AT Tip of the Week: Turning Web Pages into PDFs

Image of a guinea pig in sun glasses, saying "I haz PDF."

If you are using the Safari web browser on an iPad or iPhone, you can save any website as a PDF. Found a web page you just can’t lose?

Image of web page about dogs who are good with catsImage of Apple Send icon (box with upwards arrow).

Tap the Send icon (the location of this button will depend on what device is being used).  On the bottom row, swipe through your choices until you see, “Create PDF”.

Image of a marked up PDF from a Safari web page

You then have the option of marking up the document prior to saving.  Tap the Markup icon and you will see pen and pencil choices at the bottom of the screen.  If you tap the Plus sign, you are given additional choices, including adding arrows,text boxes, speech bubbles, or a even a signature.  When finished, tap “Done” on the top left to save the document to the iCloud, your device, or Google Drive. Select a folder and “Add” .

Image of screen for saving PDF to device or Google Drive

How is this helpful?  One use for this might be to save information you found on your phone to read later, on a larger device.  Yes, you could also send yourself the link to the website, but it is good to have choices. It is also good if you have marked up your document with ideas on the fly.  Also, if you save the document to your device, or to Drive, you can then make it available offline. This may be useful if you are not sure you will have WiFi later, but still want access to the information.  Whether you are a student, gathering source material for a writing project, or you just find some cool stuff you want to read later, this is an additional tool to maintain access to information across environments.  

 

Kathryn Helland

Kathryn is a certified speech-language pathologist and works with children and adults with complex communication needs. She has been with the TechOWL team since 2015 and is currently working on her doctorate. She would like to examine how to best support AAC users in higher education.

0 comments on “AT Tip of the Week: Turning Web Pages into PDFs

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.