Faster printing to PDF in OS X

  1. The job
  2. Faster printing to PDF in OS X

I didn’t mean to set down immediately to publishing tips from the field, but this one is so basic and addresses so much petty annoyance.

Of the several ways to document internet research, the most common command I issue every day is Print to PDF, and every time I issue it, the process maddens me with its inefficiency.

save-to-pdf-dialogOn a good day I’ll document 150 sources, which means 150 instances of hitting Command-P to bring up the print dialog, 150 times I have to move a hand to the mouse to bring up the PDF menu in that dialog, and 150 times I move it back to save.

But MacSparky has instructions for creating a universal keyboard shortcut for Save to PDF. It feels a tad hacky because you map it to Command-P and then to make it work you hit Command-P twice in a row, but it eliminates the interruption of needing to mouse, and I will take it. Oh yes I will take it.

Because the keyboard shortcut is entered for All Applications, this works with any browser and, indeed, any application that prints.

This magical secret has been available for the finding for years. It is my great failure never to have looked it up before.