PSA: Make copies of your web content NOW

Today's public service announcement:

If your portfolio consists of nothing but links to your work on a media outlet website, it's time to make hard copies you can file away in the event something happens to the site. Make printouts, screen captures or PDFs, whatever will give you papers or files you can save. Need technical advice on making a PDF or screen captures? Ask here. Don't rely on the media outlet to keep its site up*.

Do It Now. Yesterday, in fact.


*I once worked for a shop that decided not to keep a morgue but instead used the website for all its archives (save a single print issue for binding). Then they changed their website service and all the archives were lost. Oops.

** I also know of sites where the archives were saved, but the links got crossed in transition. That hockey gamer link now directs you to a 2005 cooking column. Oops.

*** Then there's the case of the stories getting saved but the comments getting wiped out when that part of the system changed. If you happen to like the comments on a story (rare, I know), save or print those out as well.


Do it, don't regret it.

 

Great advice, Cadet.

At my shop, I have three copies (and more of some of our better sections) of every sports section since 2001 stashed in boxes, which are labeled and easy to get to.

Also, every feature story or column (in other words, non-game stories) are filed alphabetically in our sports morgue (news side does not do this).

And finally, every event we've shot since 2001 is on CD, labeled and in binders.

All of that is in addition to our Web site.

 

I haven't figured out the best way to save the actually front page of the Web page I work on. What do others do?

There's gotta be a way to save a screen capture as a PDF, right?

 

It's a little bit backward, but if you have Adobe Illustrator, you can save a file as a PDF.

I've done it that way, then used one of a plethora of free programs that merge PDFs together as one document.

 

Preview for OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard can merge PDF's as well.

 

Mac OS X allows you to save anything as a PDF via the Print command and has done that from the start.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh1035.html

This functionality can be added to Windows and other operating systems, as well.

http://lifehacker.com/397953/print-to-pdf-in-windows-vista
http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+print+to+pdf

Adobe also makes a print-to-PDF driver but doesn't give it away. Depending on what Adobe products you have installed, you may already have that driver available.

Also, Cadet didn't mention this but it needs to be mentioned: As your employer(s) erects a pay wall, access to their web site(s) may become more difficult.

 

All that's missing from this post is something pervy from Max Weinberg

 

Last year after I got laid off, my paper vaporized my entire blog. Years worth of stuff. As if it never existed. I found it all odd, since my stories that appeared in the paper still showed up online and in the online archives.

It was quite a bummer because trying to get a new job in the digital age, it's fairly important to show your skills at the blogging thing.

 

I agree with cadet, but I was a slightly different circumstance.

I dabbled in broadcasting about six years ago. All my play-by-play was broadcast over the net. I never bothered to get copies. Now I wish I had. The company's not around anymore. The archives are gone.

Sometimes I wish I had them because I still want to dabble in broadcasting and see where it goes.

 

Thanks. I owe you a beer, or umm, coffee.

 

2muchcoffeeman endorses Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Boston Ale, Cherry Wheat, Irish Red, Blackberry Witbier, Summer Ale, Hefeweizen and Winter Lager (and also SA Pale Ale and Octoberfest, which I forgot the first time); Kona Brewing Company Longboard Lager; Sierra Nevada Pale Ale; and Eight O'Clock Coffee 100% Colombian.

Your choice.

 

I've had two different iterations of my work blog wiped out due to server changes, including the latest a little over a week ago. Cadet speaks the truth.