The "perfectly normal" Word from the Microsoft Office package can do more than you usually think like to accept.
If you don't have any professional requirements for the design, you can even use it to create perfectly usable folded brochures with saddle stitching. However, the path to get there is - as is to be expected with a program not created for this specific purpose - quite thorny.
A few unsuccessful attempts and a number of printed sheets should therefore be taken into account at the beginning.

 

 

First of all, the restrictions

These are primarily due to the inadequate Windows printer driver, but Word itself also has some peculiarities regarding the printout.
It is usually not possible to print to the edge of the page, even if the printer (such as some EPSON) could.
The Microsoft product (I'm not sure whether Word or Windows is responsible for it) disdainfully cuts off the edge at the point where a printer normally has its limits and does not take into account halved images and cut words.
Unfortunately, the developers do not seem to have found it necessary to allow the user to switch off this standard behavior and really print to the edge if his printer can do it.
So there must be a minimum margin, without it nothing works if you don't want to mess around with some auxiliary construct. If you still want to try it afterwards, the route goes something like this: Cheating on the actual page size, incorrectly specified page margins, and compensating for the whole thing with indentations.
Every printer and driver reacts differently to this, so the "trial and error" method becomes a program ...

 

 

But now to the simple procedure, with the deliberate margins

 

We will discuss the procedure using the example of a 10-page brochure with text and images in the format 12,1cm x12,1cm. Incidentally, the selected format roughly corresponds to the booklets on CD cases. An interesting enrichment for the disc with the vacation photos from last summer as well as all kinds of home-made items.

 

Page size

In Word we set this as the page size A4, and as a guide: Landscape orientation, "2 pages per sheetThe paper is only cut accordingly after printing. Unfortunately, Word does not offer the option of printing so-called cut marks, which make it easier to cut the paper. or the stack of sheets as a whole).

 
We set up the actual later sheet size using the settings for the page margins. (File -> Page setup -> Margins tab) Here you need to do a little math beforehand in order to place the text in the correct areas. In addition to the areas that will be cut away afterwards, the white edge of the sheet that surrounds the text on the finished sheet and the gutter must be taken into account.

 

With a DIN A4 paper and brochure format 12x12cm and 8mm sheet margin, the following ratios result:

In breadth (29,7cm - (2x 12,1cm)) / 2 = 2,75cm
This is the width of the strip that will be cut away afterwards.
Then there is the desired one Side margin: 2,75cm + 0,8cm = 3,55cm

 
This dimension is under "Outside margin"Entered in Word. It applies to both the back and the front edge of the sheet of A4 paper. This is symmetrical, which is important so that the front and back of the pages are as precisely as possible on top of each other afterwards.
The inner edge should usually be a bit wider as part of the fold disappears. This is taken into account with the gutter.
With only 10 pages, 0,2cm is sufficient. For the "Inside margin"then we still wear ours 0,8cm and please don't be surprised that the edges are consistently displayed incorrectly in the preview. This has been the case since Word 2000 and has not improved with Word XP.

 

The following applies to the height: (21,0cm - 12,1cm) / 2 = 4,45cm measured as a cutting line from the edge of the sheet.
Again the margin of 0,8cm add: 4,45cm + 0,8cm = 5,25cm This value as "Leaf margin above" and "below" enter.

 

 

The footer for the page numbers protrudes into this margin. We put them (on the Layout tab) on 4,7cm firmly, and make at "Degrees / degrees different"a tick.

 

Any sheet sizes can be calculated according to this pattern, for A4 printers up to A5 format, and for A3 printers up to A4 format.

In order to be able to orientate yourself better on the page, we switch under Tools -> Options -> Tab View, Section Page and Web Layout Options the text limits by ticking the checkbox.

 
With the zoom setting "Two sides"from the toolbar should look something like this.

 

Here, too, Word swaps the right and left print side, so don't be confused. It is still printed correctly.
After all: they are consistent when they incorporate a bug that can be found everywhere ...

 

After you've typed in the text (or copied it from an existing source using "Paste content"), you can format it as you wish.
Justification has proven itself with this square sheet format, as it underlines the graphic aspect of the printed matter. But any other formatting works just as well, of course.

 
Now let's open it Header / Footer View (from the "View" menu) and switch to the footer of an odd page (these have a wide margin on their left side).
There we add a tab stop on the right 10,30cm. With the tab key we fill in the space up to the newly set tab and now add with the button "#"Use the page number function, if you like, you can put it between two lines or format it as you wish.
For the even page number, we switch to the footer of an even page and insert it analogously to the odd page, but this time without tab stops directly on the left margin.

 

Now all that remains is to include graphics.

 
It usually makes sense to display the graphics with the option "Link to file", this keeps the file size within tolerable levels. Under the options for the graphic formatting the appearance of the text flow around the picture can be selected.
The graphics can be freely placed and moved in the text.

 

Since 4 pages always fit on one sheet of paper, it is necessary to format the text in such a way that the number of pages can be divided by 4 without a remainder, e.g. 8,12,16, XNUMX, XNUMX ...
Possibly insert blank pages as the inside of the cover sheet (i.e. page 2 and page n-1, with 12 pages i.e. on page 11), the function "Insert -> Manual break -> Change -> Page break "

 
Now that the layout is ready, it's time to print

It is important not to just print the pages according to their number, but in the order in which they are actually distributed on the pages of the brochure.

 
For our 12-page example, the print sequence looks like this:

 

• Front sheet 1 = pages 12; 1
• Back of sheet 1 = pages 2;11
• Front sheet 2 = pages 10; 3
• Back of sheet 2 = pages 4;9
• Front sheet 3 = pages 8; 5
• Back of sheet 3 = pages 6;7

 

(It is important to compile the pages exactly in the order specified when printing, separated by semicolons, and not to specify 12;1 instead of 1;12.)

The printing sequence would be the same for 16 pages (i.e. 4 sheets)

 

• 16; 1/2; 15
• 14; 3/4; 13
• 12; 5/6; 11
• 10; 7/8; 9

Other numbers of sheets work analogously to this pattern. If necessary, insert blank pages or format the text differently, as I said, there are always 4 pages to be filled per sheet.

 

Sort, fold, staple, cut after printing.
Cutting dimensions of our example, measured from the edge of the A4 sheet: short sides 2,75 cm, long sides 4,45 cm.
This is where the precision with which our printer works becomes apparent.
With high-quality printing units, the shifts between the front and back of a sheet and from sheet to sheet are minimal.

 
And here the whole thing again as an overview:

 

 

 

Note:
In my experience, Word has major problems with printing according to this method as soon as the document is divided into sections which have different page counts or page formatting (e.g. margins). This can lead to unexpected and inexplicable printing results. So you should refrain from doing this and instead create several documents or work with indentations. In addition, it is not possible to enlarge or reduce the size when printing, so that all sizes should be correctly determined when creating the document.
Oh, your printer "can" not do duplex printing? So what? You turn the page just printed so that the next time the page is printed on the other side of the sheet and feed it back to the printer. This works with all printers with the exception of some laser printers, whose drum units can be damaged by it.
With duplex printing, the thickness of the paper should always be such that the reverse side does not show through so much, which interferes with reading ...

 

And now have fun printing booklets!

 

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This tip comes from www.win-tipps-tweaks.de
© Copyright Michael Hille

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