Lewis,
That's a very common confusion when moving from a desktop environment to the Wolfram Cloud!
The reason your PDF files are not showing up in your Cloud file list is because you are currently exporting them to a temporary working directory on the Cloud kernel, not your persistent Cloud storage.
Here is the explanation and the corrected steps to successfully create, view, and download your PDF files.
The Core Problem: Cloud Paths
When you use a simple file name like "BestWay.pdf" in the Cloud, the Wolfram Language saves it to the local working directory of the Cloud kernel, which is a temporary, hidden location that is cleared when your session ends.
To make the file permanent and visible in your "All my Files" or "Recent Files" view, you must use a Cloud Path, which starts with cloud:///.
Corrected Code to Export to the Cloud
You need to use CloudGet or Import to read the notebook's content, and then Export it directly to a path that specifies your persistent Cloud storage:
(* Use CloudGet to retrieve the notebook content from your cloud storage *)
notebookContent = CloudGet["BestWay.nb"];
(* Export the content to a new, visible location in your cloud storage *)
Export["cloud:///BestWay.pdf", notebookContent];
Export["cloud:///AnotherWay.pdf", CloudGet["AnotherWay.nb"]];
Export["cloud:///AThirdWay.pdf", CloudGet["AThirdWay.nb"]];
After running this corrected code, your three PDF files should appear immediately in your "Recent Files" and "All my Files" folders.
How to Access and Print the PDF
Once the files are saved to your persistent Cloud storage, you have two simple options to save them to your local device for printing:
Option A: Using the Wolfram Cloud Web Interface (Recommended)
- Go to your Wolfram Cloud File System interface in your web browser
- Navigate to where you saved the files (e.g. your home folder).
- Right-click on the
BestWay.pdf file
- Select Download
Option B: Using Code in a Desktop Notebook
If you are running Mathematica/Wolfram Desktop on your device, you can use the following command to retrieve the file from the cloud and save it locally:
(* This downloads the cloud file to your local computer's working directory *)
CloudGet["cloud:///BestWay.pdf"]
The output of this command will be a file object that you can then open or save locally. For a more explicit local save:
CopyFile["cloud:///BestWay.pdf", FileNameJoin[{$TemporaryDirectory, "BestWay_local.pdf"}]]
SystemOpen[FileNameJoin[{$TemporaryDirectory, "BestWay_local.pdf"}]]
This forces the download to a known local path and opens it for you to print.
