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VictorLy
May 9, 2008, 09:41 AM
Hello,
I hope you are doing well. I know the subject of this thread is a bit confusing, and this may not even be the best place to ask this, but I really do not know where else to go. If you know of a better place for me to ask this, even if it is outside of this forum, please let me know.

A friend of mine is getting married within a few months, most likely. As a wedding gift, I'd like to do something that's a bit creative. She's mentioned that she would one day like to print out all of her LiveJournal entries, which comes out to be nearly 400 pages. For those who do not know, LiveJournal is a diary/blog/journal site.

Anyway, I am trying to figure out where I can get this printed out well and at a reasonable price. Although she has hundreds of entries, I do not mind personally copying and pasting each entry, if needed. Any recommendations or suggestions?

Thank you,
Victor Ly

progunr
May 9, 2008, 09:59 AM
A copy service like fedx kinkos may be the best option.

It would probably come down to such an insignificant savings over the cost of the ink and paper to do it yourself so my opinion is by saving the amount of time and effort that such a task would require, would make it worth a little more to have them do it.

donf
May 9, 2008, 10:02 AM
What kind of time frame are we looking at and what type of printer are you going to use?

Can your printer driver print the document in "Booklet" Style? What is the content of the pages, text only or image and text?

Can the entire document be dowlaoded and saved as a file that then can edited?

What type of paper and size of paper are you planning to use? What size, letter, legal, executive?

Can your printer duplex the pages or will you have to manually turn each page and route it through the printer? Will the pages be using decorations already on the page?

Can you send me a sample of the document, any three pages will be fine and they can also be random pages, that I can play with it and see what I can manipulate on the page prior to sending to a mono laser printer with duplexer that I have.

Can you send me a link to the document and then I can try getting down onto my PC or for that matter, if you could just create a 3 page document on the site and then send me the link to it, I'll try to get it from here.

I'll also need the name and model of your printer, please.

Don

VictorLy
May 9, 2008, 10:08 AM
Thank you for the replies! Part of my problem is that I don't want to just print the journal entries on plain paper. I actually want the gift to look good, so something in a book form with covers would be best.

VictorLy
May 9, 2008, 10:13 AM
donf, thank you for the very complete reply.

The following is the friend's LiveJournal account: Julia's Elle Jay (http://otherties.livejournal.com/)

I am planning to print all of her entries, which I would guess to be 500 or so. I will not be using my own printer to print and will most likely be using some type of professional service. I will only be printing text - no images or anything else. Simply black and white printing would be fine. And regarding timeframe, I have at least three months or so.

Thanks!

donf
May 9, 2008, 10:25 AM
Victor,

I just shot a message to the website's tech support to see if the entire file can be downloaded as a Flat ASCII or as a PCL print file.

Remember, your are dealing with a person's very personal thoughts. Are you sure that this is something she would not mind being in the public arena.

Personall, I do not care about content, I care about formatting and appearaces of the printed document. That's the only reason I did not jump in and mention the printing firms. They tend to read the document and not just put it on a page.

VictorLy
May 9, 2008, 04:28 PM
Hello, Don, thank you for your concerns regarding the personal thoughts aspect of this project. Because the blog is available publicly, and my friend actually knows quite a bit about programming and the Internet, I do not think she'd mind others seeing some of her writing.

I have been searching the site's FAQ and Help pages for something similar to what you mentioned, but cannot seem to find anything that indicates that I could download an entire user's blog. Hopefully, you'll have better luck than I do. Thank you very much for doing this much for me! I really appreciate it.

vingogly
May 9, 2008, 04:57 PM
Here is an article (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/146260/how_to_move_posts_from_livejournal.html) that explains how to get the data out of LiveJournal into XML format. You can ignore the last section on p. 2 titled "Import the XML file into Wordpress".

Assuming you want to format the document in Microsoft Word, this article (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=055BE891-B6F8-47E1-9DAB-1BCD8FCE5787&displaylang=en) explains how to do it in Word 2003. I'm not sure about other versions of Word.

I hope this isn't a surprise... you'll have to login to her account to do it, which would kind of blow the surprise part. :)

donf
May 9, 2008, 06:28 PM
Victor,

I created an account for, me on Live Journal.

Can you please tell me how to find the document you want to print?

KISS
May 9, 2008, 08:38 PM
Now come on guys. There is a relatively easy way of doing this.

Get Acrobat Professional

Print each page as a PDF with page numbers that alphabetize. e.g Make first page 001.pdf and increment for each previous page.

Merge into single PDF document.

Include a cover page that you create. You might consider this page in color. Printed separately.

Have Kinko's and/or Staples print the .PDF file. Staples might be cheaper. Have it spiral bound with a clear cover.

Have them print only page 1 (your cover page) in color. The front cover would be clear.

Pictures will be included in B & W.

Probably 7 to 10 cents a page. The spiral binding is cheap. A couple of bucks.

Present her with a CD as well.

KISS
May 9, 2008, 08:51 PM
Page 1 was too big to post and I'm not sure how to get rid of the name and time that appears on each page, but it works otherwise. Just have to find the right settings.

donf
May 10, 2008, 08:43 AM
Isn't Acrobat Pro retailing between $450 and $475?

It a terrific idea if Victor already has the app, buy it might be a tad cost prohibitive if he does not,

Victor, do you Acrobat Professional or are you willing to purchase it? Also, I am waiting on your instructions on how to retrieve the document.

KISS
May 10, 2008, 12:27 PM
Well, if that's prohibitive, how about $35 for a similar application:

Create PDF files with Win2PDF, by Dane Prairie Systems LLC (http://www.win2pdf.com/)

donf
May 15, 2008, 04:08 PM
Follow-up.

Information received from Live Journal.

****************************************

Below is an answer to your support question regarding "Download load and print out entire journal"
Request #884774 (http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=884774&auth=eyev)

================================================== ====================

The easiest way for you to accomplish your goal is to use a third party site that can create a PDF out of a journal, and then simply print that PDF. http://www.ljbook.com/ (http://www.ljbook.com/) is the most popular alternative. Please note that ljbook.com is not associated with LiveJournal and we are not responsible for the results.

Did this answer your question?
YES:
Request #884774 (http://www.livejournal.com/support/act.bml?close;884774;eyevckdjzs5g3kk;3373818)
NO:
Request #884774 (http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=884774&auth=eyev)

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