I would be grateful if some of you would take a look at a new feature I'm developing for www.steamlocomotive.info. You'll need the Flash plugin installed on your browser for this to work.

Go to http://www.steamlocomotive.info/xminnesota.cfm

The purpose here was to create a nicely printable "booklet" of the locomotives in a specific country, state, province, whatever. When you print a web page, things tend to fall over the page breaks, and I wanted to see if new technology could provide me with a way to prevent this.

It is also capable of producing a PDF file instead of the "Flashpaper" document. If you find the idea useful, let me know and I'll extend it to the whole website.

Doug, it looks very good. Nice, crisp presentation. I'm on dialup so it takes a long time to load. I haven't tried to print it but it appears that it would make a very nice copy.

Thanks...because none of the pages you see in the website actually exist (they're generated at the time you request them), the data would stay nice and current too. I can extend this functionality to the entire site without too much trouble, and just add a 'Booklet' button where this type of display can be generated.

Thanks for your feedback. We're also working on an alternate version of the site for dialup users that will load much faster than the current one. Folks with broadband connections will be able to continue using the site as it is today, and people with slow connections will be able to select a less graphical user interface.

Thanks for looking
Doug

Works now great concept

I like the layout. I often want to print this type of page, but as you state, the pages never print correctly. The only bad part is that it did take a long time to fully download. I also like the idea that the page will update with new information as it is put on the web page.
Patrick

I tried it at work on one type of browser, and at home on another. Both had "high speed" connections, and both took awhile to download. But it does look great.

You're doing a great job, thank you for all you do. People who haven't tried it have no idea how much work it all takes.

-James

Thank you very much James, hearing something like that makes the work worthwhile. And in the same vein I don't think anybody realizes how much work Hume and his moderators do to keep RYPN running.

I could speed up the download time considerably by surpressing the images. Maybe I should make with and without images an option? I think I'll look into that.

Regards,
Doug

Doug, I think the images add a great deal to the value of site. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.