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Forum Discussion

化怪化怪's avatar
化怪化怪
New member | Level 1
9 years ago

Can I export my Dropbox Paper docs as PDF?

Currently beta-testing dropbox paper.

The application integrated some of nice features from Hackpad (e.g. insert table), but still lacked insert link function. Will this be added in the future?

Pdf export is also desired.

 

  • Kaz's avatar
    Kaz
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi!

    You should already be able to insert your Dropbox files via a link into Paper. You can do so in one of two ways:

    1. Paste the Dropbox shared link into Paper, this will generate a preview with the file
    2. Use the insert button in the left margin. For exact steps, see this Help Center article:

    https://www.dropbox.com/help/9167

    For PDFs, we don't have this feature right now but I can offer you a solution. If you use the print function in the paper menu, you can then use the preview to save the page as a PDF :)

    • johanneskoester's avatar
      johanneskoester
      New member | Level 2

      Please consider adding a full PDF export as soon as possible. It is crucial in order to use Dropbox paper for scientific work. Also, Markdown export currently seems to hang (at the download popup).

      • Tricky's avatar
        Tricky
        Explorer | Level 4

        Markdown export also hangs for me.

         

        And docx export as well.  

         

        The only thing I can do is print to PDF...

    • allitto's avatar
      allitto
      Explorer | Level 4

      Hi Kaz!

      I have tried to print the Paper doc to get a PDF file from it but it only prints the first page. How can I get a print of the whole document? Thanks.

      • Tim B.14's avatar
        Tim B.14
        New member | Level 2

        I have seen this in firefox, too.  Worked fine when I did it on Safari instead, though the margins were still disgusting and with seemingly no way to fix it to look even half decent on paper.  Relying on the (crappy) browser for formatting is one of the reasons why PDF export is so urgently needed.

         

        I love using paper for editing, but if I can't show my boss the results then it's not going to be useful for very long.

         

        (btw - exporting to docx is useless when you have equations).

         

         

  • foxmouldy's avatar
    foxmouldy
    New member | Level 2

    Is there any update on native PDF export for Dropbox paper?

    I know that its possible to print -> save as PDF, but this produces a poorly formated document that doesn't look half as good as the original online Paper document. 

    This would make Paper a killer app, in my opinion. I'm quite honestly surprised that a plugin/exporter doesn't already exist. 

    • behzod's avatar
      behzod
      Icon for Super User rankSuper User

      Hi,

      You can download/export your paper documents as MS Word document by clicking on "three dots" on top right. It will open additional settings menu. From that menu choose Download and then pick Word (docx).

       

      MS Word supports saving your file as PDF along with other file formats. Here is couple screens if you need additional help.

      • foxmouldy's avatar
        foxmouldy
        New member | Level 2
        Yeah, thanks for the tip. I think that converting to docx is still a half-measure, and still presents the same formatting issues.
        My query is more about a _native_ PDF exporter, i.e., something that does not include an unnecessary intermediate step.
    • mbushpilot2b's avatar
      mbushpilot2b
      Helpful | Level 5

      Yes, this is very nessesary for my company as for right now there is no way to export the paper docs with the captions I added to the pictures! So screenshotting through chrome dev tools is the only way I can capture those captions, because the pdf —> print function very poorly exports any table I might have in the document... very annoying!

    • cadolphs's avatar
      cadolphs
      Explorer | Level 3

      A current workaround is to export to Markup and then use an online Markup -> PDF converter tool.

       

      However, I too would very much like a PDF export option. The whole point of Dropbox paper is, for me, to not have to use MS Word in the first place...

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