two sided business cards

[dimm0k]

I used the Labels option to create a business card and it looks to be the way I like it, however I would like to have something on the back as well... any idea how to get this done without creating two documents, printing one side first, flipping the page and printing the second side?

[Corfy]

The first question is... do you have a printer capable of duplex printing (i.e., printing on both sides of the paper without having to reload)? If not, then there is no way to get around printing on one side, reloading, and then printing on the other side. If you do have a duplex printer, then you can probably alternate the pages to print (front, then back, then front, etc.).

[TerryE]

I have a {HP InkJet] duplex printer and use it to print cards for my wife. The problem is that the flipping s/w within the PC driver + printer doesn't align the cards 100% front to back. It is basically designed to do 2-sided document printing where front to back alignment isn't essential. So what I don;t use it. What I do is to have one page of fronts, and one page of backs — in the same document. I have tweaked the margins to 0.01cm or so to get the cards properly aligned. (Artwork goes up to the edge of the card.)

I always put a blank page in front of the cards and do a check print onto that and check for alignment before doing the N copies of the page 1. I then turn the lot over with the check sheet again on top, and repeat with page 2. I've got into this habit because if you have registration probs or put stuff in upside-down or whatever, then I only waste a piece of cheap paper and not a page of cards.

Doing the dozen sheets one way then flip to do the dozen the other way is pretty straight forward. The time is in the printing, the registration checks and guillotining the cards, not the flipping since this is only done once.

[dimm0k]

Hrmm well I was planning on doing this on the high production printers at work where it would be much easier to print them via the duplex capabilities of the machine rather than manually flipping the pages. Question is I've used the labels function of OpenOffice to create the business card's front... how do I create a second page in the document?

[RonIA]

If these are the perforated business card sheets I would be very careful of having the printer duplex. With that much curving to duplex automatically I would be afraid of the perf' creasing and causing feed problems.

[TerryE]

I agree with Ron on this one. Most Workgroup colour printers use a pretty convolved document path to achieve reasonable print speeds. They often do 1,2,1R,3,2R,4,3R etc. to maintain print speeds, but they also tend to have a pretty straight path to allow you to do overheads and other rigid materials. This is the one you want to use. Most also allow a "secure" or delayed print option for special print runs, where you type in a PIN on your print dialogue box. You then walk to the printer, set up your paper in the specials document feeder and enter this PIN to release the job.

The second page you just do the same as the first — only as a second job with a second PIN. This time you print on the pack sides. If necessary have two docs one for the front and one for the back. I should hope registration is not an issue with a decent colour printer, but you might still want to do a dummy run of 1 or 2 off on plain paper. So if we get 18 cards per sheet say and you want to print off 360, then the process goes:

• Open front page set a print of 18, and in the print options select the straight letter path, simplex, 20 copies, secure print + PIN1
• Open back page set a print of 18, and in the print options select the straight letter path, simplex, 20 copies, secure print + PIN2
• Walk to printer with paper
• Put you special stationary in the letter feeder and release the secure job to print the fronts
• Take out of the output hopper, turn it over and put it upside-down in the letter feeder and release the secure job to print the backs.

As to how to configure and select options on you work printer, this is RTFM or Hit F1 in another place. Not sure what this has to do with OOo though, but hope this helps