How do I print folded greeting cards?

[fiddleaway]

I'd like to be able to create greeting cards using either Writer, Draw or Presentation apps: 4 pages per sheet, all printed on the same side of the sheet and oriented so that when you fold the sheet twice, you have a 4 page greeting card.

This was a snap in my Windows Publisher days. And I know how to print 4 pages per sheet and manually (just before printing) order and orient the pages (rotate 180 degs.) so that I get the desired result.

But I was wondering if there is any way to automate the orienting step so that I just deal with all of the pages in numeric order and right-side up and let the print process do the proper layout of pages onto the sheet.

[pluby]

Originally, I was thinking that you might be able to print in "brochure" mode using the steps in this NeoWiki article and then set the print dialog's Pages per Sheet setting to "2" but when I tried it, I found that pages 4 and 1 were upside down and in the wrong order.

I admit that I am not sure how to do this. Can you tell us the steps that you are currently doing? If so, it might give us some ideas on how to streamline the process.

Patrick

[fiddleaway]

I've attached a simple example which I have printed and it works.

The steps I took to make this work:

• Set page size to 4.25 x 5.5 and all margins to 0.25
  
• Insert page breaks to create 4 pages
  
• put page 4 content on logical page 2, page 2 on logical page 3, and page 3 on logical page 4
  
• separately rotate page 1 and 4 180 degrees
  
• go to print preview and set to print 4 pages per page
  
• print

Other notes:

Text must be in rotatable frames. Presumably, rotation of entire page of objects can be done by selecting them all together and rotating.

Do not use the multi-page per sheet option offered by the print command Layout dialog. As far as the printer driver interface is concerned, you are printing a single 8.5 x 11 page. (Neooffice does the multipaging)

One shortcoming of this method is that it is not possible to spread content over the inner pages (2 &3) or from the front to back page (1 &4) ... which is a desirable feature for creating fancier greeting cards.

Perhaps combining aspects of my manual 4 page method, with the brochure facility would do the trick.

I think this shows that where there's a will, there's a way ... but it would be a lot nicer if there was a way to automate this ... as MS Publisher does ... by allowing one to edit the pages in order, right side up and then having the app do the geometry to turn it into a two-fold greeting card.

Actually, I'm not necessarily asking you to add such a feature. My inquiry was mainly to find out if what I wanted (automation) was already possible, and if so, how to invoke it.

David

[pluby]

[fiddleaway]

Sorry to be dense, but I'm having a little trouble visualizing.

Are you starting from scratch, or are you proposing modifying my sample file?

I don't understand why you shift the second inner and outer pages to the right.

You still have to turn the outer pages upside down before printing, right?

[pluby]

[fiddleaway]

So (for posterity), to make a greeting card from scratch:

• open new writer page and set page size to 8.5 by 5.5 with 0.25 margins.
• Insert a page break to create a second page. At this point, the 1st page is the 'outer page' and the 2nd page is the 'inner page'
• Add content to the outer page with the understanding that the left side will be the back of the card and the right side will be the front of the card.
• Add content to the inner pages as you wish to see them.
• At this point any content that lies over the center of either the outer or inner pages will be printed across the centerfold of the printed card.
• Multi-select all objects on the outer page (both sides) and rotate the selection 180 degs.
• Use Neooffice print preview to set printing to two pages per sheet.
• print

Tip: if you want to edit outside page text frames after you've put them upside down, you don't have to rotate them before editing ... double click on the text frame you want to edit and it will be presented right side up, but when you exit the frame, it'll revert to it's desired orientation.

Also: I had a little trouble multi-selecting the left and right content of the outer page (using the shift key) at first. Neooffice finally let me do it after I selected each side individually and did a "bring to front".

Thanks for your help, Patrick

[pluby]

Your welcome and thank you for summarizing the steps for creating a foldable greeting card. I hope other users find it helpful.

Patrick

[sardisson]

We should probably get these steps in the wiki, too, as a companion to the Brochure article.

Smokey

[sardisson]