Booklet

Pages version?

I have this same question, for reference I am working on Mavericks, using Pages 5.0.1.

You write your booklet the normal way. Save it. Then Print it to Pdf and use the pddf document with a booklet creator. There are several. One is named BooletCreator http://bookletcreator.com/

Ontoher is Create Booklet http://TheKeptPromise.com/FreeApps.html and it is free. It will add an option in the Print window > PDF > create booklet.

You have to try them and see if they work with Pages 5 and Mavericks.

fuhulda, I downloaded Create Booklet, and it is doing almost everything perfectiy. The only problem I has was/is with margins, they're huge. I solved the header/footer margin by changing my paper size, in Pages I set it to US Legal instead of US Letter. But, there is still an issue with the left/right margins, and I'm not sure how to address that.

The inside margin (where the two pages meet) is only 1/2 inch, barely enough to handle folding.

The outside margin (edge of the paper) is close to 2 inches.

I can correct the first problem by increasing the margins in Pages, but that also makes the outside margins even larger.

Since Create Booklet starts converting immediately, and sends it directly to Preview, I see no way of accessing any preferences, so I assume these things have to be handled directly in Pages. Any thoughts? Does BookletCreator do a better job?

I think the problem is that you use the Us Letter or Legal and they don't fold and are propotioned like the unfolded paper. I use A4 when I write and get A5 when folded and it will still hve the same proportions. We can hope soemone using Us paper will give an answer.

You should have your document in pages configured so that the PAPER size is half the landscape size of what you are printing on. i.e:

Letter Booklet = 11x8.5 paper so use 5.5x8.5 paper size when making your document

Legal Booklet = 14x8.5 paper so use 7x8.5 paper size in your document.

I ususally set 0.5 inch margins all around and turn off headers and footers (unless using them for page numbers)

Print to a PDF

Open that PDF in BookletCreator, make sure sheet size is correct and save to a new file

Open that file in preview and make sure it looks correct.

Printing can be a little tricky:

Many inkjet printers (HP deskjets for example) cannot print down within 0.5 inch of the bottom of the paper. HP drivers for example rescale the document to fit in the printable area even if you set size at 100%, so the middle of the sheets come out off center and all the margins are wrong. I haven't found a way around this problem other than to use a laser or a printer with gutenprint drivers.

I think Adobe reader can sometimes override this but it's tricky and requires experimentation. Some nicer printer drivers can make the booklet automatically.

By the way: APPLE, WHY ISN'T THIS BUILT IN????

fruhulda, MartsMac, thanks for your help.

Mark, your suggeston of using half-sized paper did MUCH better. Something is still adding margin on the outer edges of the paper, but not nearly so bad. I don't want to add any more margin (to solve the gap between the pages), but I can live with what it is providing.

I have the printer set to borderless printing, and the image in preview looks like there shouldn't be extra outside margins, so I'm not sure where they are coming from, but it is only about 3/4", so not too bad.

Again, thanks.

Borderless doesn't work right either in my experience.

I see Adobe Reader XI has a "booklet" option, so get that then try printing your half-sheet sized PDF with that option. Whether using Preview or Adobe, be sure size is set to 100% as both tend to scale a bit by default.

My crummy cheap HP inkjet at home never gets the margins quite right, always seems to scale a little bit, but my old Canon (RIP) always worked fine, and the cheap (but good) Brother laser in the office gets it right.