I am just trying to make the routine of publishing music concert programs as easy for new office staff as possible (I am director for an early music group). One way to print the concert programs in booklet format is to have the office staff type up the concert program in Writer and at the point of printing, choose the "brochure layout" option in the Printer window tab "Page Layout". This method works perfectly and allows for any new person to the music office to just step in and print concert programs in very few steps that require practically no brochure layout knowledge -- extremely user friendly to use.
My question is, when the printed brochure comes out, there is a lot of wasted space at the top and bottom of the brochure pages. Is there a way to make use of this space? ... For example, have the printed words start higher up the page and also down the page?
Yes.
Is this something that could be suggested as a bug or put on a wishlist?
No need.
The "brochure" option prints a Writer doc automatically in booklet form and figures out the pagination automatically -- so, a user can easily print out "booklets" by doing practically no setup at all ... no styling needed.
Actually, page format is *only* controlled by a page style, so you always have a page style or styles in every document, even if you only ever use the default Default page style. (Don't be frightened of styles!)
As far as I can tell, even if I change the body length ... for example set the 8.5X11 inch page to a top and bottom margin of "0.00 inches" ... the brochure (booklet) will still be printed with the same top/bottom gaps of spaces at the top/bottom of the booklet.
The problem - as already suggested by Mark Bourne - is that you are not using the brochure facility in the best way. (I think this is an example of where Microsoft Word does things differently; are you perhaps guilty of Wordthink?) If you rely on Writer to scale your text to the brochure size, you will need to choose font sizes and picture sizes and so on which come right in the brochure when printed - instead of using the actually sizes you want, as you would do normally.
To create brochures most conveniently, set your original document page size to the actual size of the page as printed - in your case 5.5 by 8.5 inches in portrait orientation. Set the font sizes as you actually want to see them in the brochure. As you create the text, you will see the pagination as it will actually appear. When you print, using the Brochure option, ensure that the printer settings are 8.5 by 11 inches and landscape orientation. You will find this much easier and the margin settings in your page style(s) should be reflected in what you get.
It would be very useful, if there were a way to make use of the white space through the initial Writer document before going to the "Print->Brochure" option. This would allow ALL Writer users to print out brochure-booklets without any prepping of styles.
Why not prepare the page style (half-size, portrait, margins, possibly including page numbers, ... whatever) yourself and save this as a template? This can include the printer settings, so that Letter, landscape, and even Brochure will all be set without your users having to think about them.
I trust this helps.
Brian Barker
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