How to add a printer-friendly link to your blog

I appreciate when food blogs have a printer-friendly version of a recipe. It’s so nice to be able to easily print just the text of the post. I have wanted to add my own printer friendly link to this blog, but couldn’t really find a good way to do it. I did a google search, but I still couldn’t find an easy way to do it. Some people suggested setting up another separate blog that would have text only; I really didn’t want to mess with that. So I fumbled through it myself and figured out how to do it. I am by no means a computer whiz, so I don’t know if this is the best way to add a printer-friendly button to a blog. But it worked for me, and if I can do it, then believe me, you can, too. I felt that maybe others could benefit from this information, too, so I thought I’d post instructions. It’s great for a cooking blog, but it would also work for any blog where someone wants to have a printable text-only version of a post. I may not be the greatest at explaining things nor writing instructions, so feel free to email me (surlykitchen_at_gmail.com) if you have problems and/or questions and I will attempt to help you out.

Adding a printer-friendly link to your blog
printer-friendly version

1. Go to google docs and sign in via your google account. (I’m not sure if it can be done without having a google acct.)
   
   
2. Near the top left hand corner (under the google docs logo) click on the “create new” button, and select document from the drop down menu.
   
   
3. With the new opened document type (or copy and paste from Microsoft Word like me) your recipe. Make sure it’s formatted to your liking.
   
   
4. When your done save document. File-->save, ctrl+S, or click the disc icon.
   
   
5. Then go to “View” and select “webpage preview” from the drop down menu. This will open the document into a new tab. Copy the http link of the new tab.
   
   
6. Open your website post into another tab. Add “Printer-friendly version” where you want it to appear in your post.
   
   
7. Highlight the “printer-friendly” text and paste the google doc address into the “add a link” in your webpage post. Stay with me, we’re almost done.
   
   
8. Now you have to allow the document to be shared. Close the view webpage tab, so that you are back to the original google doc. In the upper right hand corner, there is a “Share” button. Click on it and selet “Get the link to share.” A new window pops open, check the box “Allow anyone to view,” then click “save and close.”**
   
   
9. Visit your blog to make sure the link works. Hopefully, it does.

**Update: Google has slightly changed the way you share documents. When you click on the "share" button, a window pops up with "public on the web...", click on the blue "change" link. A new 'visibility options' window opens, select the first option, "Public on the web." Click save and you're done.

How to get the old google documents editor:
Google introduced an updated version of the document editor, which I hate. To get the old version back is easy. In the upper right hand corner, click on "settings" and select "document settings." Click on the "Editing" tab and make sure the second box down, the "new version of google doc" box is unselected. Click on save and you're done!

*Update Jan 2011*
Google disabled the old editor, (please, Google, bring the feature back to allow the old editor back in google docs), but if you use this link, you can, for now, still get the old editor format for new docs.

**Update Aug 2011**
Google really wants you to use the horrible new format. If you still want the old editor format, click here. Then click the button that says "use this template." Please, please Google, don't take this old format away!