No, printing is not supposed to be a nightmare. It is supposed to be amazingly easy. Even if you want to do something slightly irregular, like double-sided pages while with a landscape layout, printing at home has become an easy thing. So, why did it take me over an hour to get a document to print “correctly” only after I had completely reformatted it?
I have no idea.
The Nightmare Begins
I received a document to edit formatted for half-page size. Because I prefer to edit hard-copy, I went to print it out. My theory was that I could print two half-page sheets on one piece of paper. Well, Word and/or my printer did not agree. It didn’t help that I also wanted to print double sided, which apparently added a whole new level of confusion to the mix.
What I kept getting were four pages to a sheet without filling up the full piece of paper. As you might imagine, that was a bit difficult to read.
Pride Kicks In
I advertise myself as someone who will make Microsoft do my bidding. I have figured out more software out of stubbornness than anything else. So, when the published instructions didn’t work, I got a bit miffed.
My next thought was to take it to Acrobat. I have a full version, so I’m able to do more to a PDF than your average Joe.
Wouldn’t you know it? Adobe didn’t want to help me either. It wouldn’t print two pages to one sheet of paper; it wouldn’t let me manhandle the pages and force them two to a sheet; it WOULD print four pages in very small font on one sheet.
ARGH!
Killing the Nightmare
Because what I needed was readable copy on 8.5 x 11 paper, I gave up on “finesse” and went for my friend the sledgehammer by completely reformatting the document.
There was formatting work that needed doing anyway, so that eased my pride some. The problem was then putting my edits into the original half-page document to send back. Putting hand edits into a digital document is never a cake walk; the fact that my page numbers weren’t even close just made it that much more annoying.
Lessons Learned?
Not really. Since I never got the output I really wanted, I didn’t learn some new trick to manipulate Microsoft. I guess it’s good to confront one’s fallibility from time-to-time – but who really wants to do that?
– Lorrie Nicoles
