Can't save a pdf, or print an Express web page

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 22, 2023
3 replies
4693 views

Express has removed the ability to save an Express webpage as a pdf. Which means that we can no longer gather the required evidence of submission when getting students to submit their web page. The evidence has always been provided by students submitting their web link, along with a pdf of their web page, which has allowed us to retain student submissions for 7 years, as per ASQA requirements. With that functionality turned off in the new Express, we are no longer able to keep any digital copy of the student work, other than the web link, which is not sufficient.

We have built Express webpage assessments across our University, and won’t be able to continue to support this until the functionality is brought back. I know that this won’t be a priority for Adobe, but the goodwill and work that we have built up over the past two years will be shot without this functionality moving forward.

Not sure whether this is something that will be amended over time, but I thought we had to let you know, as it is an absolute death sentence as far as using Express web pages for student assessment.

Any suggestions your team may have would be very much appreciated, as we have multiple students trying to submit web pages, but with no way (other than taking individual screenshots of every section of their pages) to provide evidence of submission, other than the url.

P

petermclennan

Known Participant

Exporting to PDF remains impossible, at least for me. None of the below-mentioned workarounds are functional. Since Abhi G (an Adobe employee states that "we're looking into bringing it back" over a year ago, it would seem that this essential function has been removed intentionally. Adobe, not for the first time, I hate you.

D

defaultpn0oyffc4539

Participant

I work in a University and am one of the Adobe Express leads. I to would like the pdf save option however there are 2 work arounds, one of which isn't useful but I'll include it anyway.

1) The student makes the member of staff a collaborator so the Express webpage editing options is saved and accessible by the member of staff. - Not that useful if staff have lots of students!

2) My option. When the student creats the webpage link - they then put that into the browser and views that webpage, they then click the 3 dots at the top right, click save page (or similar wording depending on the browser) and then save 'webpage complete' is the option. This essentially creates an html file that can be uploaded and viewed offline. I've experimented with this hack but not yet deployed it to students for them to do. I still need to try it in multiple browsers. This option should be better than a pdf. I have no data on file sizes etc so am still to test it with Blackboard.

Regards Mark

R

RachelListeningShed

Participant

I have found another workaround on a Mac. Not sure if it would work on PC also. When viewing the actual webpage in the browser as you described above, click in the top menu on File --> Print. When the print dialogue box appears click on the Destination dropdown and choose Save as PDF. You can then save the entire webpage to your computer as a PDF.

A