Printing or saving cards as PDF

[Guest]

How do I print cards from the family file? It seems that in the past, I could hit Print and save a card or two as a PDF. The goal is to email PDF's to remote family members so they can easily have info to enter in the family file of whatever program that they use on their PC's.

There is no "Print" command and "Command-P" does not work.

I am sure that I did this for a family member in MD. Now a relative in PA wants some info.

Many thanks.

[ttl]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

There's no direct way to do this anymore, but if you search the manual for "print family card", the top entry gives a lengthy description of two methods that might suit your needs. Sorry for directing you to the manual, but I'd just be copying the contents to answer it here.

[Bob White]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

Much simpler to use a screenshot program like SnapZ, SnagIt, Voila or Skitch. For the basic work mentioned here, Skitch is the one to get and is free via the Mac App Store.

[John M. Leggett]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

Much simpler to use a screenshot program like SnapZ, SnagIt, Voila or Skitch. For the basic work mentioned here, Skitch is the one to get and is free via the Mac App Store.

Or GRAB, an Apple app which is also free. If I recall correctly, it came with Lion.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

Or GRAB, an Apple app which is also free. If I recall correctly, it came with Lion.

Yes, it did come with Lion. It is in the Application folder > Utilities folder. I use it a lot and find it works well.

[theKiwi]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

Grab has come with every version of Mac OS X.

Roger

[Bob White]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

Grab is good for quick and dirty shots that don't need further enhancement and are not very large. It has no basic tools like arrows or text overlay and, as far as I can tell, only saves as a tiff. Generally, I want screenshots to be png or jpg as anyone on either Macs or PCs or i-devices will be able to open them.

[Tom Robinson]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

Grab is good for quick and dirty shots that don't need further enhancement and are not very large. It has no basic tools like arrows or text overlay and, as far as I can tell, only saves as a tiff. Generally, I want screenshots to be png or jpg as anyone on either Macs or PCs or i-devices will be able to open them.

Preview has Take Screen Shot in the File menu, which not only saves a trip to Grab, but can save in a number of formats, including PNG and JPEG. And while only a basic editor, you can also use Preview to add annotations like highlighting, add text, circles, squares, etc.

[Dennis Jackson]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

How do I print cards from the family file? It seems that in the past, I could hit Print and save a card or two as a PDF. The goal is to email PDF's to remote family members so they can easily have info to enter in the family file of whatever program that they use on their PC's.

There is no "Print" command and "Command-P" does not work.

I am sure that I did this for a family member in MD. Now a relative in PA wants some info.

Many thanks.

You may have forgotten a step when you did this previously.

What you need to do is create the document you want to print or save as PDF. If it is for a single person, go to that person, then select Create -> Person Sheet... , select the options you want, and then click on "Preview". You are then able to print the resulting page (or save it as a PDF).


The screen capture method will miss things if, for example, the notes filed is too big to see without scrolling. Also, it won't include the details of any references.

[TeriPettit]

Re: Printing or saving cards as PDF

Is there specifically a need to print a pdf of a CARD (i.e., having the same appearance that a card has on the screen), rather than a pdf of a FAMILY?

If the desire is to share information with other family members, printing a pdf of a Family Group Sheet is likely to be much more useful (besides requiring no workarounds.)

A family group sheet can contain all the children's notes and marriage notes, marriage data and spouses for the children, etc., none of which is shown on the family card per se.

I print PDF's of family group sheets all the time.

1. Go to Create > Family Group Sheet
2. Enter the options you want, including picking a Layout from the popup*
3. Set Destination to Printer, and click Print
4. When the Print dialog comes up, pick Save as PDF from the PDF menu in the lower left corner

*You may want to define a custom Layout first. To do so, pick the Define Layouts... item at the both of the Layouts popup menu.

I have three custom layouts I commonly use when sharing family group sheets, differing mainly on how many of the note fields are shown. The most verbose one shows person notes for the children as well as the parents. That's the one I usually use, since often the notes about the birth and death records for the children provide evidence for data such as the birthplace of their parents or the maiden name of the wife.