SUMMARY - templates for booklets

[Gilda_Spitz -at- markham -dot- longview -dot- ca]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply to my question. I was more
interested in how to create booklets from Frame, because that's what I use,
but I also asked about Word, on behalf of a co-worker in a different
department.

Several people suggested the shareware called Clickbook. (By the way, the
Web site lists the price as $49.95 US, not $30)  As far as I can see, this
seems to be a solution only for Word, not for FrameMaker.

Janet Valade also suggested software called Quite Imposing, which works on
Acrobat PDF files. This would have been more interesting to me, but the
price ($300 US) makes it a luxury we can't afford.

Here's a summary of the responses I received.

Gilda Spitz
Manager, Documentation and Translation
Longview Solutions Inc.


-------------------------
from Keith Long: (and similar responses from others)

You cannot go wrong with Clickbook.  You can read about the program--and
even download a trial copy of the program--by going to the following page:

http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/cb/clickbook.html


------------------------

from Beth Friedman:

I love Clickbook, but  <snip> Clickbook
isn't PostScript based, so if you have any EPS graphics or PS code in your
document, they' won't print properly.

But it's great for just about any other kind of imposition job.


--------------------

from Meg Halter:

Microsoft claims that you can make a booklet using just Word. They describe
the process of using linked text boxes in Article ID Q120778, "Creating
Foldover Booklets in Word for Windows" at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q120/7/78.as . The trouble
with this (painful) approach is that you have to figure out by hand how the
text boxes link and then do the linking by hand. Bet this would get old
very
fast.

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from Dick Margulis:

For the benefit of anyone who cannot spend $30 and only needs
to do this once, or who has some special sort of booklet to do that
Clickbook cannot handle, here is the manual method (and lest anyone
think I am being supercilious. let me assure you that this is exactly
the way it has been done by printers for a long time).

1. Using blank pieces of paper the size you intend to print on, and
using as many as will be required for the finished booklet, trifold,
pamphlet, signature, or what-have-you, fold them the way you want the
finished item to appear. Do not make any cuts.

In the case of signatures, you have to know something about folders to
execute this step correctly, but for sheets that will have only one fold
or only parallel folds, you need no specialized knowledge.

2. Hold the folded booklet so that you are looking at the first page and
it is right-side-up.

3. Using a pen or pencil, number the lower, outside corner of each page.
Be sure to go all the way to the end. Put an underscore below the 6 and
the 9 (even though you know they are at the bottom of the page).

4. Unfold the sheet or sheets of paper. Now you know where all the pages
have to print, and whether they print right-side-up or upside-down.

5. Each sheet of paper is a signature, consisting of a front form and a
back form. Page 1 (or the lowest-numbered page in each signature) is on
the front; page 2 is on the back. Mark the front of each signature with
a capital F in a circle. Put an X on the lowest-numbered page.

The unfolded sheets become your imposition guide. You can transfer the
information to a thumbnail view if that is more convenient.

In Word, you will have to be very careful about controlling where each
page ends, inserting breaks as needed. If a page ends mid-paragraph, you
will have to split the paragraph into two pieces, force-justify the
first piece and begin the second piece flush left, possibly with a
lowercase letter.

In order to print pages upside-down, you will probably have to convert
the page to a graphic--perhaps a PDF file or EPS that you insert.

 --------------------

From Larissa Neumann:

I have found that Clickbook doesn't work for me (because of the PostScript
issue). There are also other similar utilities. They may work for you,
depending on your printer. I found them all unsuitable for one reason, or
another.

We also create our publications in booklet format (using letter and legal
sized paper). We print them in-house on Docutech machines.

Before we switched to using FrameMaker, we were using PageMaker. PageMaker
has a wonderful utility called Build Booklet. When we switched to
FrameMaker, I was very upset to discover it doesn't have a similar utility.

Eventually, after some fiddling, I managed to force FrameMaker to print
booklets by making my own booklet templates.<snip>

Here is how I created the template:

1. Open a new file and change the page size to the final printed size (e.g.
for a half-letter booklet, you will need pages in a landscape, letter
format).
2. Create two text boxes of the same size side-by-side on the page.
3. Add as many pages as you will be using in the finished booklet.
4. Copy and paste the text boxes you created in step 2 onto all of the
pages.
5. Use Format>Customize Layout and the "Connect text frames" option to
re-connect the frames into the proper flow. Instructions for doing this are
in the FrameMaker manual.

Sorry that this is not more clear. Perhaps if you see my sample template it
will make more sense.

When I am working on a manual that will be using the booklet format, I do
the writing and layout using a single page format. When I am finished, I
copy the text flow in the single page file, and paste it into the booklet
template.

A few caveats when using this method:

1. You can use cross-references in the single-page format, but when you
copy
them into the booklet and then update them (as happens during a save) they
will be wrong. You can avoid this by converting all cross-references to
text, either just before you copy and paste, or immediately after you copy
and paste. (Click Special>Cross-references>Convert to text)
2. You cannot use automatically generated headers and footers. You will
have
to create and position them manually.
3. You will have to create and position the page numbers manually.
4. Do not set any paragraphs to the "Top of Page" pagination setting. Use
"Top of Column" instead.


--------------

From Janet Valade:



Word does not make booklets. To print booklets from Word, you need other
software. The options I know of are:

 1. WOPR. A set of macros for Word that will create a booklet. See
http://www.wopr.com. I think these cost about $40. Or you get them free
when
you buy the author's new book. Great books.

 2. Clickbook. A software package that creates a printer driver that
transforms your file into a booklet on its way to the printer. It does
nothing to the actual file. Many people use this without problems. I had
lots of problems with it, but was always able to make it work in the end,
with a great deal of time and cursing. http://www.bluesquirrel.com. About
$50 I think.

 3. Quite Imposing. Software that reformats a PDF file. It makes a
PDF file into a booklet that you can then print. I use this now. It works
well for me because I need to create PDF files for all my manuals anyway. I
think this was about $300. http://www.quite.com/imposing/index.htm


-----------

from Renee LaPlume:

Also see Woody's Office PoweR Pack (WOPR) which includes
a Word add-in called 2x4.  See Woody's site at www.wopr.com
for details.