Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello, I was wondering if there was a way to make a template print the same thing on the back of every page when printed in duplex mode.

When generating a document I need the same exact text to print on the back of every page generated. Sometimes the generated text will not fit on one single page and create two pages. Is it possible to somehow make sure the text that is required on the back of the page is printed every time there is a new page?

Greetings and welcome to the community forum!

I think it should be quite easy, although probably not obvious. OO Writer manages all page layout through page styles. The default page style--named "Default"--is configured to apply to both right (fronts, odd #s) and left (backs, even #s) pages but you can change that to right-only and it will only apply to the front sides. THen you can create a new page style for the back sides and anchor your constant text to a header or footer of that page style.

Once that's done, you can configure each page style to switch to the other, thus alternating pages.

The only part I'm not sure of is how to prevent Writer from placing any of the running text on the back sides. One way might be to put the constant text in a frame that fills the page, leaving no room for any regular text. I'd have to play with it a bit to see if there's a better/easier way.

Edit: PS:

Hmm ... it seems the hard part is getting Writer to NOT number the page backs; I assume you don't want them numbered. I think to get what you want you're going to have to print two passes, front sides and then back sides. Otherwise Writer is going to insist on including the page backs in the numbering.

Thanks for the quick reply Acknak. At this time numbering is not important to be printed on the pages.

Ok, here's a sample I threw together that follows the approach above. To prevent text from appearing on the backs, I shrunk the page margins as far as possible (apparently it's not possible to shrink the text area to nothing) and then positioned the frame to cover the entire remaining text area. As far as I can see, that prevents any text from appearing on the page backs.

Thanks, I'm going to look at it now. The issue I was having is I WANT the same text on the back of every page when printed in duplex mode. Theres no way to do a if page is even print this?