© Adlib Information Systems, 2013
Adlib FAQ
What is the best way to view and print Adlib manuals?
Adlib manuals are Microsoft Word (97-2003) documents with a layout
for double-sided printing on A5 paper. When viewing these documents
on the screen, it might be the case that the presentation is not very
good: there are all sorts of strange characters and codes in the text, that
the end user doesn’t need to see, such as hard en soft returns, spaces,
red underlining, and index codes. And for printing, A5 paper might not
be available, so it may seem like printing such a manual must be
problematic.
However, with a few simple settings you can optimise presentation and
printing well.
The FAQ you are reading now is such an A5 document, so you can use
it to test the following instructions.
Note that the mentioned options are options in Word 2000 or Word
2010, and might be called differently in other versions of Word and/or
can be found in different places than indicated here.
Viewing a manual on screen
An Adlib manual that is stored on your hard disk, can be opened in
Word by e.g. double-clicking the document in Windows Explorer, or first
open Word and then search for the desired document via File > Open.
Layout views
Word has different layout views. The best looking layout view is the Print
Layout View. The manual has probably been opened in this view. You
can check this in the lower left corner of the Word 2000 window (see
image on the left, below). The third button from the left has to have been
selected. If this is not yet the case, click that button.
In Word 2010 (see image on the right), these buttons are located on the
right side of the status bar and Print Layout is the button on the left.
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Hiding codes and strange characters
If you see unusual characters and codes in the print layout view, like in
the image beneath, then click the Show/Hide button to make all those
codes invisible.
Zooming
Next to the Show/Hide button in Word 2000 you’ll also see the zoom
percentage on which the document is displayed. If you would like to
display all text bigger in the screen, then enlarge the percentage as
desired. Of course you can also use this option to zoom out.
In Word 2010, the zoom percentage is displayed in the far right of the
status bar and can be changed via a little scroll bar.
Hide red underlining
Now, there still may be red underlining in the text. Word uses this to
indicate words that do not appear in its word list (not necessarily spelling
errors). In Adlib manuals there are quite a number of such words, so it’s
more pleasant reading when this underlining is turned off. In Word 2000,
choose Tools > Options and open the tab Spelling & Grammar. Mark
the Hide spelling errors in this document option.
In Word 2010, open the File menu, click Options, select Proofing and
mark the Hide spelling errors in this document only option (if that hasn’t
been done yet).
Optimal display
The Adlib manual should now be displayed nicely, without any strange
characters and codes.
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Printing a manual
Our manuals are laid out for A5 paper (half an A4) and double-sided
printing. The latter means that Word automatically mirrors the left and
right margins on odd and even pages.
From Word you can easily print such a document in different ways.
Double-sided printing
In Word 2000, choose File > Print and click the Properties button to
check if double-sided printing has been set for the current printer. It
depends on your printer which options are available here. See your
printer manual for more information. Also select the desired paper tray.
In Word 2010 you don’t need to open the printer properties to check for
double-sided printing. Next to the print preview (File > Print) you can
already see some often used settings, amongst which the setting for
single-sided/double-sided printing. For more advanced options, like the
selection of the paper tray, do click the underlined Printer properties link.
Not all printers can automatically print double-sided.
Single-sided printing
If your printer doesn’t support double-sided printing, it’s inconvenient
that margins are mirrored on every other page, like in this FAQ. In Word
2000 you switch mirroring off as follows:
1. Choose File > Page Setup.
2. Deselect the Mirror margins option, and make sure the Apply to
option is set to Whole document.
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3. Add the Gutter value to the Left value, and then set the Gutter to 0.
So when Left is 1.5 cm and the Gutter is 1 cm, then Left should
become 2.5 cm and the Gutter 0.
4. Click OK to apply the changes.
5. Now save the document with Ctrl+S. Single-sided printing can
now be done properly.
In Word 2010 you switch mirroring off as follows:
1. Choose File > Print > Page Setup.
2. Deselect the Mirror margins option behind Multiple pages and
choose Normal instead. Also make sure the Apply to option is set to
Whole document.
3. Add the Gutter value to the Left value, and then set the Gutter to 0.
So when Left is 1.5 cm and the Gutter is 1 cm, then Left should
become 2.5 cm and the Gutter 0.
4. Click OK to apply the changes.
5. Now save the document with Ctrl+S. Single-sided printing can
now be done properly.
Printing on A5 paper
If you can get A5 paper, it is of course recommended to print on this
paper. If A5 paper isn’t available to you, you may consider buying A4
paper and ask a good print and copy shop to cut the stack in half,
resulting in two stacks of A5 paper.
Printing on A4 paper
An A5 document can be printed on A4 paper without problems. In Word
2000, the easiest way is to just choose File > Print and set the Scale to
paper size option to No scaling. Click OK to print it, and click Yes each
time Word notifies you that margins fall outside the printable area. The
printout looks fine on A4, only the lower 25% of the page is empty, but
that shouldn’t be an issue. You could use that space for making notes,
for example.
In Word 2010 you choose File > Print > Printer properties, after which
you select the Basic option in the Menu box on the Detailed settings tab
and then select A4 (instead of Same as original size) from the Print on
drop-down list at the bottom of the settings page.
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If in the Print window in Word 2000 you would choose to set the Scale to
paper size option to A4, or in Word 2010 the printer property Reduce/
Enlarge to Fit to print size (see image below), then Word literally
enlarges the original A5 page to fill an A4 with it: the font and the
images will become noticeably bigger. If that is not so bad at all, then
feel free to try out this option by printing this FAQ that way.
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It is not recommended to adjust the Page format or Paper/Document
size of the document itself from A5 to A4 in the Page Setup window or in
the Word 2010 printer Properties window. Because that means you
would have to check the whole document for unexpected page-breaks,
and that you would also have to update the index and the table of
contents yourself.
Problems with printing
In Word 2000, most problems with printing (like Word codes in the
printout) can be resolved by choosing File > Print, then clicking the
Options button in the Print window, and only marking the Background
printing and Drawing objects options in the following window, not the
other options. (If after these settings your printer prints documents in
reversed order, then also mark Reverse print order.)
In Word 2010 you would choose File > Options > Display, and only mark
the Printing options: Print drawings created in Word and Print background colors and images.
When your printer uses the wrong paper tray for printing this document,
experiment with the Default tray option (Word 2000) or the Input tray
option in the printer properties (Word 2010) to make the printer use the
right one. Choose File > Print and click the (Printer) Properties
link/button to check which paper tray is being used by the current
printer.
Messages during printing notifying you of margins falling outside of the
printable area may be ignored. Just click Yes each time such a
message appears.
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