Creating a single PDF file from a complete website

[winfred5CF6]

I am thinking of buying Adobe Acrobat in order to be able to print a website and the associated pages (hyperlinked) but before I do, I want to be sure that it is possible.  Put simply, I have a HTML website which has an Index of about 10 hyperlinks within the same website.  Each hyperlink goes loads a series of PD files.  That means that there are three levels of "folders", each with a menu to the next level.  In all there are about 40 menus in three levels, with each item on ech menu hyperlinked to a PDF file.

I want to be able to  create a single PDF file from all of those menus and PDF files ideally by hitting a button like "create" or "print" or whatever.

It should not be rocket science, but before I invest in Adobe, can anyone tell me if this is possible? 

Thank you.

[ls_rbls]

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC provides the ability to do that, but in order to get the best results you need to ensure that  the level of access to those  directories are not restricted with some sort of password-protected user accounts, for example.

[winfred5CF6]

Thanks.  So presumably I could make a single PDF from an offline version of the website, which would have no access restrictions of any sort.  It would just have all the html code and the 100 PDF files to which they are hyperlinked ?

Another question.  I have never used Adobe before but am used to cretaing PDF files in, for instance, Word and reading with a browser.  The 112 PDF files amount to nearly 200 Mb. in various folders.  Can I still make a single PDF file from something that size ?

I am prepared to pay for Adobe Acrobat just for this one purpose.  Essentially, it involves a Court case.  The judge will not look at the online website, but will accept a searchable PDF file on a USB stick.  The cost of the Adobe software is a tiny fraction of the value of the Court case, so would be a worthwhile investment if it means that I can give the judge a simple PDF file instead of him having to go online.  I suggested that I could put the website on a USB stick using just the HTML code, but he was out of his comfort zone and said "No.  PDF or nothing".  So your advice on this would be valuable.

Many thanks indeed.

[ls_rbls]

I have tested this feature with regular websites and it works OK.

I say is ok because is not free from possible errors. Sometimes you may need to adjust some settings here and there.

Can you provide a URL example with no sensitive or confidential data that we can test with?

I can test with a website and post back here the PDF with the end result for you to decide if it meets the criteria that the court is looking for.

[winfred5CF6]

Thanks for the reply.  Yes I can do that tomorrow.  I will have exactly the same website structure but with no passwords and all the links will be to the same innocuous PDF file.  It will take me a little time.

Thanks for your help.

[winfred5CF6]

Hella again

I have decided that the simplest solution is to propose an existing website that I created in 2017, following a trip to Antactica.  This website uses exactly the same structure as the one in the court case to which I| have referred above.

The difference is that this Antarctica website is a portfolio of *.jpg photographs, whereas the website I need to converto to PDF contains PDF files instead of photographs.  But essentially the menu structure is the same.  So hopefuly if you could test this Antarctica website for me to see if it reproduces as a single PDF file,  I would be most grateful.

The only other consideration is that the Antarctica portfolio is smaller at only 19 mb. because the photos were reduced in the number of pixels, whereas the website for the court case (not connected !) is 200 mb as the PDF files cannot be so easily compressed.

So the website to use is :

https://northwestpassage.epizy.com/Antarctica/index.htm.

There is no password required.

Thank you very much for your help with this.  I am really most grateful.

[Test Screen Name]

"I want to be able to  create a single PDF file from all of those menus" Probably. The PDF will usually look something like the original site, and might or might not be usable; will not work if site needs a password.

Offline use may be problematic, as local HTML opening just does a single file, not a site as there is no "site".

[JR Boulay]

"The only other consideration is that the Antarctica portfolio is smaller at only 19 mb. because the photos were reduced in the number of pixels, whereas the website for the court case (not connected !) is 200 mb as the PDF files cannot be so easily compressed. So the website to use is : https://northwestpassage.epizy.com/Antarctica/index.htm."

Acrobat Pro leaves PDF files untouched when they are imported during this process.

Your portfolio is 18.5 Mb in PDF format: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:eaf38482-a267-40be-b45e-4b95527804ef

You can try Acrobat Pro during 7 days.

[winfred5CF6]

Thanks for that.  I think you misunderstood what I was saying.  I know that the "Antarctica" website is only 18.5 Mb but ls_rbls asked me to provide "a URL example with no sensitive or confidential data that we can test with?" which is what the Antarctica website represents.  The website from which I really want to create a PDF file obviously contains sensitive information and is 200 Mb in size.  However, the structure of the coding is identical in both, just that Antarctica has hyperlinks to *.jpg photographs 800 x 600 whereas the one I want to convert has 112 A4 PDF files with a size of 200 Mb in total.

[ls_rbls · Accepted solution]

Hi Winfred,

Here's the resulting PDF using the "Create PDF from Web Page" built-in feature using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC:

• https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:82d74e90-bd04-4f4d-a8c4-8106ba315821

As I mentioned earlier I had to manually adjust some settings to get an almost exact result as the HTML website.

Let us know if the resulting PDF meets the criteria that the court is looking for.

Also, the resulting PDF is only less than 20MB.

This work took less that 5-8 minutes in total to reproduce. Since you don't have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, download and install the free Adobe Reader Dc to view this document and test it and also, you may explore it via a web browser like Google Chrome.

[winfred5CF6]

Crickey !  I am so indebted to you for this.  What a huge relief.  I have been thinking of all sorts of alternative machinations to try to "knife and fork" this problem.  But they would all have been problematic and taken an age to do.  I am constantly adding and editing this Court Bundle, but it cannot be finalised until a few days before the Bundle has to be lodged with the Court.  There has to be a hard copy as well, but the Judge prefers to have a PDF version in addition.  Unfortunately, he will not go online to use my website, nor will he accept a USB stick with all the HTML code and files and a simple shortcut, which would have been so easy.

I will try the test software from Adobe and then subscribe to it until the trial expected in June.

You must be wondering what this is all about.  It concerns a similar holiday which went very wrong indeed.  I cannot say any more, except that I am fighting to get my money back - the cost would have paid for a very nice new car.  I am just an old man fighting a multi-national company as what is called a "litigant-in-person", in other words representing myself.  The company concerned of course cannot afford to lose because of the damage to its reputation. So it is a David and Goliath battle.

I hope at least you enjoyed the photographs of Antarctica; that was, by comparison, a magical journey and extremely humbling.

Oh finally one more quick question.  Once all the hunjdreds of documents are finalised, is it possible to get Adobe Acrobat to add a consecutie page number to the whole archive automatically ?  That is also a requirement of the Court.  I imagine that there will be a feature of that sort.

Thanks again.  I am really most grateful.  It has made my day.

[ls_rbls]

• is it possible to get Adobe Acrobat to add a consecutie page number to the whole archive automatically ?

Yes, in fact, there are many other features in Acrobat that allows to do much more and that you may find very useful.

Good luck.

[JR Boulay]

The website from which I really want to create a PDF file obviously contains sensitive information and is 200 Mb in size
I understood well.

This was just to show you that PDF weight equals HTML weight, so your site should be around 200MB in PDF.

I also told you that you can test Acrobat Pro for 7 days, and I showed you how.