Saturday, November 17, 2012

Pinterest...Saving Boards as PDFs

I don't toss and turn each night obsessing over the loss of my Pinterest boards. However, if you do, you might be interested in knowing you can save your boards as PDFs.

Chrome Print Dialog with Preview of PDF, which includes active links to websites in completed PDF

Creating PDF with Chrome
  1. Open Pinterest and display a board.
  2. Press Ctrl + P (print). A Print dialog appears with a preview of the PDF. 
  3. In Destination, click the Change button, and select Save as PDF. Be sure to notice the additional options to send to OneNote or Google Drive if you happen to use those applications.

  4. Click the Save button at the top of the Print dialog. A Save As dialog appears.
  5. Select a location to store your PDF. The system creates the PDF with active links to individual websites. 
Creating PDF with Internet Explorer or Firefox
  1. Open Pinterest and display a board.
  2. Press Ctrl + P (print). A Print dialog displays.

  3. Select PDF Creator or any similar Adobe PDF option. Be sure to notice the additional option to send to OneNote. The PDF Creator dialog appears.

  4. Add a subject and keywords if you plan to use file properties to search for the PDF. (See Are we there yet? for more info on file properties, which provide Windows-related file finding assistance.)
  5. Click the Save button. A Save As dialog appears.
  6. Select a location to store your PDF. The system creates the PDF with active links to individual websites.
P.S. Having your boards saved as PDFs makes them instantly portable...thus the name Portable Document Format, which means you can post the PDFs with active links or email them. The sky is the limit. The bonus is that you can stop obsessing about possible losses.

Posted by at

11 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 7, 2013 at 12:57 PM

    I'm on a Mac and none of this works. The first page is fine, then all subsequent images squash together and I lose them. Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PamMay 8, 2013 at 6:53 PM

      Hi Leah--Not a clue. I don't use a Mac. I did find the following on the net: "Go to file, print. When the print box comes up, in the bottom L hand corner, hit PDF and save to PDF. Works the same way. Again, make sure the pins have finished fetching!" Here's the address where I found it: http://www.naptimeisthenewhappyhour.com/2012/10/how-to-save-copy-of-your-pinterest.html There are several Mac users posting about this process at this site.

      Delete
  2. PamMay 8, 2013 at 5:31 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PamMay 8, 2013 at 6:54 PM

    I keep forgetting to reply rather than just posting a comment...user error!

    ReplyDelete
  4. lee leeJuly 18, 2013 at 1:16 PM

    I've let my pins finish fetching, and it will say it's saving 21 pages, but only the first 3 pages of the pdf doc have pins. I've tried it in chrome, IE, and tried saving it to OneNote...same thing on all of them. So sad : (

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pattie and PamJuly 24, 2013 at 6:47 PM

      I just tried this with a board with lots of pins on it and the same thing happened to me. Given that you've tried so many alternatives, I'm guessing that Google PDF has a three page limit. I originally tried this with boards that had a dozen or so pins and they converted to PDF with no trouble.

      Delete
  5. JennJuly 24, 2013 at 6:49 AM

    I've tried this a number of ways and in Google Chrome, as well as Internet Explorer. I end up with 12 pages, 9 of them blank (the first 9), except for the original heading on the first page with the name of the board, and then the last 3 pages have my pins. What am I doing wrong?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pattie and PamJuly 24, 2013 at 6:50 PM

      Hi Jenn--Please see my reply to Lee Lee. You both seem to have had the same issue. You're not doing anything wrong. I think it might be a limitation of Google PDF...and IE PDF...etc. I'll try hacking around and see if I can figure this out. It might not have another solution except breaking boards down into fewer pins.

      Delete
  6. CaitlinMarch 19, 2017 at 7:07 PM

    This is an old post and I'm too lazy to see if this blog is even active anymore, but for those having issues with the pins coming up blank on chrome you need to make sure 'include background images' is selected. You also possibly have to scroll through and load all them first as well, I'm not entirely sure about that one being a hard requirement or not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PamMarch 20, 2017 at 2:50 PM

      Hi Caitlin--The blog is inactive but I've left it up because people still use the info. Thank you for the update. Pinterest has changed a lot since this post.

      Delete
  7. AnonymousApril 28, 2017 at 2:22 PM

    Hi Caitlin and Pam, I have spent the better part of the past week trying to download my Pinterest boards to PDFs. It is driving me crazy. I have around 18,000 photos and I don't want to loose them. All the advice on the net is to do the "print to pdf" thing. I have always included background images and made sure everything loaded. It makes no different. I get anywhere from 2 - 5 pages, some are of pages at the end or middle of the board. I have downloaded and installed many apps that say they will do it. I am so disappointed, nothing works, yet everyone on net advises the same thing. It must be working for somebody! Only thing I can imagine is that for some reason Pinterest has put a block on it? I so want to have backup of my boards. If you have learned anything, please post. I should mention, the print to pdf works on all the websites I have tried it on except for Pinterest. Strange.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)