A Printing Epiphany!

Last week I was given information that has since made things so much easier! It is almost embarrassing to admit the fact that I didn't know about what I am going to talk about, but then when speaking to others in the department it seems I wasn't alone in my lack of knowledge!

I'll set the scene...

Have you ever needed to print from a pdf document or a word document and only wanted a particular page printed? You want this page printed 2 to a page side-by-side. Sometimes your pdf document or word document only contains 1 page, which in word is fine as you can just select all and create a duplicate 2nd page identical to the 1st to print these two pages on one page. However, if you have a pdf, which you can't edit - how do you get this 1 page printed as 2 pages side-by-side? If you already know the answer to this question, I envy you and your brilliance!

Until last week, I have been 'going around the houses' trying to get around this problem. One of my pet hates as a teacher is when student's books have paper hanging out the end of them. So, when I need to print off w/sheets for them I often print the pages 2 to a page and then guillotine them off so they can easily be stuck in without having to stick out the ends of their exercise books. This for pdfs and word docs that have more than 1 copy of the page you need is fine, or if you want to print 2 pages on the same sheet etc. However, when I've needed to print just that single page pdf document I've had to either print that 1 page on a full piece of A4 and then trim to size, or I've just printed that 1 page as a 'multiple' pages without anything next to it - it's then the size I want, but it doesn't save any paper and I end up saving the blank half for scrap paper to use in form time!

So, here comes the revelation...it is possible to print a single page pdf doc or even to pick a particular page in a pdf/word doc 2 to a page,and here's how...

Say you want to print this 2nd page from this 3 page pdf document. You want it 2 sheets to a single page. So the page is landscape and you have the same page printed side by side (2 of the same sheet on a single piece of paper)

All you need to do is this...In the 'Print' options box (pictured) you type into the 'Pages' box the page number and then a comma and then the same page number again! So, in my example, if I wanted to print page 2 side-by-side on the same piece of paper I would type '2, 2' in the 'Pages' box. I then print as 'multiple' like you would normally and you'll see from the 'print preview' picture how it then prints - just as I have always wanted!

Like I say, this to a lot of people will be nothing new, but for me (and I suspect others that didn't previously know this) it has blown my mind! It has saved me so much time already this week in terms of chopping everything up using the guillotine, or having to copy and paste word doc pages to create 2 of the same page to print etc.

Thanks go to Miss Jackson for this amazing piece of knowledge!

I am still wondering how on earth I have gone all this time without knowing this. Prior to teaching, I worked in a whole host of offices doing admin stuff, data analysis etc and regularly was needing to print. I'm now into my 4th year of working in a school and, again, have never come across this before! Crazy!