# Best way to download Private Messages?



## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

I just wondered what's the best format to use to download private messages so that they look the most like they do here (complete w/ Smilies  )? I know most of you guys probably just put things in the Trash Bin, but I'm somewhat of a virtual pack-rat. 

Please share your experiences. Thanks! :grin:


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## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

Dang! No one?? Chris said he thought this had never been discussed before and told me to post it out here in hopes of getting some good answers....


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I've only done it once, and that was as a text file. It's not formatted very well, and the smilies don't come across, though.


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## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

Test.
 
 
:nono2:

:lol:

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[This is a copy of my "Test" PM as it appears in my Private Messages, complete w/ title. This will be referenced in the next post (which should be by me  ]


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## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

OK, I've done a little testing and also tried to find the answer on the vBulletin website (no luck), and the short answer to my question is NO. 

There is no way to make the downloaded Smilies look the same as they appear here, using one of the available download methods and opening up in the "standard" programs: Excel (*.csv), IE (*.xml), or Notepad (*.txt). They look like they do in the box where I'm typing this now. I didn't check, but I would assume by that same token all the other coding would show up in the same manner. (I. E., if you had a bunch of text that was formatted w/ Quotes, Italics, Color, etc., it might be quite hard to read.) Plus, the more complicated Smilies would get hard to remember, as far as what the coding means.

I have included a copy of my "Test" PM downloads in the form of a Word document, showing how the 3 different file formats look. Of course you can download all the PM's at once, but I only downloaded one PM, so I'm not sure what it would look like if you downloaded quite a few at a time.

NOTE: As much of a page as desired can be copied and pasted into an e-mail, and the Smilies will show up, just like copying from any other website, but I'm not sure how much of the formatting would remain available. If you send it to yourself, everything still shows up fine.


I realize most of you will find this completely useless  :sure: , but at least now the info is here in case anyone should happen to need it in the future. :contract: :lol:


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

I shredder to think that some or our most personal and heart-pounding private massages would one day become published in a hot buttered exposé about our secret life on the on the Internet. 

You can just do screen-prints and save them as files, print them out, 3-punch and archive in 3-ring binders.

You're welcome. :grin:


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## VOOMER (Sep 28, 2004)

Go here :http://www.gadwin.com/ and get this : Gadwin print screen 2.6

you can adjust it to capture different sizes and whole pages ,and also set it to send your (screen captures to any folder etc.)
You will not get any effects such as winks or other movements but will capture what you see on the page.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

...or, you could just press [prt-scr].


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## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

Nick said:


> I shredder to think that some or our most personal and heart-pounding private massages would one day become published in a hot buttered exposé about our secret life on the on the Internet.
> 
> You can just do screen-prints and save them as files, print them out, 3-punch and archive in 3-ring binders.
> 
> You're welcome. :grin:


Was that a Freudian slip; you want me to delete yours? Don't worry, your top-secrets are safe with me. :sure:

If I print them out, then the smilies won't move on the page!  

I just copied and pasted into e-mails and saved them in a separate folder in Outlook Express. With about 10,000 items each in the Inbox and Sent Items, I doubt my PM folder will explode any time soon. I just like to remember what people say to me and what I say to them. (Course, Daddy always said, "If I always tell the truth, I don't _have_ to remember.") :lol: Like I said, just a pack-rat. If my last name were Fun, you might worry about me, but me being a girl, I think you would cut me a little slack...

So now my box is empty. PM away! :grin:


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Remember - smilies are actually GIF images on the server.

You might try a "Save As" while viewing a PM. If you do the "complete" you'll get an HTML file and associated folder that contains the images.


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

Firefox has the ability to save a page exactly as you would see it on the screen, images an all. It's not real elegent and it has a lot of extra stuff you don't really need, but it can be used to save things fairly quickly. 

If you want something that takes up less space, you could probably do a little scripting to hack away at the redundant HTML after the fact.


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