[Bruce8]

Macworld website is more and more user unfriendly.

1- minor improvement in revised new front page layout, I will give you that. thank you.

2- article content layout much worse than old days.
Articles have about 1/4 space for content, 1/4 space for macworld and partner ads, up to 1/2 space for user comments (my general estimation).

3- article saving, impossible without saving lots of space consuming advertising and irrelevant content.
And you must page through each article page by web page to get it all, which means you are resaving all the ads and all the same comments each time for multi-page articles.

4- article printing, impossible without saving all the user comments. As above, you must page through each page of the article to get it all. And then of course, you get to print repeating the same user comments all over again each page. truly idiotic design.
If you are unlucky enough to want to print an article several days after published, you get pages and pages and pages of user comments. All brought to you in paper-wasting large print. Macworld, the anti-green web site.

5- PLEASE compare your current unfriendly design to some user-friendly computer magazine web sites, such as PC Magazine or Tech Republic, etc. And others outside computer industry: BusinessWeek, BBC online, etc.
On those sites, there are buttons for Print formatting (or 'one page') which actually produces one document 'page' JUST THE ARTICLE CONTENT - WHAT A CONCEPT. And several of them even include the web link back to the original web-formatted page for easy return. These multi-paged articles can then be saved as one efficient html document or one easy to read pdf, or printed with a minimum number of paper pages.

6- I am actually sad to say that, for me, it is getting to be such a chore to actually get concise CONTENT here that I dread even going to the Macworld website.

(plus I am not even sure you are still reading comments on the 'Keep the feedback coming' topic)

[JBrightman]

Bruce 8,

1) We're glad that is working better for you.
2) The article has more space than it did in the old layout and doesn't have an ad embedded in the middle of it, but the page is longer now that we include the conversation about the article in the comments.
3) GOOD NEWS: We have created a one page view of the multipage articles. BAD NEWS: The UI has not been updated to include it. While we are working on that you can go to any multipage article like: http://www.macworld....ffice_word.html and change the URL from /article/string of numbers-1 to /article/string of numbers-0.

---Side note: Why are you saving the pages and how?

4) See above.
5) We can try turning the comments off of printed pages, but an earlier thread asked to have them on. We're happy to try it either way.
6. When you say "get" content are you referring to the above copy/print/store/save issues or something else?

JasonB

[Bruce8]

Jason,
thanks for speedy response. It gives me hope.

responses:
3) I am glad to see the tip re "-0" I tried on the Word vs Pages article and it does indeed create a single web page with all three pages of content. This is a step in the right direction for sure.

3, 4) I save as HTML or PDF because sometimes I just want to get the article and read details later, and sometimes I want to have it on my flash drive of tech ref, if I am not connected to web. And because sometimes, even though I mostly don't like Spotlight, sometimes I will do a content or title search on a term and having it already on my HD means it may show up as tech reference on a research question.

5) How about user choice either way: Allow a "Include comments" for folks who want to see comments, but please allow for "No user comments" on folks who want 'just the facts' /just the article. That way both kinds happy, and it only takes a half-inch square for the button (since sounds like code already mostly done)

The example sites I listed all have a "Print" button of some sort, and all do 'print' or 'printer-friendly' format with the article content only page - no ads, no user blog comments, no banner graphics. (most do include article graphics, but a few are text only) And it prints, or saves, in a readable but not giant font size.
I will even send you page links if you need concrete examples.

6) I mostly mean the above items. That is, many times I actually prefer to read the article with just the article displayed so I can focus (so to speak) on it and its researched content. And certainly if I have saved (or sometimes printed) an article for reference, what I want is the article content, not the banners, not the ads, not the blog-style comments.

Thanks for listening.

[JBrightman]

Bruce8,

Thanks for the additional information. I switched the comments off (you can still print the comment thread from the forums) and made the print copy a bit smaller. See if that works any better for you.

We'll have a print button on the pages soon.

JasonB

[shenry318]

I have the exact same issue with the lack of a "print" option. But typically i don't want to actually print the file but instead save it as a PDF for future reference--this is especially useful now that when 10.5 generates a PDF file with the "Save As PDF" from the print menu the PDF file will have live links in it!
Any progress on putting the "print option" you referred to over a month ago into action (better yet just have a "generate PDF" option. Also i tried your "change the -1 to -0" hint but that isn't really helpful because it still displays all the ads on the right hand side and also all the comments!
p.s. i DO like the "print" icon that appears on the forums pages--why not just use that technique on the article pages???
p.p.s I just tried the forum print button again and it doesn't seem to work for me in Safari, but works great in firefox--odd!