In earlier versions of Writer(before 4.2) [Windows 7 English] I was able to draft a three or four page half-sheet booklet and print it on an 8.5x11 sheet with page 1 on the front and the fold on the left. It now prints with page 1 “on the back” with the fold on the right. This may be a question of some changed setting which I have not discovered or it may be a bug.
Any help would be appreciated. Best wishes, Ron Miller
I assume, that your document has portrait in height 8.5 and width 5.5. In the printing dialog goto tab “Page Layout” and check item “Brochure”. Go back to page “General”. Look at the preview. Likely the preview shows the size of the document and not of the paper. Click on the printer properties button and set the printer to the correct paper size and duplex. Back on the tab “General” examine the preview again. If the preview still has the wrong size, go to tab “Options” and check item “Use only paper size from printer preferences”. The preview should now show a paper in landscape with the first document page on the right side. If the preview has the wrong orientation of the paper, go back to the printer properties and change the orientation there.
If your printer is not able to print duplex, you need to change the setting “Page sides” in the tab “Page Layout” from include “All pages” to “Front sides” for printing page 1 (which is document 4 and 1), and to “Back sides” for printing page 2 (which is document 2 and 3). You might need a second try, because you feed your paper wrong for the back side.
Tip: If you have got it right, write a note and pin it onto your printer 
Note that Brochure printing in LibO Writer automatically “half-sizes”, so for printing a 8.5x11 (NA “Letter” size) folded in half, set up your four pages in full Letter size, and using the “brochure” printing facility, your end result will be 8.5 x 5.5 (and in rest-of-world, use 4 x A4 pages so that when folded in half, is a 4-page “booklet” at A5 on a single sheet of A4).
See step-by-step at link provided above.
I do not like that way, because you need to manually calculate the enlarging which is needed for font size, margins, spacing, and drawings.
Well, perhaps. 
I’m sure this is a matter of personal preference, though, and which workflow is “easiest” for individual users. The great thing is that there’s more than one good solution to this problem. (And in my experience, after the first “test print”, I know exactly how to set up documents for brochure printing, and I don’t have to mess with page sizes to do it: could even set up a “brochure” style/template - but that would be true for both solutions here, I think.)