PDFs online at playmobil.com

[GrahamB]

Ha Ha! I never found that downloadable file tigana- Thanks! It makes my list redundant but never mind. In any case, Geobra clearly intend to carry on uploading plans until they have done all the ones which exist (hopefully), so it might be more helpful to create a list of sets for which no plans are known to exist. Here is part of that list, sets in PlaymoDB where 'Instructions Do Not Exist', but there are many other sets where no plans are known (I have 1541 on my list).

[cheng]

GrahamB, Your list for plans that do not exist is a v good idea.....thanks....I've finished going thru your list of currently available plans...thanks once again!

[Indianna]

. . . Attached below is a list of available PDFs in the DE site as of today (10 Oct 2014). I didn't do any editing, just paste it as it comes after copying form the site...

Hi tigana123!     Thank you very much for sharing with us your spreadsheet of Building Plan PDFs!  Did you find a way to actually download the list from playmobil.de or did you just "slog" through it the way Graham and cheng did with their lists?  If you downloaded it, could you also share with us how you accomplished the download?  Thanks!

[Knight Train]

Thanks for sharing the spreadsheets!

[tigana123]

I didn't download the xls from the PM site. I just put a space instead of a number in the (PDF) selection box so that all sets are presented and then selected all the sets and copy-paste as text in the xls.

[cheng]

I didn't download the xls from the PM site. I just put a space instead of a number in the (PDF) selection box so that all sets are presented and then selected all the sets and copy-paste as text in the xls.

OMG...and I've been religiously checking 

[Indianna]

I didn't download the xls from the PM site. I just put a space instead of a number in the (PDF) selection box so that all sets are presented and then selected all the sets and copy-paste as text in the xls.

Did you copy them one at a time or as the whole group?  If you were able to copy and paste the whole group at once, could you please please please share that secret method?    Thanks

[sbblabotw]

Here's the direct link to that long scrolling box:
http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-DE-Site/de_DE/Include-BuildingInstructionsProducts?phrase=%20&format=ajax

Select all (Ctrl-A, or Select All from Edit menu), Copy (Ctrl-C), paste wherever you want, you're done.

Mind you, there are often some available that don't show up here immediately (6111 comes to mind) but I'm scanning for them regularly, and for new appearances.

[tigana123]

For my part, I select all of them but not necessarily by dragging the mouse over the all of them (!!!). What I mean is when I put a space in the PDF search box then all the PDFs start to appear in the box below but only 4 of them are shown at a time. I place the mouse slightly to the left of the first one, press left button and drag the mouse over the pdf icons all the way to the right (outside the selection box). This way even the pdfs that are not shown in the box (that is all of them!) are selected and then you can copy and paste (as text) in a file.

Interesting that there are pdfs that are not included in this list as Heather points out. If there is a list of them, it would be useful to me!

[Indianna]

Thanks Heather and tigana123!

Ever since Heather first told us about it, I've been doing the "space bar" thing to check how many instructions are available but I've never had any luck with the "Select All" idea.  Knowing that you two had been successful at it made me try again.  I still had my usual problem which is that the whole webpage gets selected and copied but only the 4 sets showing in the building instructions window would be copied.  I thought the problem might be my browser (I usually use Internet Explorer) so I also tried it with Chrome - again, no luck.  But then I tried Firefox and it worked! There may be refinements or ways to make it also work with other browsers, but here is what finally worked for me:

1) Open Playmobil's website in Firefox
2) Get to the Building Instructions page, place the cursor in the window, and hit the space bar (we all probably know how to do this by now.)
3) Wait until all of the sets have loaded (currently 1870)
3) Put the cursor on the blue bar between the arrows (below the thumbnail images) and pull it all the way to the right.  This may take a little time and a few tries but eventually you will be at the last set (currently set 5801)
4) Place the cursor just to the lower right of the last thumbnail image (the little hand will change to an arrow) and right click (assuming you have Windows O/S) 
5)  Keep trying until you get a small window with just three choices: "Copy" Select All" and "View Selection Source."  Choose "Select All" and then "Copy"
6) Paste everything into a spreadsheet using the "Paste Special" and "Text" options.
7) You will probably have about 185 lines of useless stuff that you can delete.
8) Enjoy the amazing list!

Thank you Heather and tigana123 for sharing your techniques!!!