Formatting a LWB

quietly

I have a question that's less about deck creation, and more of a side thing that some deck creators probably have some experience with - the LWB.

I recently acquired a deck that didn't come with a box or a LWB, but the creator does have a file on her website with the text for a booklet. I made myself a rather nice box, so I thought, why not, let's make the booklet too, just to have it and keep in the box.

The problem is the formatting. I've been able to find a topic with some info, but all of it pertained to expensive software I don't have. So, my question is, how do you format your text to print correctly? Do you have any advice for someone who only really has access to free programs (or your basic Microsoft Office suite, nothing fancy)? I don't even really mind having to put the pages in the right order for printing if I have to - I just wish I could get something to format with 8 pages to a sheet instead of only 4.
 

Etene

Four might be a limit of your printer driver, or of your word processor's interface. My system offers 16 to a page and a percentage scale, so I needed only a little trial and error to get the size right for my LWB. I find it easier to play with page sizes if I export to PDF and print from that.
 

Luna's Crone

print pages 2 4 6 8, then with out moving them stick them back in the draw the way they came out of the printer. then print 1 3 5 7 and that should do it. it worked for me once. But make sure your driver is updated, its not the program like word, its you printer driver. oh yeah and my printer drivers suck since 10
 

quietly

Hmm, I think maybe I'm misunderstanding, or I didn't phrase myself very well the first time around. Microsoft Word, for instance, has a way of formatting the pages of your document to print a booklet, which fits multiple sections onto one sheet of paper and deals with all the margins for you (as well as page ordering). But I would ideally like to make a tiny booklet that would fit in your standard sized box. As far as I can tell, Word's 'book fold' formatting doesn't let you make smaller pages, but I'd really like to find an efficient way of doing something like that.
 

reall

imo best way is to convert your text into pdf before printing as it gives you idea how will your text look printed!:)) I use this http://convertonlinefree.com/
so let say you wish your pages to be smaller than standard A4 you go for A5 etc
t's good to have one standard A4 at hand then fold it as much time as you need to get size you wish for your page?:))
then adjust it in word and ask to print in your local print shop?:))
 

Etene

As far as I can tell, Word's 'book fold' formatting doesn't let you make smaller pages, but I'd really like to find an efficient way of doing something like that.
Even if "book fold formatting" is a trick of how it sends the document to the printer, you should be able to Print To File as PDF and get the result you want. Then print from the PDF at the desired size and you should be done.
 

quietly

I'm kind of late in replying but thank you for your responses, I think I've got it now!
 

HudsonGray

If it's still an issue, just copy/paste it into Microsoft Word, set the font size for the smallest you can read, choose 2 or 4 'columns' per page, print it out and do a physical cut/paste of the sections onto one sheet of paper to be photocopied and cut/folded/stapled into a hand made booklet.

It's a primitive approach, but it works.