Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations IamaSherpa on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Rearranging Pages in PageMaker File for My Publishing Company

Status
Not open for further replies.

susolov

Technical User
Oct 17, 2003
13
US
Hello,

I am a technical writer/desktop publisher and an intermediate user of PM. This is my first post on this forum and I'm hoping someone can help me with a publishing firm issue.

I'm a new employee at my present job and I am making PageMaker files containing 40 to 48 pages. The publishing firm my company uses says that the pages will be be printed 4 to a page, using the front and back on 11 X 17 paper. The finished document will be "saddle stitched."

The publishing firm REPRESENTATIVE told me I have to REARRANGE the pages in my PageMaker file in order for him to print the pages correctly on the 11 x 17 pages. If I do not rearrange the pages, he will rearrange them for me at a cost of $40/hr.

I cannot put the PageMaker document in the rearranged page format that the publisher requires when I create the document because I must make a PDF for publishing on the Web. I want to avoid having 2 separete documents; this seems counter to the philosophy of "single-source documentation."

If I rearrange pages, I will not be able to use automatic numbering, and I think I can make a big mess out of my document if I'm not really careful--scary thoughts.

In the past I created a newletter for a large technical communication organization. The newsletter was 20 pages. I never had to REARRANGE pages within my PageMaker file before I submitted them for publication. The newsletter was also printed on 11 x 17 paper, with 4 pages to a sheet of paper resulting in the saddle stitch style of binding.

Since I'm not a publisher, I'm not sure what techniques are available. But it seems to me that REARRANGING pages is a very cumbersome way to produce saddle stitch documents. Is this really necessary? Is there a better way to create saddle stitch documents?

Any help will be appreciated--even if it's to tell me the name of a good printing company I can contact in the Houston, Texas area. Or, if anyone can tell me where I can do more research. Or, even if the Printing Firm Representative is correct. :cool:

Thanks in advance.
Susolov
 
Hi, susolov,

"Build Booklet" should do what you need.

Iechyd da! John
17:46 20/10/03 BST
 
I would be looking at using another printing company.

I don't know of any printers that request that the imposition (the rearrangement of pages to 'printer's spreads') is already done by the document producer - in fact, many object because the type of imposition done (2-up, 4-up, etc) will depend on what size signature (sheet of paper) the publication will be printed on.

>>If I do not rearrange the pages, he will rearrange them for me at a cost of $40/hr<<

What a cheek!!!

Sure, you can use the Build Booklet feature in PM to do the imposition, but I always figure if the printing job is being sent outside, I would much rather have the printer handle the imposition. Investigate other printers. I'm sure you will find they prefer to do the imposition themselves.

 
Hi Susolov,

I am a printer in New Delhi, India.

I absolutely agree with the suggestion that the printer should handle the imposition. It is upto the printing company how they want to print the job 4up, whether it is work and turn, work and tumble or 4/4 or 2/2. It is totally the printers convenience and the size of machine he wants to print on. The imposition will depend on the configuation used.

Veerendra
 
I have never heard of a reputable printer asking to have the document imposed, they have professional imposition software that does a better job than PM's build booklet feature. I would seriously question this printer's ability to produce a quality product, and agree with Eggles that it is time to find another printer. However, as John said, build booklet will work.

Hi John! Hi Lyn!

When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top