Convert e-mails to PDF and retain hyperlinks

DonnyDave

I use Thunderbird for my e-mails within the Windows 7 operating system.

I would like to be able to export individual e-mails to PDF. I have PDFCreator installed as a printer which will do this. However, this does causes loss of hyperlinks, meaning that the words appear blue and underlined by cannot be clicked when viewed in Adobe Reader. This is presumably an issue with all virtual printer PDF converters as printers don't need URLs.

I couldn't find a PDF converter Thunderbird Add-on.

Any ideas? I could potentially save the e-mail as a .eml and convert from there.

Gillor

Just tried this successfully with an old version of PDF24 Converter so I assume the latest version will do the same.

Fightsback

Try this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

About this Add-on

This extension allows the user to export and import folders and messages with lots of options, for example:

Tools Menu --> ImportExportTools or Context menu on folders panel --> Import/Export
- export of folder in a single file (mbox format), with also the subfolders if you want;
- export of all messages in single files (eml or html or plain text format or CSV), with attachments and an index;
- export of all messages in PDF format (required ImportExportTools 3.0 or higher)
- export of all messages in one single plain text file;
- export of index of the messages in a folder (HTML or CSV format);
- mbox files import;
- eml files import;
- emlx files import;
- import of all the eml files existing in a directory;
- export of all files of all mail files of the profile (just from the "Tools" menu);
- import of a saved profile (just from the "Tools" menu, required ImportExportTools 3.0 or higher, not available for Seamonkey)
- search with various criteria and export messages;
- import SMS from the programs "SMS Backup and Restore" for Android and Nokia2AndroidSMS;

Edit,

Just tested it, works well under Linux anyway. Tip - create a new local folder (eg export) and copy the messages you wish to export from there and it will do batch export from that folder or single if you only put one message there. Damn handy tool and recommended, I'm glad I found it while looking for your solution.

DonnyDave

Fightsback wrote: »

Try this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

I thought this had cracked it, but it looses the hyperlinks, unfortunately. The Printing dialog box pops up (as if it were printing) so I suspect that is the way the e-mail is outputted from Thunderbird to the Add-on, which would explain the loss of hyperlinks.

Also, the headers and footers appear as the default Thunderbird ones and not those set.

grumpycrab

In Thunderbird Save As html
Open in Word (or your docoument editor of choice) and Save As pdf

Hope you don't have lots to do!

DonnyDave

Gillor wrote: »

Just tried this successfully with an old version of PDF24 Converter so I assume the latest version will do the same.

PDF24 works as a virtual printer so hyperlinks will be lost. Its online converter does not support eml files.


The other way to look at this may be to use one of the printer converters and then add the links back in with an editor. Not ideal but I am not thinking of exporting messages en masse, rather just the odd one and not very often.

DonnyDave

grumpycrab wrote: »

In Thunderbird Save As html
Open in Word (or your docoument editor of choice) and Save As pdf

Hope you don't have lots to do!

Brilliant. That works, thanks.

I am using OpenOffice Writer and it opens the html file, complete with hyperlinks, and from there it can be converted to PDF.

In response to your exclamation, I am only doing this occasionally for single messages.

Fightsback

grumpycrab wrote: »

In Thunderbird Save As html
Open in Word (or your docoument editor of choice) and Save As pdf

Hope you don't have lots to do!

This method also works with LibreOffice (it's free) and hyperlinks are preserved.

DonnyDave wrote: »

I am using OpenOffice Writer

May I suggest canning Openoffice in favour of LibreOffice (OO fork) as LO is much better maintained and a superior feature set.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2977112/software-productivity/why-you-should-ditch-openoffice-and-use-the-free-libreoffice-suite.html

Double_V

Can we use the above method with MS Office 2016 ?

fenlander_uk

Tried this with Bullzip pdf driver. Links were preserved.