My partner talked me into a MacBook Pro last year as a replacement for a stolen Windows laptop. In Outlook, I have been able to print out double-sided, half-page, DayTimer-style calendar pages. I cut the sheets, three-hole punch them, and put them into my calendar. But when I try to do this from iCal, I can’t get it to work right. My partner spent days trying to prove me wrong to no avail (and he’s been a Mac addict for 25 years). Do you have a solution?
iCal can print out these half-size pages, but the functionality is a little hidden from plain view. From iCal’s Print dialog, select Day view and then choose the final paper size (in this case pick 5.5 x 8.5). Next, select your time range and the number of days that you want to print for the selected calendars. Finally, select the options that you want to print. Note that you may have to uncheck options in order to display all of the information on the selected paper size. When you are finished, click Continue.
Preview your document by selecting PDF > Open PDF in Preview to make sure the layout is correct before printing.
In the next dialog, click the Show Details button, and choose 2 from the Pages per Sheet drop-down menu. You can also turn on two-sided printing, and layout direction from this screen. Click Print and you’re all set.
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LutherSoft
January 09, 2012 at 12:58pm
There are two possible separate methods explained here as if they are one.
One option is to create a custom paper size of 5.5 x 8.5 and print to that, without selecting the 2 Pages per Sheet option at all. You can't display mini calendars with this method. You also can't define the custom page size from within iCal. If you go to another program, like TextEdit, you can select Page Setup from the File menu. Then go to manage custom page sizes and create your 5.5 x 8.5 sheet there. It's best to load actual 5.5 x 8.5 paper into your printer, as it will be able to duplex print and you won't have to cut it down later.
The other option is to print to 8.5 x 11 paper, and then choose the 2 Pages per Sheet option from the second print dialog box. This will reduce the size of the 8.5 x 11 page to fit two up on a sheet, but the result will give you a large top and bottom margin. This is because a 5.5 x 8.5 sheet isn't the same proportions as an 8.5 x 11. The image size printing an 8.5 x 11 sheet 2 per page is 5.5 x 7.12. But this method will give you all the details that exist on the 8.5 x 11 page. Duplex printing is impossible. Let's say you want to print 4 days, Monday - Thursday. Monday and Tuesday will print on the front of the first page. Wednesday and Thursday will print on the back. This puts Wednesday on the back of Tuesday, which is good, but it will put Thursday on the back of Monday, which makes no sense. The correct page order would be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday. This, when cut apart, will give you the correct page order when flipping pages in a book. Try that in the Print dialog box!
You can't mix those two methods. The paper size in the first iCal dialog box must be the size of the paper you are actually putting in the printer. You can't select 5.5 x 8.5 paper from iCal, and then put 8.5 x 11 paper in the printer, even if you select 2 Pages per Sheet. If you try, you will get end up 8.5 x 11 sheet with two 3.56 x 5.5 images on it.
There are also other problems with printing from iCal to planner pages in general. iCal will not print your To Do items (aka reminders), unless they have a due date. You also can't print weekly or monthly layouts that span over two planner pages.
Printing two 5.5 x 8.5 pages onto one 8.5 x 11 is not something that the Mac OS cannot do via the print dialog box. I wish it could, it would be very handy. To do this, you need pagination software, which can be expensive, or you can layout your own files in Word, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.
