Newbie Help 2

[cofeeadict]

My wife is creating a recipe book in PageMaker 6.5. The final pages she wants are to be 8.5" tall and 5.5" wide. Our printer prints 8.5x11 only. We plan on cutting, hole punching and sticking them into binders ourselfs.

We already have our publications set up for 5.5" x 8.5".

Just need to know how to get it on paper, ready to be cut.

 

[raywv]

hello,
First of all, go into page setup and choose landscape format & 8.5x11. Then take your cursor and go to left margin and drag a blue line to the center of copyboard and set it at 5.5. Add a page. Copy your copy to that page. That way you always have 1 single copy somewhere else. Take your copy and center it in the left side of the copy board on the left side of the blue line. You can select all. Copy and paste your copy onto the right side of the blue line.

 

[Eggles]

Once you have created the document on half-letter size pages, use the Build Booklet plug-in to create printers spreads of the pages (2-up, saddle stitch) to print two pages side by side on landscape letter size paper, IN THE CORRECT PAGE ORDER. What Ray has suggested in the previous post will only print readers spreads, but if your document is more than 4 pages this is no use. The Build Booklet plug-in (under the Utilities menu) will perform the imposition (reorganisation of readers spreads into printers spreads) needed to ensure that, for example in an 8 page booklet, page 1 prints on the right of page 8, pages 2 and 7 occur together, pages 6 and 3, pages 4 and 5. This way, after the pages are printed you will just need to fold the pages to have your book printed correctly.

To convince yourself, take 2 sheets of 11 x 8.5, fold them in half on the short side to make a dummy book, then number the pages in order. Open out the pages and look at the way the page numbers pair up. Of course, it gets quite complicated to do manually once total page number goes up, but PM can do it for you. Just make sure you have the total number of pages as a multiple of 4 (2 each side of a single letter size paper). Add some blank pages in appropritate places if you don't have a multiple of 4 in your final document.

 

[cofeeadict]

I have tried using the various layouts in the "Build Booklet" plug-in. The problem is the way that it imposes the pages. Unless I've missed something, I always get my first sheet printed with Page 1 and the last page of the Booklet. I would like to have one 8.5x11 paper with page 1 and 3 on front and 2 and 4 on back so that we can just cut the paper and be done.

Am I missing a layout option?

 

[Eggles]

What you describe is exactly what should happen - page 1 prints on the right of the last page etc - when you use the Build Booklet function. It is designed so that after printing, the paper can be folded in half and the pages are in the correct order for reading.

If you want the layout to be printed as described, then you will have to lay it out manually on landscape letter size paper. If you want to 'just cut the paper and be done', then imposition is pointless. But why cut the paper? Why not just fold it after imposition? How many pages in your book?

 

[cofeeadict]

The reason for not folding is that this will be a recipe book that will have additional updates on a semi regular basis. We would like give the readers the ability to add the new pages to the correct chapters as new recipes come out.

 

[Eggles]

I still think the only way to do this is manually on landscape letter. However, page numbering will be a problem as PM will recognise each letter page (really 2 pages) as one single page.

Depending on your printer, you may be able to set it up on half letter paper, so that page numbering is retained, but at the printing stage get the pages to print out in the oder you wish. On my old Brother printer, I could print 2-up with any pair of pages I specified. Perhaps investigate if your printer can handle the job.

 

[cofeeadict]

Thanks for the advice.