Question: “We’ve always printed our reports on only one side of the paper but are considering switching to printing on both sides of the paper to reduce paper usage. However, I’ve never prepared multipage reports for duplex printing. Some of the pages still will only have printing on the front side. Some of the pages will have letterhead. Are the changes done both in the printing process and in the copying process? What part is done in the Word document, what part is done through printing, and what part is done by the copier? How do I get started on this? Is there a web site I can go to?” — Diana Chase
See Comments Below
Like what you've read? ...Republish it and share great business tips!
Attention: Readers, Publishers, Editors, Bloggers, Media, Webmasters and more...
We believe great content should be read and passed around. After all, knowledge IS power. And good business can become great with the right information at their fingertips. If you'd like to share any of the insightful articles on BusinessManagementDaily.com, you may republish or syndicate it without charge.
The only thing we ask is that you keep the article exactly as it was written and formatted. You also need to include an attribution statement and link to the article.
" This information is proudly provided by Business Management Daily.com: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/15563/save-a-tree-but-how-do-i-learn-duplex-printing "
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
In my opinion, Kathy is on the right track. I do have one trick that could improve her method. Once you print out the master copy, insert a blank piece of white paper behind the pages that are to remain one-sided. We have our letterhead printed on bond paper, of course, but I also have it in Word. So, when I need something on letterhead, I can build it into the document. Doing everything in Word also allows you to use page numbering.
One other suggestion I have: use .pdf files. Adobe 8 is so versitile! When I am preparing materials for our Board meetings, the documents come from Word, Excel, PowerPoint – you name it! No problem! Once the document is finalized, I make it into a .pdf file. (In Microsoft applications, click “File”, “Print”, and then select Adobe PDF from your list of printers, click “OK”. The next window allows you to save the .pdf file wherever you want it and the .pdf file automatically opens in Adobe.)
Once all of your documents are finallized and saved as .pdf’s, go to Adobe and click “Create PDF”, select “From Multiple Files”, choose “Add Open Files” and voila! All the .pdf’d documents are listed. By highlighting each file separately, you can move it up or down in the sequence of documents. You can even choose which pages in the individual documents to use. Then, save it all into one document (i.e., “ALL”). The really cool feature: if one document changes, you DON’T have to start all over. Just fix the document that changed and .pdf it again. Then, when you pull the files in to Create PDF, use your newly changed document and the one file that contains everything (remember, we named it “ALL” above). If the changed document falls other than at the very beginning or very end of the finished document, you will need to add ALL twice. Let’s say the changed document makes up pages 3-5 of the finished ALL document. In Create PDF, you will add ALL, the changed document (in .pdf format, of course), and then ALL again. Highlight the first listing of ALL and click “Choose Pages”. At the top of the next window, type “1-2″ (you want pages 1 and 2 from the original ALL document). Since you want all pages of the changed document, there is no need to choose pages for it. Highlight the second listing of ALL and in the next window, type 6 – [the last page number of the complete document]. Then click “Create”. A mini-version of your complete document is available and you can page through it. At this point, I make sure that my original ALL document is NOT OPEN in Adobe so that I can overwright it in the next step (Save) of Creating the PDF.
I know this sounds really involved, but if you have any experience at all with word processing, the Adobe stuff is really quite intuitive. Using the .pdf’d files doe not address the issue of continuous page numbering among the different formats of original documents. With planning, though, that can also be overcome while creating the original documents. A tricky part would be if someone later decides to put things in a different order in the final overall (“ALL”) document.
Good luck!
I agree with Kathy. When making copies of reports with different types of pages (such as letterhead in the middle), you should make a master and then copy the master the way you want the final report to come out. I don’t think you have to make a bigger production out of it than you have to.
Hi Diana,
I work for an environmental consulting firm and we send out our reports double sided all the time. I print out my master single sided and then use the copier to print from single sided to double sided (1 to 2). My cover page, table of contents and appendices are single sided so I copy them separately from the main document which is double sided. My cover letter is printed separately on letterhead. I hope this helps.
Hi Diana,
Stefanie advice is very good.
I would also suggest that you must first visualize what you want the report to look. Stretch out on you note pad as to where you want each page to be and if a certain color paper is required to be in a certain location. I onece had a quarterly report that required a red page in certain location if there was an indecent that was consider critical.
Like Stefanie wrote most of your duplexing will be done in Word. There are several websites out there to learn to do duplex reports. The website How to Guides 365 has an article on “Learning How to Print Double sided” http://bit.ly/97c0T5
If you have trouble with page numbering because of tricky situations use the Big Idea #4 at http://bit.ly/numbering_pages.
Best of luck to you Diana
The copier where we print to also has color so we can also if needed once the properties box comes up can choose 2 sided print, color, staple etc.
What Stefanie says above is right on. Our copier also copies double sided, which is very nice. It doesn’t matter that you will have some pages blank or with letterhead – you’re still saving paper. Load up the copier with whatever you’re making copies of and set it to duplex. Not sure what kind of machine you have but we have a RICOH and it duplexes, staples, hole punches, etc… everything but the laundry! it’s great.
Thanks, but I believe that will print all pages 2-sided and I will not want to do that. It will be more involved. Some pages will be duplex, some won’t. Some will be on odd number pages and some will be on even. Some will need letterhead paper inserted in the printing process. I have a feeling it may be too difficult, because I do hundreds of reports each year and they will all be different, with different pages duplex. I’m hoping there is some training or a website that will help me.
Double sided printing also has to be a function of your copier. My little desktop HP printer will not do duplex but my boss’s printer–a different model–can. The big all-office printer can handle all sorts of styles, so it all depends on what your printer is capable of handling.
Hi Barbara!
What a great way to save money as well as the environment. Printing duplex is all done at the ease being at your PC. It’s just a few clicks. When you are ready to print: 1. click on the print icon, the print dialog box pops up, 2. click on properties; choose the paper output tab; 3. and choose 2 sided print, which is aka duplex. You are now ready to print duplex. Some copiers will auto default back to one-sided print, so be sure to check and see if yours did.
Good luck!