Capturing Web Pages

When you first hear that Acrobat 6 can capture Web pages as PDF files, you may wonder why on Earth anyone in her right mind would want to do such a thing. After all, Web browsers are not only perfectly capable of displaying any and all Web pages in their native HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format, but they are also much more widespread than Acrobat and Adobe Reader. And, of course, this is true — as long as you’re connected to the Internet. The moment you get disconnected from the Internet, all Web browser access to online content shuts off (unless your browser is capable of caching the pages on your hard drive and you know how to set this up). In this chapter, you discover how easy it is to capture Web pages as PDF files that you can browse at any time on any computer equipped with a copy of Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Because the Web pages are PDF files, not only can you browse them when you don’t have Internet access handy, but you can also annotate them and distribute them as you would any other PDF document. This makes internal Web site design reviews a real joy because it’s easy to send the PDF versions of the Web pages to clients and coworkers for approval, as well as elicit feedback from them right on the pages if they’re using Acrobat 6.
One of the best reasons for capturing a Web site in PDF format is to be able to browse its contents when you’re traveling and at other times when you can’t go online. This feature is also a godsend when you need to give a presentation or conduct a training session that involves the use of Web material because you still have access to the Web content (internal links and all), even if you lose your Internet connection or are not able for one reason or another to go online. When viewing Web pages in Acrobat or Adobe Reader, you can use the Full Screen view to get rid of all the distracting menus, toolbars, and so on because you will be using the site’s own links and navigation controls to move from page to page. You control what page transitions are used and how to navigate from page to page in full-screen mode by opening the Preferences dialog box (Ctrl+K on Windows and Ô+K on the Mac) and then clicking Full Screen in the list of preferences.