Using Pages to set up half sheet documents

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There are a few ways to do this. The first two involve setting your Pages document in File > Page Setup… to landscape orientation. I originally wrote this for Pages 2. In Pages 3, use the page layout mode for #s 1a & 1b.

1a - Use linked text boxes. This is easier done with the layout showing. First you need to add a page break to have two pages. Click in the body area & then Insert > Page Break. Now click outside the layout area to enter object mode & click the "T" in the tool bar or Insert > Text to create a text box & type something in it. This is to keep the box from disappearing if you click elsewhere & the text can be replaced later. If you already have some text to paste in you can just paste while in object mode & a text box containing your text will be created. You will now need to click outside the layout again & drag the cursor toward the text box to select it. You can now position the first text box in the lower right of your 2-page document. It is easier to see where it goes if you have the document set up with 2 columns. Click on the blue-outlined tab at the lower right of the text box to create a new of the same size & move the box to the upper left. Repeat for a box for the upper right & again for the lower right. You will now have 4 linked text boxes.

1b - Start as in 1a creating a 2-page document with 2 columns in landscape orientation. For this one you will use the body text area. Just type or paste your text in as normal, starting in the upper left. When you have your text done, cut all of the text in the first column (upper left), insert a column break after the last character on the now lower left column & paste the cut text after it in the now lower right column.

Neither one of these will let you automatically use page numbers because Pages "sees" each page & you actually have 2 pages per page.

2 - Use Cocoa Booklet to create a booklet with any number of pages (best in a multiple of 4). Start with your Pages document in Legal size & larger than normal font size. Export the Pages document to a PDF & then drag the PDF to the icon of Cocoa Booklet. It will create a new PDF in booklet form.

I am new to Mac as well, and have remained so for the past five months.
I'm Dutch, and have my iMac talk to me in Dutch. Therefore, I may not always know the English names of menus and such. But I've come across a possible answer to the question about printing two pages on one sheet -- through the help menus of Pages8 and of Word2008. I typed "2 pagina's per vel" (which is Dutch for 2 pages per sheet, as you may have guessed) and found instructions for doing it (in the printing menu of the Layout window) in essentially the same way as I used to do it in Word on my pc with windows98. With one difference: the old Word enabled me to actually +compose and save+ a document of the required type and not just print it.
I haven't yet been able to see if the help files are correct (they very often are) but if they are, the solution they offer is a lot simpler than the one described by you, I believe. But then, I haven't tried your solutions, either. 🙂

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Using the page layout options in the print dialog will print two (or other multiples) per page, but it won't put the pages in the correct order for folding into a booklet. My descriptions are long, but they are much easier to do than to explain. Especially since I gave three different methods.

CocoaBooklet will create a PDF of the booklet which you can then save & print when you want.

Dear Peggy,

Thank you for making me welcome to Apple Discussions.

You're right, of course, about the layout options in the print dialog not putting the pages in the correct order for folding into a booklet. In my PC-days, I ordered my (one-sided) printer to print the pages, two to a sheet, in the appropriate order (8,1,6,3 for one side of the paper, and 2,7,4,5 for the other side) for an 8-page folder, and similarly for larger folders.
I planned to use the same approach (well, the same work-around) on the iMac, but had a hard time finding how to print two pages to a sheet. And one advantage of the approach was that page numbering could be done as required, with pages, not sheets, being numbered appropriately (that is, if Word did not omit the first digit for pages with two-digit numbers -- or, now that we're at it, if Word did not elaborate the "page X of Y" instruction as if it said "page X of X").

I have downloaded CocoaBooklet, at your kind suggestion, but haven't had time to try it out as yet.

Similar to CocoaBooklet is Cheap Imposter (as in "imposition"--the layout of pages): http://www.cheapimpostor.com/ .

I've tried several booklet-making programs and this has been my favorite.