SUMMARY: small size pages (LONG)

["Kahn, Stacey" <skahn -at- WB -dot- COM>]

Thanks to everyone who answered my question on how to "do" 7x9 manuals with
standard office equipment. My questions centered around how to get the small
page size, and how to bind the documents. Here's what y'all said:

Page size:
----------
The overwhelming answer was to send the product out for cropping.  Alison Bloor
suggested keeping some extra cropped paper around for inserts and updates
in-house. Something this size should be well within the limits of most laser
printers and most photocopiers.

At 7x9, we'd get one page per printed sheet, without much waste. K Watkins
mentioned that they use the to-be-cut footer for in-house information (version,
etc.) that won't appear on the final product.

Another option, suggested by Charlene Strickland, is to use 5-1/2 x 8-1/2, two
per page. Someone else, in the POD thread, suggested 8-1/2 x 14 originals with
two 7x8-1/2 prints per page.

FWIW, the best prices I was quoted (I'm in metro Washington, DC) were for small
jobs, 75c/cut per 100 sheets, which works out to $1.50 /100 sheets; for large
jobs, $6 /1000 sheets for 2 cuts.

Also FWIW, I've developed a Word template that provides crop marks and margins.
Email me if you'd like a copy.

And again FWIW, Charlene Strickland suggested a Word add-on called Clickbooks
that lays-out booklets with correct front-and-back sides.

Binding
-------
We initially focused on small 3-ring notebooks (binders). Alison Bloor
suggested having the notebooks custom imprinted-- with information sufficiently
general to keep the notebooks appropriate for a variety of documents. OTOH, as
Dick Dimock points out, small-size notebooks are "hellaciously expensive."
However, quick-copy shops around here are all capable of custom-drilling to
match the non-standard hole spacing. Prices range from 2c/sheet, to 90c/100
sheets, to $6/1000 sheets. Dick also suggested having the packages
shrink-wrapped for distribution, with each notebook then containing a
shrink-wrapped documentation package, rather than having the pages actually
*on* the notebook rings. Overall, the plusses are availability, a product that
lays flat, and easy updatability.  It's a good low-volume solution. The big
minus is the cost per unit.

GBC plastic comb binding is widely available, but IMO it often falls apart.
We also decided against plastic binders, which are similarly cheap to buy, but
don't produce books that lay flat.

Charlene Strickland suggested perfect binding using heat-sensitive tape. Some
photocopiers have the option built-in.

We're leaning toward wire. I've found that wire is harder to source in
neighborhood shops, but was quoted $2/volume for 1" of paper, $3/volume for 2".
Most of the technical manuals on our shelves are bound like this.

Stuart Burnfield suggested a "blind wire wrap" binding, which is wire loops
covered by a plastic cover, which permits the spine to be imprinted with the
product name.  Similarly, and what I'm going to suggest if we go to high-volume
production, is to score the back cover and make it the right width to wrap
around the *cut* side of the book and function as a spine. I'd guess that this
would be more easily available than blind wire (the size of the cover wouldn't
impact the binding), and it gives you a flat, not a sprial, spine.

Again, many thanks to:
Alison Bloor alisonb -at- mmtech -dot- co -dot- uk;
Stuart Burnfield, slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au;
Sally Derick, sally -at- rushmore -dot- tivoli -dot- com;
Dick Dimock, red -at- ElSegundoCA -dot- ATTGIS -dot- COM;
Sue Heim, SUE -at- ris -dot- risinc -dot- com;
Erin Murphy, murphyassc -at- aol -dot- com;
Kris Olberg, KJOlberg -at- aol -dot- com;
Romay Jean Sitze, rositz -at- nmsu -dot- edu;
Harold Snyder, ensnyder -at- eastnet -dot- educ -dot- ecu -dot- edu;
Charlene Strickland, Charlene_Strickland -at- cpqm -dot- saic -dot- com;
Det Voges, det -at- ozemail -dot- com -dot- au;
K Watkins, KWATKINS -at- quickpen -dot- com -dot- 


--Stacey Kahn
SKahn -at- wb -dot- com                  Washington, DC
speaking for myself and not for my employers