Printing at less than 100%?

[LG1222]

In Writer, is there a setting or something where can I set the document to print at smaller than 100%?

thanks!

[Zizi64]

Just some tips:
- Export the document into PDF format. The PDF reader softwares have scaled print option.
- Some printers have scaled print option: search it in the printer settings after you start a print procedure.

In my opinion it is better to re-edit the document to the smaller paper size or for the wider margins.

[RoryOF]

On the /File /Print dialog one can use the Page Layout tab to print multiple pages to a sheet; this does not allow the fine tuning of the scale that Zizi64's method using PDF files permits

[rp2784]

I went to a blank Text Document/File/Printer Setup, Made sure my printer was selected. Then selected Properties opened the More Options Tab and then selected Reduce/Enlarge Document click on the Zoom to button then key in 100%. I then saved an Printing Presets to save that setting.

This worked, but it's just wrong!!!!

[keme]

I went to a blank Text Document/File/Printer Setup, Made sure my printer was selected. Then selected Properties opened the More Options Tab and then selected Reduce/Enlarge Document click on the Zoom to button then key in 100%. I then saved an Printing Presets to save that setting.

This worked, but it's just wrong!!!!

I guess this alters the setting for that specific printer on your computer, not the settings for the document. Hopefully you created a selectable printer preset, and did not adjust the default setup. I agree that this is "wrong", or at least, it is not a desirable workflow.

You did not explain the purpose of reducing print size. Neither did the original poster for this thread, some 17 months ago. If we know more about the desired outcome, we may be able to give specific advice towards a solution/workaround. Without that detail info, general advice - as already given by Zizi64, RoryOF and yourself - is the best you can hope for.

[RoryOF]

An adjustment to scale of printing, on /File /Print /Properties button and then Device tab may not be possible: it depends very much on the exact manufacturer and model of printer in use. I have just checked on a system with four available printers: two allow scaling (sometimes "reduce/enlarge"), two do not.

The most reliable method may be to /File /Export as PDF, then scale the printing by printing the PDF from a suitable PDF viewer.

The purpose of a Printing facility in an editor is to print the document as it has been generated; anything else is a luxury.

[LastUnicorn]

Going off on a tangent a bit I have for many years used a program called FinePrint for printing. It does a great many things that are useful including printing at a smaller size with only a couple of mouse clicks — your issue. I find it very, very helpful whenever I want to print a booklet. I have struggled with OpenOffice/LibreOffice and the physical printers I've had in trying to do this and never succeeded. However, in FinePrint, once FinePrint is configured to work with your physical printer (and there is an easy to use 'wizard' to set that up), then I can print the booklets with a couple of mouse clicks, no problem. From memory of years back I think if you download it you get a 30-day free trial, so worth just doing a quick experiment and see if it suits your needs.

When you install it it creates a printer driver, named FinePrint. When you print you send the print job, not to your physical printer, but to the FinePrint 'printer'. And, one you have the print job set up in FinePrint, you get FinePrint to send the print job to your physical printer. Sounds convoluted, but in practice it is only a couple of mouse clicks to step through the sequence.

Have to say that over the years of using it I find it so useful that I don't regard my computer system as complete without FinePrint.

[RoryOF]

To print booklets, which I often do, I either use the Booklet facility in OpenOffice Print, Page layout tab, if working from a file edited in Writer or else if the file to be printed is a PDF, I use a utility PDF-Booklet, which will scale and layout.

[LastUnicorn]

To print booklets, which I often do, I either use the Booklet facility in OpenOffice Print, Page layout tab...

Ah, you're a better man than me Rory, I could never get it to work. Then I found FinePrint and never looked back from there.

[RoryOF]

I have duplex printers, which handle printing on both sides. Major editing, intended for booklet output, I edit using A5 pages so that I have complete control of finished size. In the booklet facility I normally print in "signatures" (a book-binding term) of 24 or 32 pages, depending on paper thickness. This requires entering details for each signature, 1-24, 25-48 etc. Printing in such "signatures" allows me fold and stitch to form a book.

The Booklet facility in /File /Print, Page Tab will automatically shrink an edited page to fit the target paper size, usually half of A4 (= A5) or US "brochure" (half of US Letter). There is no need to (read: DO NOT) specify "pages per sheet" on that tab if using the Booklet option - it makers the correct decision.

I leave aside detailed treatment of most questions of scaling. Working to a page size of A5 prints at 100%; working to a page size of A4 to print as an A5 booklet, one must use font and measurements 1.4 (actually SQRT(2)) larger than desired in finished output.

Because US Brochure does not match US Letter in proportions scaling is more difficult - this is why the rest of the world uses the A paper sizes.

[rp2784]

I went to a blank Text Document/File/Printer Setup, Made sure my printer was selected. Then selected Properties opened the More Options Tab and then selected Reduce/Enlarge Document click on the Zoom to button then key in 100%. I then saved an Printing Presets to save that setting.

This worked, but it's just wrong!!!!

I guess this alters the setting for that specific printer on your computer, not the settings for the document. Hopefully you created a selectable printer preset, and did not adjust the default setup. I agree that this is "wrong", or at least, it is not a desirable workflow.

You did not explain the purpose of reducing print size. Neither did the original poster for this thread, some 17 months ago. If we know more about the desired outcome, we may be able to give specific advice towards a solution/workaround. Without that detail info, general advice - as already given by Zizi64, RoryOF and yourself - is the best you can hope for.

Back story on printing size issue:
Using Open Office 'Text Documents'. I noticed a difference in print sizes after I bought a new Epson 2800ET printer. Over a light table, the new Epson printer was printing smaller then 100% in width and height. A rule that was 7.5", printed on an HP printer, was now printing at 7.25" on the Epson. I want the rule to be 7.5" wide. I ran test from a PDF, and Photoshop. Both printers printed the text pages at 100%, correctly.

The only way I can see fixing this was to create a "select able printer preset". Is there a better way to ensure that it prints out at 100% each time?

Related note: The text color is printing light. I want it to be a rich black text. Is there a way to fix that also? In the documents I print text with 14pt Myriad Pro Cond text. The Epson is printing that font out much lighter then the HP.

[rp2784]

An adjustment to scale of printing, on /File /Print /Properties button and then Device tab may not be possible: it depends very much on the exact manufacturer and model of printer in use. I have just checked on a system with four available printers: two allow scaling (sometimes "reduce/enlarge"), two do not.

The most reliable method may be to /File /Export as PDF, then scale the printing by printing the PDF from a suitable PDF viewer.

The purpose of a Printing facility in an editor is to print the document as it has been generated; anything else is a luxury.

I tested printing the page from a PDF created from the document. It is a work around, but it should not be a requirement. Something in the Open Office Text Document and the new Epson printer is causing the print to print out at 97%. Not at 100%, as it should be.

[rp2784]

I have duplex printers, which handle printing on both sides. Major editing, intended for booklet output, I edit using A5 pages so that I have complete control of finished size. In the booklet facility I normally print in "signatures" (a book-binding term) of 24 or 32 pages, depending on paper thickness. This requires entering details for each signature, 1-24, 25-48 etc. Printing in such "signatures" allows me fold and stitch to form a book.

The Booklet facility in /File /Print, Page Tab will automatically shrink an edited page to fit the target paper size, usually half of A4 (= A5) or US "brochure" (half of US Letter). There is no need to (read: DO NOT) specify "pages per sheet" on that tab if using the Booklet option - it makers the correct decision.

I leave aside detailed treatment of most questions of scaling. Working to a page size of A5 prints at 100%; working to a page size of A4 to print as an A5 booklet, one must use font and measurements 1.4 (actually SQRT(2)) larger than desired in finished output.

Because US Brochure does not match US Letter in proportions scaling is more difficult - this is why the rest of the world uses the A paper sizes.

I'm sorry, but I'm not following what you are saying.

[RoryOF]

I have duplex printers, which handle printing on both sides. Major editing, intended for booklet output, I edit using A5 pages so that I have complete control of finished size. In the booklet facility I normally print in "signatures" (a book-binding term) of 24 or 32 pages, depending on paper thickness. This requires entering details for each signature, 1-24, 25-48 etc. Printing in such "signatures" allows me fold and stitch to form a book.

The Booklet facility in /File /Print, Page Tab will automatically shrink an edited page to fit the target paper size, usually half of A4 (= A5) or US "brochure" (half of US Letter). There is no need to (read: DO NOT) specify "pages per sheet" on that tab if using the Booklet option - it makers the correct decision.

I leave aside detailed treatment of most questions of scaling. Working to a page size of A5 prints at 100%; working to a page size of A4 to print as an A5 booklet, one must use font and measurements 1.4 (actually SQRT(2)) larger than desired in finished output.

Because US Brochure does not match US Letter in proportions scaling is more difficult - this is why the rest of the world uses the A paper sizes.

I'm sorry, but I'm not following what you are saying.

Pay no attention to the above - it is a side conversation mostly between myself and LastUnicorn.

[RoryOF]

I tested printing the page from a PDF created from the document. It is a work around, but it should not be a requirement. Something in the Open Office Text Document and the new Epson printer is causing the print to print out at 97%. Not at 100%, as it should be.

I have just tried printing a 17 cm line on three different printers

Epson WP4530 it is 17.0 cm
Lexmark MX510 it is 16.5 cm
Samsung SCX 4520 it is 16.9 cm

So it seems to vary from printer type to printer type and manufacturer. These results may also be influenced by how long the paper has been in the paper tray; hence differing degrees of humidity and paper manufacturer.

Don't forget also that paper expands and contracts depending on the humidity - you will notice this particularly with paper coming from a laser printer, where it has passed a heated fuser roller, rather than from an inkjet printer which has no such heated roller. The paper from a laser printer may often curl side to side, illustrating the differing shrinkages between the grain of the long side and the short sides.

[rp2784]

I tested printing the page from a PDF created from the document. It is a work around, but it should not be a requirement. Something in the Open Office Text Document and the new Epson printer is causing the print to print out at 97%. Not at 100%, as it should be.

I have just tried printing a 17 cm line on three different printers

Epson WP4530 it is 17.0 cm
Lexmark MX510 it is 16.5 cm
Samsung SCX 4520 it is 16.9 cm

So it seems to vary from printer type to printer type and manufacturer. These results may also be influenced by how long the paper has been in the paper tray; hence differing degrees of humidity and paper manufacturer.

Don't forget also that paper expands and contracts depending on the humidity - you will notice this particularly with paper coming from a laser printer, where it has passed a heated fuser roller, rather than from an inkjet printer which has no such heated roller. The paper from a laser printer may often curl side to side, illustrating the differing shrinkages between the grain of the long side and the short sides.

I understand the paper/humidity, but a 3% difference is way to much! Your test only proves my point. Three different printers, three different outcomes. I print the file from Open office and from a PDF. Same environment, same paper stack, same humidity within seconds of each other. The PDF printed correctly. The Open Office document didn't. If I manually set Open Office to print at 100% it will come out the correct size. If I leave it at the default print settings, it's wrong.

Something just isn't correct with the Open Office program. There is something causing the file to not print at 100%, or close to it.

[LastUnicorn]

Something just isn't correct with the Open Office program. There is something causing the file to not print at 100%, or close to it.

Give LibreOffice a try and see if you get better results. There are good reasons to switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice anyway. Some of the reasons are given here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

[LastUnicorn]

Yes, thanks for your post Rory, between reading what you posted and the 'Printing a Brochure' instructions from the OpenOffice Help file I bit the bullet and tried again to see if I could print a booklet directly from within LibreOffice. I managed to do it; though the experiment had several trials and cost me a ton of paper and lord knows how much toner. But I did it, first time ever I managed, Yahoo! It's really simple once you crack it.

I have duplex printers, which handle printing on both sides.

Yes, I too have a duplex printer. Owning a printer that isn't duplex is like owning half a printer as far as I am concerned. It's without doubt worth the extra on the purchase price to always go for a duplex printer.

The Booklet facility in /File /Print, Page Tab will automatically shrink an edited page to fit the target paper size, usually half of A4 (= A5) or US "brochure" (half of US Letter). There is no need to (read: DO NOT) specify "pages per sheet" on that tab if using the Booklet option - it makers the correct decision.

'Pages per sheet' was one of the steps (though there were others) I was getting wrong in previous attempts of printing a booklet. I know how to treat this now.

I leave aside detailed treatment of most questions of scaling. Working to a page size of A5 prints at 100%; working to a page size of A4 to print as an A5 booklet, one must use font and measurements 1.4 (actually SQRT(2)) larger than desired in finished output.

I managed my experiment from using page size A4. The working on a page size of A5 and printing a booklet from that is an experiment I might try on some rainy day — sounds like a method for printer adepts like yourself. I'm not in any way clear what you mean by '1.4 (actually SQRT(2)' — could you please explain what that means? Are you saying that, working in A4 page size, the user needs to multiply the font size by 1.4 and use the resultant size for the font in the working document? So, for example, to get a font size equivalent of 12pt on the printed booklet output I would have to use a font size set around 12*1.4 (which would be around 17 point) — is that correct?

Made great progress on this now after years of having just given up on it. Thanks very much for the tips, Rory.

Have to say that I am now wishing there was a tutorial on working (editing) in A5 and printing a booklet to A4 from there. I'm finding I have some curiosity on wanting to give that a try. The tricky part would, I suppose, be how you specify the print-job to the printer.

[RoryOF]

Yes, the 1.4 factor (actually SQRT(2) = 1.414) is the amount by which one must multiply the desired size on the finished A5 booklet to get the size type one would use on an A4 original. So if you wish a 10pt type on the booklet, use 14 pt on an A4 original.

There is no point in splitting hairs over the decimal fractions unless one is doing ultra specific work, such as recreating a missing page of a book for rebinding. As far as I remember, one can type decimal point values into type specifications, but these are all rounded to one decimal place (i,e, type 11.25 pt into the type size box; it will round to 11.3 pt). One might get more accuracy if the type size is specified in twips (twentieth of a point), but I have never found it necessary to try, and it might be beyond the capabilities of the printer.

If a trial booklet comes out with the back side pages upside down, you need to change the flip specification from Long edge to Short edge. It is always good, until you get familiar with booklet printing, to try an initial duplex print of four pages.

To avoid all the problems of scaling, If I am intending that the final form of a document should be an A5 booklet, I work in Writer to an A5 page, using onscreen scale of Page Width or Optimal, so the type I use writing the document is the actual output size. Depending on the font I usually use 10pt or 10.5 pt for body type with a proportional line spacing of 110% or 115%.

Note that the above scaling specification does not give onscreen display of actual document size, which many like. I can scale mentally, and am usually only concerned with ease of viewing the input text or the type to be edited.
.

Edit:  If using A5 pages as originals, one need only select Brochure on Print Layout tab and it takes care of everything. Do not specify number of pages per sheet (in normal circumstances never needed when using Brochure)

[LastUnicorn]

Hi Rory,

Well I bit the bullet again and decided to try printing a booklet from within Writer with the in-Writer page size set to A5. My first two attempts failed; the pages were coming out in orders that totally messed up the booklet. Then I tried ticking the option Print in reverse order and, voilà!, it printed out just fine.

So, in all, for doing that my printer and LibreOffice settings were pretty much the same as for printing to a booklet from an in-Writer page size A4 — the only adjustment I had to make for the A5 in-Writer page size was the 'Print in reverse order'. (My guess is that having to use that option will be specific to my model of printer and might be different for folks using different models of printer, but I'm not entirely sure on that point and don't have other printers to test on. )

Now having managed to printout a booklet from in-Writer page sizes A4 and A5 I do see that clear difference in the specificity of font size that the A5 printout achieves. As you say, more control in working from A5 pages but, if applying the (font size)*1.414 to the A4 document that end result is actually pretty good and with the formula somewhat predictable.

Thanks again for all the tips, Rory.

[RoryOF]

the only adjustment I had to make for the A5 in-Writer page size was the 'Print in reverse order'. (My guess is that having to use that option will be specific to my model of printer and might be different for folks using different models of printer, but I'm not entirely sure on that point and don't have other printers to test on. )

There are differences between printer manufacturers. In the case of printing a booklet to a Brother colour printer, I ended up with one blank spread in the centre of the booklet; ideally the two blank pages should have been automatically placed at the end of the booklet. As I required only one copy of that booklet, I pasted these two blanks together (a fudge!). Normally printing booklet to an Epson or a Lexmark does place the blanks to the end; I suppose it is a case of careful testing before commencing a long print run of many copies. Also, if a booklet was a multiple of 4 pages, such a problem might not arise.

[LastUnicorn]

Also, if a booklet was a multiple of 4 pages, such a problem might not arise.

What is the significance of 'multiples of 4' — I don't understand.

(Have to say that in my attempts at booklet printing that went wrong for the life of me I could never mentally visualise what was going wrong with the actual print output by using 'print preview'. I could never actually visualise the correct order of pages in the booklet, stab in the dark all the way. This I took to mean that I am not as clever as I think I am. Ah, well. )

[RoryOF]

Each A4 sheet will hold 4 pages, so a booklet of 32 pages wilkl be 8 A4 sheets, printed both sides (4 x 8). There will be no blank pages needed. Consider a booklet of 29 pages: Booklet printing would add three blank pages to fill the 8 sheets. These ought be added as page 30, 31, 32. It is possible that in your mixed up trials the pages were being added to the centre of the booklet, not to the end.

To learn about the page layout (imposition") take two A4 sheets, and fold them into a booklet. Now take that "booklet", and with a marker or a good strong pen, write in the middle of each page its number; be sure to underscore the 1, the 3 and the 6 so there is no doubt as to which is the top or bottom of the number.
When you separate the A4 sheets, you will find this order

8 | 1
2 | 7
6 | 3
4 | 5

All the page numbers add to 9 (= 8 + 1), with the even page always to the left [edit: note the 8 is a multiple of 4]. This will apply no matter how many pages in a booklet [edit: which must be a multiple of 4, add blanks if necessary) ]. However, the Booklet option should do this layout for one automatically

Unless one has access to professional stapling equipment 32 pages plus a light card cover is about as much as a long-reach desk stapler can handle. If I am printing "booklets" (correctly "signatures") to be folded and sewn (not stapled) for binding into book-form, I will often use 24 page units rather than 32 page units.

Ideally between each pair of pages there should be a "gutter", an increasing minute gap to allow for the thickness of the paper. Professional page-layout programs such as InDesign may allow this; I understand that LibreOffice is attempting it, but the last information I had was that this was not fully effective yet. The thicker the paper on which one is printing, the greater this gutter should be (but still minuscule relative to page width).

You will notice that the centre pages of a 32 page booklet protrude from the folded booklet; the reason for the gutter is to permit this protrusion to be trimmed, and the internal margins of the pages look identical. My printing on signatures of 24 pages minimises any visual difference of the internal margins, without the hassle of worrying about gutters.

[LastUnicorn]

Thank you so very much for taking the time to write that Rory.

I have done the experiment you suggest with two sheets of A4 and applying written numbering and my visualisation is improved somewhat now — though I need more time to meditate on it. I'm now thinking that I need to get clear in my thinking the distinction between 'sheets' (of paper) and 'pages' ('pages' as shown in an actual printed booklet) — I'm thinking I'm tripping up on that somewhere along the line.

I think part of the issue of 'visualising' is that in my booklet I have the first page (i.e. the 'Title page' or 'Cover page') set to having 'First Page' Style applied (I have this same Page Style applied to the last page of the booklet that actually has text content) and not having a footer 'page number' applied and when this actually gets printed there is no 'footer' on that page with the complication that the way the booklet gets printed out (as one is reading through the booklet) the next page that gets printed and has actual text on the page is 'page 1' and that always gets printed as a right-hand page (which is what I want to happen anyway). Hence the reverse side of the Title page, as one turns the pages of the printed booklet, contains no text and no footer (i.e. I would suspect that gets referred to as a 'blank page') which is also what I want to happen anyway.

So, the gap in my thinking now is where is/are the 'blank pages' coming from. I have to assume that Writer is ('intelligently') inserting them (irrespective of what I do). Is that correct? But I'm wondering, if one was printing out a booklet that in terms of actual textual content wasn't a multiple of 4 pages per sheet how does one insert blank pages to bring the count up to a multiple of 4? Is there a way to control where the blank page(s) will be going? I hope I've explained that okay. Or is the rule of thumb to let Writer deal with that complication? (Seems like the easy way to me.)

It is possible that in your mixed up trials the pages were being added to the centre of the booklet, not to the end.

Yes, when printing out from page size Style A5, this was what was happening. Selecting Print in reverse order fixed that.

[RoryOF]

One has to be careful with layout when printing a book/booklet to be bound. A First page is always a right page. It can be useful to use /Tools /Options /OpenOffice Writer: Print tab and check "Print automatically inserted blank pages". In display, these will show with "Blank Page" on them. This is non printing, When editing is finished and one has a page count, it can be useful to pad the document to have a multiple of four pages. Booklet will do this automatically, but I'm not sure how it will cope if printing reversed - padding with blank pages should be safe in all cases.


If printing a booklet, I usually print the cover separately. If working on a book, where there is no card cover, I find it best to define an "Obverse" page style, which is a Left Page with no header/footer and continuation style First Page; I modify First Page to have Obverse as the follow on style.


In a book one can have the following sequence

Half title page First Page Style
Blank page (or Frontispiece illustration) Obverse
Title Page First Page Style
Copyright declaration Obverse
Preface Chapter page or First Page style
Default
Page break followed by Chapter Page
Default (multiple pages in that style holding text)
Page Break followed by Chapter Page
Default (multiple pages in that style holding text)
etc.

One may also define styles derived from Chapter Page and Default styles for preliminary matter, where these have lower case roman numbering.

I have just checked a 700 page book, with no frontispiece or preliminaries; it uses five page styles.

[keme]

Booklet print can be a beast, until you have your mind (and several sheets of paper) wrapped and twisted sufficiently.
With a common "portrait orientation" booklet, Writer will do it nicely (usually) if you take care that ...

• Page will fold over long edge (setting in the wordprocessor)
• Sheet will turn over short edge (in the printer settings dialog).

Some printers will not hold multiple pages in memory. This means that double side printing will have turned the sheets backwards. Reverse order is required.
The same goes for "manual duplex" where one of the passes usually needs to be reversed. Booklet mode with manual duplex is not a recommended strategy. Your sanity is at stake.

If your printer has a builtin "booklet mode", that is likely a better choice. You then set Writer to print "plain" and make all your settings in the printer config dialog. On the larger multifunction devices there may even be a "gutter adjustment" which adapts to the paper you are using.

DO NOT enable booklet print in both your software and your printer settings.

[LastUnicorn]

I have now done several 'experimental' printouts of my booklet and have a lot more 'just fine' booklets than I actually need now, and a lot less toner!

Interesting to me is when working in in-Writer font sizes with page size A4 and using the formula:

(Desired font size in the A5 printed booklet)*(SQRT(2)) = (Font size to use in Writer doc)

I had occasion to reduce the font size in Writer by one point. The result was that the number of pages printed with actual text content went from 48 A5 pages (not sheets) to 43 pages — a reduction of 5 pages. This amazed me, that printing one point less would such a dramatic effect!

Anyway, I have a question: What actually does the scaling when the print-job gets printed out? Is it Writer that does the scaling, the printer driver or the physical printer? Is there any kind of test I can do to illustrate this?

[RoryOF]

A reduction in point size by one point should reflect in the page count shown on StatusBar, although on a large file (hundreds of pages) this can take some time to ripple through - to speed that up, use /Tools /Update. Don't forget that such a reduction, depending on line spacing settings in the various paragraph styles, may also apply to inter-paragraph spacings, giving quite a dramatic reduction as you have found. It may be nice to adjust the overall page height (top/bottom margins) to be a multiple of the overall line height to permit an extra complete line.

My usual settings when printing A5 booklets are to use Georgia as body text, in size 10.5 pt, with line spacing proportional of 110 or 115%, no line spacing above or below paragraphs - I indent first line of paras by 10.5 pt

In normal circumstances I think that the find reduction is carried out by OpenOffice itself, but I cannot say for certain. Certainly, if matching an existing page of a book, I make trial prints on the target printer to allow minuscule adjustments, both in dimensions and typeface weight and size, to get a close match.

If one wishes to Perfect Bind a book(let), i.e., using a fully glued spine, there is no need to print small (24/32 etc page) signatures. One can let Booklet print the entire, then cut the paper stack in half ready for gluing. A local printer will often do that as a kindness (i.e. to make one go away!).

[keme]

Instead of relying on a scaling factor, I recommend using real dimensions. If you plan to print 4 pages to each folded A4 sheet, set page size to A5 and use the dimensions (font size, margins, spacing) you want to have on the output. With this, no scaling will occur when you use booklet printing. Pages are already correct size to fit two on each side of the sheet.

There is enough geometry to take care of anyway, as mentioned above.

[LastUnicorn]

Thanks for the additional thoughts, guys.

Yes, I have now created three separate booklets on differing subjects and have transferred to only using an in-Writer page size of A5 which will, of course, be printed to A4 paper. Works best and is easy to setup after a couple of practice shots.

The only problem I had was when printing out the third of the booklets I wanted. For that, no matter what I tried, I could not insert blank pages where I wanted them to be (I didn't have to do this for the other two booklets) to get the desired printout (booklet) from one single document file. In the end I gave in and just created, as a separate document, the Cover Page for the booklet and printed that out separately. I thought that a less than ideal solution — wouldn't it be nice to have it all as one document — but, Hey!, I got the booklet as I wanted it to be and all was fine with that.

Thanks again — this has all been very interesting.