How to create 4 cards per sheet (A4) with different texts on one side

[Earendil]

Hi,

I would like to have the following results for an upcoming event:

Rectangular landscape cards (one fourth of an A4 sheet) which have on one side always the same information and on the other a quote taken from a book (copy paste) which is different for each single card.

I would like to create 100 cards, that is 25 A4 sheets. I was thinking of handing over to the photocopist a 1 page pdf with the front and a 25 page pdf with the rear and let the photocopist assemble them front and rear. Finally, I would cut the A4 through the middle twice.

The first question is how would you prepare the A4 divided into 4 text spaces? Tables? Text boxes? Other? I am familiar with changing the orientation of the page, but from then on, I would take guesses.

The second is how you would handle the changing texts. Would you copy and paste them each time in a different page or use rather a merge system?

Would you handle both front and rear with a template with direct formatting or with a template?
I hope you can shed light on this.

[Hrbrgr]

@Earendil

Tables? Text boxes? Other?

Can that help?

File cards DIN-A6 in Writer

[ajlittoz]

Discard immediately text boxes. Or, if you go into this direction, don’t use Writer but Draw.

With Writer, there are several possibilities:

• design all your cards A4-full page and print 4 pages per A4 sheet
  The cards will be scaled 50% automatically on output. However, your cards will be 200% on screen

• design all your cards A6 and print 4 pages per A4 sheet

• use a 2×2 table in an A4 page and print 1 page per A4 sheet

Regarding insertion of text, you can do it with mail merge. I then suggest you follow either the A4 or A6 single-page design which makes easier the change to next record.

Since one of the side has constant contents, consider you’re preparing pre-printed stationery: instead of feeding the printer with blank sheets, you load the paper tray with your preprinted cards (in the correct orientation).

@Earendil

Would you handle both front and rear with a template with direct formatting or with a template?

If your work is a one-of-a-kind type, i.e. not a recurring one, don’t bother with .ott template. After all, all you have to create is 2 pages.

Since design is an “artistic” activity related to personal taste, You’ll probably have several itrerations. Consequently, don’t direct format but style your text. You then only need to tune your styles.

[Earendil]

Hi @ajlittoz thanks.

The idea of A4 is tempting (even without mail merge, which I am totally unfamiliar with, but I suppose that I would have to paste the texts elsewhere before they are inserted automatically in the pages, why then not inserting them directly in the pages, being a one-of-a-kind work).

However upon preparing the page I came across one hitch: vertical centering. The quotations being all different, that would come handy. So I tried putting a frame, but somehow I could not write into it, then used a single table cell, but it would not “stretch” until the bottom of the A4 page, as if there was an invisible limit.

So I guess that for each quotation I’ll use paragraph marks, so that it looks centered.

[ajlittoz]

If you’re not familiar with frame styles, don’t use frames. Frames styles are very difficult to master if you don’t accept the theoretical model behind them (and this basis is quite hard to discover because official document quite misses the point).

The easiest way for you is to create a 1×1 table (a table containing a single cell). By default, it extends horzontally from margin to margin. To make it cover the page vertically, select the table (put the cursor inside it) and Table>Size>Row Height. Set the height to page height minus margins and untick Fit to size.

Centering text inside the table is easy:

• horizontally: customise paragraph style Table Contents for center alignment
  Caution: with a 1×1 table, your cell is styled Table Heading by default.
• vertically: right-click on the table and Table Properties, Text Flox tab where you set Vertical alignment to Centered
  It may be wise to untick also Repeat heading.

Once you have your table set up, copy it and paste it on subsequent pages.

[Earendil]

Hi @ajlittoz,
thanks: everything worked beautifully, now I am only stuck with the printing part. I have 4 A4 1-cells, and I would like to print 4 per page as you suggest (1 A4 front and 1 A4 back). I would need to do that sending them to a pdf since I have no printer. Any ideas how to do that?

[ajlittoz]

Easy:
1.File>Print

1. select Printer Print to File
2. in Page Layout, Pages per sheet 4
3. Print

This will create your “card” side.

Do something similar for the back side. Make 4 copies of your “information” for 4 A4-pages and print the result A4-page through the same procedure.

The back side file will be used to pre-print your stationery. This stationery will be fed into the printer tray to print the “card” side single-sided. After that, use a guillotine to cut your cards.

[Earendil]

Hi @ajlittoz it is all very clear, but I cannot find the “print to file”: for some reason the print to file is not available, there must be a bug somewhere:

Version: 24.2.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: bffef4ea93e59bebbeaf7f431bb02b1a39ee8a59
CPU threads: 8; OS: macOS 14.5; UI render: Skia/Metal; VCL: osx
Locale: en-US (en.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

[ajlittoz]

I checked my system (Fedora 40, KDE Plasma desktop) and found no custom printer driver. However your print dialog does not look the same as mine (even if we know now you’re under MacOS).

Look into the Preferences for LibreOffice``General Open/Save Dialogs (even if we’re talking about print dialog). Have you ticked Use LibreOffice dialogs? It is not ticked here.

MacOS print system is based on CUPS. In the printer selection menu, the first 2 items are Print to File and Cups-PDF and are followed by configured printers. I think Print to File is built in LO. Cups-PDF allows to output a PDF file. See if you can configure such a printer. If the system preferences don’t allow you to create the printer, CUPS administration can also be reached through a web browser at http://localhost:631.

[Earendil]

Thanks for coming back ton this Use LibreOffice dialogs is ticked off.

I’ll look into the other two suggestions. I am not that computer savvy…

[Earendil]

Hi @ajlittoz this morning somebody suggested having a look at the layout section (almost visible in the first screenshot at the very bottom) there one can change to 4 p. per sheet. I was able to print that into a pdf. Thank you so much for everything!