on the site.

The  from the site to you  copying of another author's work will be a tad tedious,  but it does offer the choice of omitting 3rd party comments and anything else that is unwanted.

 

A WordPad file with images tends to be a large one.  I wonder if a .RTF file can be converted to a .PDF file using one of the free Web sites that offer this?

 

 

[Dr PR]

Jaeger,

 

I do a similar thing with Word, but it is very tedious.

 

I select everything on a page, copy and then paste into Word. Unfortunately only text is copied but not pictures, and web page tables may be scrambled. I have to copy every web page separately, but the copies are pasted into a single word file. I copy the photos to files and then paste them into Word at the appropriate places. Once all of this is done the file can be saved as a PDF.

 

A problem with converting a web page to a Word or PDF file is the print page boundaries in the Word/PDF files.  Some pictures will fall across page boundaries, and will be moved to a different position from where they are in the web page. This may require some reformatting in Word to get the picture close to the text that refers to it.

[Jaager]

Phil,

I was pretty sure that it is a labor intensive exercise - but the process being described above does not sound like it is fire and forget either.   I liked WordPerfect. (I also liked PicturePublisher.)    I have found MSWord to be more complex than I care to deal with.  WordPad is fairly basic  and does as much as I need - when I mix text with pictures.  For just text, EditPad is enough.   WordPad does not have many options when it comes to save formats.  I doubt any of them offer any sort of compression.   My log's .RTF file is 190 Meg.   I  did not consider that MSWord could save as PDF,  but I am not surprised.  I did not even install MSOffice.  But then, I still only have a land line.  Who knew my fate was to go from cutting edge to dinosaur?

 

Wow!  I just used CloudConvert and it turned a 190 Meg .rtf  into a 4Meg .pdf.

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Jaager

[robert952]

Here's a hack for Word users (and probably other word processors). 

 

You might save a step in cut and paste process by highlight what you want on the web page in the browser (include images) and then click and drag into your Word document.  Images come in at full size but those can be resized by double clicking the image and dragging a corner to fit the page better.   (Be careful and don't grab a top or side handle - this changes the image's proportions.)  

 

As another side note, the image you drag in retains its link info to the website.  In Word, CTRL + Click to open link to image (or right click image and 'Open Hyperlink).  In a saved PDF version, double click the image. This may be useful if you want to go to the 'originally sized' image.  If the image is deleted from the website's server, of course, it won't work.  

 

Still a tedious process.  But maybe a bit of time can be saved instead of using two or three pieces of software and reassembling for PDF.   

 

(I also use the above click and drag method with  OneNote when I want to plagiarize...I mean...copy stuff for personal use only.  The advantage with OneNote is that the URL is captured and added at the bottom of the stuff you highlighted and dragged into OneNote.  That allows you to return to the website to review as desired. Not too much help for making a PDF of a build log.  But it's a great tool when you research using the web and want to capture stuff 'on the fly.'  Just thought I'd mention this in passing for those looking for more software tools.)   

 

[VTHokiEE]

In case someone finds this post instead I am adding a link for some software I put together to try to help solve the problem.

 

Take a look here and see if it works for you: 

 

 

[Mark P]

Evening all;

 

For anyone who is still interested in this topic, I have found a reliable method to copy a log or post, with the creator's permission. This is for Windows; I have no idea how this would play out in Mac.

 

Right click on the current page, and this brings up a context menu. Click on 'Save as', and create a folder for the saved image where you want it to be. Name it, and save it. Job done! This will save the entire page you are on; not just the visible part, but all the rest also. If a build log has 5 pages, you will need to do this 5 times, saving each page separately. This is much faster than working on only what is visible on the screen. The saved images are identical to the screen, nothing is lost. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark P