How to print several copies of a small document on a single 8.5 x 11 paper?

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Wallyxj

I created a small document which is set to a custom paper size of 8.5" x 2".
I would like to print 5 of these documents on each sheet of standard 8.5" x
11" paper stock. I may need to print 200 of these documents and would like
to avoid having to use 200 sheets of 8.5" x 11" paper stock.

I am using Office 2003.
I would appreciate any help?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

The best way to do this is to set up a standard 8.5" x 11" page as a table
with 0.5" top and bottom margins and single-column rows set to a height of
Exactly 2". An easy way to accomplish this is to set up a custom label
definition in Tools | Envelopes and Labels. You will need to repeat the
content in each table cell. If the content is not compatible with a table,
then you will have to manually space out the repetitions on the page: there
is no built-in way to print 5-up vertically on a Letter page.
 
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Wallyxj

Thanks Suzanne:
Thanks for the advise. I did use your technique and it worked fine for
simple small documents. The limitation seems to be that using the "labels
and envelopes" method limits the features available to compose the small
document (spell check, limited field of view, etc) .

However my situation is a bit different, so let me try to explain my
situation more completely.
I am a teacher who keeps student grades on a excel spreadsheet and I compile
each students' final semester grade on the spreadsheet. I needed to send a
letter home with each student reporting their grades. I did a mail merge in
Word 2003 and used the spreadsheet as the data source. Each document had the
"first name" , "last name" and "grade" field and general language. The mail
merge for the 50 students worked fine and produced 50 short documents.
However, I wanted to print two of these documents on each 8.5" x 11" paper
stock so I would only have to use 25 sheets. I changed various options on
the page setup and print options but was unable to make it work.

Considering all the time I devoted to this quest, it certainly would have
been more cost/time effective just to print out 50 separate 8.5" x 11"
sheets. However, it is frustrating that I couldn't solve the problem.. I
saw that the mail merge labels each document as a segment of page 1 (pg 1
seg 1, pg 2 sec 2, etc). What am I misunderstanding?
Wally
 
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Suzanne S. Barnhill

You don't have to format your document in the Labels dialog. Click the New
Document button to get a full sheet of "labels." They're set up as a table,
so be sure you have table gridlines displayed (Table | Show Gridlines) so
you can see your label boundaries.

When you create a mail merge using labels, you can do the same. The only
difference is that you are inserting merge fields instead of plain text. You
just have to define the label size as being half a page. Luckily, you can
use existing layouts such as Avery 3260 Note Card, or create your own custom
label definition. Avery also makes two-up cards such as 8315 and supplies
formatting instructions for them.
 
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