Creating a nice looking booklet in Microsoft Word is actually much easier than people realise, but there are a few caveats that people need to be aware of before starting.
Follow the simple guidelines below and you will have no trouble in producing a booklet that appears to have been professionally laid out.
A common mistake that people make when creating booklets is in forgetting to allow room for the binding, and instead they make the right and left margins symmetrical. To allow space for the binding:
- Select ‘File’, ‘Page Setup’, and click the ‘Margins’ tab.
- Set the ‘Gutter Position’ to ‘Left’ and set the ‘Gutter’ value to allow for the binding (Somewhere between 0.7cm and 1cm usually works).
- Now select ‘Mirror Margins’ in the ‘Multiple Pages’ drop down box.
- Make sure ‘Whole Document’ is selected in the ‘Apply To’ list and click ‘OK’
Once your document is formatted for booklet printing and you have added all your text etc, you will need to print it. You can either print normally and have alternating pages in your booklet blank, but most publications are printed double sided. To print double sided, select ‘File’, then ‘Print’, and go to the print list and select ‘Odd pages only’ this will print pages 1, 3, 5, 7 etc. After all the pages have been printed, remove the paper, turn it over and re-load it into the printer. Repeat the previous steps but with ‘Even pages only’ selected to print page 2 on the reverse of page 1 etc.
Note – The odd / even pages option may not be available if your printer supports double sided printing, or if your print driver handles double sided printing for you. In this case click the printer properties button, and use the appropriate selections for your printer.