Build, save and print your own custom book of TechNet Library articles

Everyone knows there is a lot of great information in the TechNet Library, but what if there was a way to save and organize a custom set of articles with only the information you really want? Or maybe you do a lot of work offsite where you may not have direct access to TechNet and need to take those articles with you on your phone, tablet or laptop for reading offline? Well now you can do all of that. With the Print Multiple Topics beta for TechNet you can build your own custom book of TechNet Library articles, group them in a collection that persists across web sessions, and then print them or export them to a file for later viewing. You’ll need a current browser and a Microsoft ID so assuming you have those already here’s how to get started.

To begin creating your own personal collection, go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/export/help/. This is the starting page and includes an explanation of the process and a quick guide to show you how it all works. When you’re ready, click on the Start button at the bottom of that page. That will start a new browser window that looks something like this. Note the new toolbar at the top of the page:

From there simply browse TechNet like you normally would and find the article or topic you’re interested in. Then right-click on the article or topic and choose Add This Topic to add the article to your collection, or choose Add This Set of Topics to add all topics under the link in the table of contents in the navigation bar on the left.

Once you’re done adding all of your articles, you can view your collection by clicking the Collection link in the toolbar at the top of the page.

That will bring up the contents of your collection where you can review and rearrange your topics, then print them or save them to HTML or a PDF. Here’s the collection I created, and I’ve decided to save it as a PDF:

Once it was done processing the collection I was prompted to download the file which looks like this.

Now I can take those articles with me or go back and view this custom collection online any time I like. Go ahead and try it out – It’s a really handy feature that I think you’ll end up using quite a bit. I know I do.

J.C. Hornbeck | Knowledge Engineer | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division

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