You have read and put into practice the instructions in my tutorial on how to write a book in Word and, now that you have finished the work on your new work, you think it is finally time to print it. Since, until now, you have always used the printing function of the popular Microsoft word processing program without paying too much attention to the layout of the documents, now that you are aiming to obtain a hard copy of the work that has cost you so much effort, you would like the quality final of the same corresponds to your expectations.
In short: you would need some advice and indications to obtain a perfectly legible paper document that is similar to the volumes you can buy in the bookstore, is that it? Very well then, if you want, I would be happy to help you once again by showing you in detail how to print a book with Word . I’ll tell you how to set the binding, margins, orientation, and other pagination settings.
c
Secondly, I will also show you the procedures for setting up booklet printing, the small booklets usually printed in A5 format. I assure you that by following my advice to the letter you will completely avoid the risk of wasting paper, ink and time. Having said that, I just have to wish you a good reading and a good job!
Index
- How to print a book with Word
- From computer
- From smartphones and tablets
- How do you print a booklet with Word
How to print a book with Word
In the next chapters we will see how to print a book with Word by first carrying out all the necessary procedures on a computer (Windows and macOS) and, secondly, on smartphones and tablets . Before moving on to the printing phase, be sure to put into practice all the information you find in the guide that I linked to you at the beginning. To obtain a perfectly legible paper version of a book written in Word, it is necessary to scrupulously check and set all the parameters relating to the layout of the document from the appropriate program panels. Find everything explained below.
From computer
To access the layout settings of the file you intend to print, simply open it with Word (on Windows , macOS or via browser ), click on the Layout item at the top. Then, click on the Margins icon you see at the top left and, from the menu that opens, choose the Custom Margins… item .
At this point, you can manually set the values in the boxes for the Top , Left , Bottom , Right and Binding items . These items refer to the position of the “empty” border that frames the text on each page. The word binding, on the other hand, refers to the space reserved for the binding that will hold the various sheets of the book together; it is, therefore, a kind of additional margin that you will have to consider.
My advice, if the publisher you intend to present the book to has not specified anything about it, is to set the margins to make them rather “narrow” to save paper; you could therefore consider using the parameters listed below.
- Top40 cm;
- Left27 cm;
- Less than40 cm;
- Right27 cm.
As for the Binding item , in the latter case I suggest you type a value equal to at least 1.50 cm (to replace the values, just click on the boxes that contain the latter, delete the figures you see and type those that you deem appropriate). Now click on the button next to the Multiple Pages item and, from here, click on the Book Format item (the latter is the most suitable format for printing your document, unfortunately, the option is not available on Word Online).
At this point, make sure the correct size is set for printing. The default is the A4 format , which is the standard used by the vast majority of printers for home use, whose dimensions are 21 cm for the short side and 29.7 cm for the long one. It is a decidedly “large” format and little used for the vast majority of books on the market, so consider whether to use a smaller format such as A5 .
To do this, click on the Dimensions tab at the top and choose the option you deem appropriate (depending on the dimensions shown for each format) from the list of items that is shown to you. As you may have noticed, in the screen where the document pages are displayed, the formatting has changed and the various images, graphics, diagrams and other similar content, if any, should have moved. Provide, therefore, to reposition them by dragging them with the mouse to the most appropriate points.
Then make sure that all the text is justified (so that it is distributed evenly in the final document). Therefore, press the key combination Ctrl + A on Windows and then the combination Ctrl + F ; while on Mac first use the combination cmd + a su and then press cmd + j on the keyboard.
Now set automatic hyphenation to avoid “wide lines” and then go to Layout> Hyphenation> Automatic . Also make sure you have set the appropriate value for the line spacing , that is the spacing between one line and the other of the text; then press on the Home item and, in the Paragraph section , click on the icon of two blue arrows with some black lines. Then choose the value you think is suitable (for an optimal visual rendering I suggest you choose the 1.15 option and not higher values).
In addition, scroll through the text and also correct any spelling errors that are reported to you with a red underline under the words (if you need other tips to make the shape of your text optimal, also consult my guide on how to layout in Word ).
Now you should be ready to print the book: to do this, click on the File item and then on the Print item (the layout options I’m about to tell you about, at the time of writing, are not available on the Web version of Word) . Now you will need to make sure that the two-sided printing option is set . In this case, on Windows , click on the button with the default setting Print on one side and select from the menu that appears Manual print on both sides .
The latter is the setting you have to choose if the printer you have at your disposal does not automatically turn the page during printing. By selecting this option you will have to change the direction of the sheets inserted in the paper compartment of your printer.
Basically, once printing starts, the front of all the sheets in the book will be printed. Subsequently, once this phase is completed, you will have to extract the block of printed sheets from the appropriate compartment, reinsert them in the same direction in the correct printing direction to print the back as well and start printing again (to carry out this operation correctly, help with the instructions or with the appropriate icon that you should find in the paper drawer in the printer).
Otherwise, if your printer supports auto flipping, in the previous step, instead of the Manual print on both sides option, choose the Print on both sides option to flip the pages on the short edge . Once you have gone through these preliminary steps and are sure that the document shown in the preview is exactly as you would like it to be, click the Print button .
To repeat these same steps on the macOS version of the program go to File> Print …> Copies and pages> Layout and, at this point, press the button next to the Duplex item and select the item Long-side binding and then on the item Print . Otherwise, if this button is grayed out, it means the feature is not available on your printer.
In this case, go to File> Print…> Copies and pages> Microsoft Word and, finally, click on the item Only odd pages and then on the Print button . Once the printing has been completed, repeat this last step by selecting the item Even pages only (I recommend: before starting printing, always check the document shown in the preview to be sure that it is perfectly in line with your needs; for more details, take a look at my tutorial where I explained how to print on both sides ).
How do you say? Have you started the print process but for some reason the pages coming out of the printer are different from how you set them up? In this case, check immediately what I have explained to you in my guide on how to cancel a print in progress .
From smartphones and tablets
L ‘ app for smartphones to Word (available for Android , even on devices without access to Google services , and iOS / iPadOS ) offers fewer options for page layout than the PC counterparts: just for that reason, if you plan to print a book and you have the opportunity, I do not recommend using it; or at least use the tablet application , which has an interface very similar to that of the program on a PC (if you intend, therefore, to print a book from a tablet, you can refer directly to the instructions in the previous chapter ).
In any case, to access the pagination settings on the aforementioned app, start it and select the document to print by pressing its name (you can find the file from the home page of the application by pressing on the Recent or Open items at the bottom) . Once the document is located and opened, press the pencil icon at the top.
At this point, press the ▼ icon on the right, on the text formatting toolbar, and tap on the Home item shown on the left. Then select the Layout item and then click on the Margins item ; at this point, you can press on the Narrow item or, if your editor has specified precise parameters, scroll down the list in front of you and press on the Custom Margins… item .
Now, in the boxes you see next to the items Top , Left , Right and Bottom you can type the values you prefer or those I recommended in the chapter on computer . Once you have finished changing the default values, go back to the previous menu by pressing the Size button (found in the Layout tab ) and choose an option from those listed.
At this point, press the Layout item , select the word Home and scroll down the list of buttons until you find the icon relating to the Justify function (the one with 5 lines of the same size placed one above the other) and make sure that is shown on a gray background and, if not, press on the same icon . Remaining in the Home tab , press on the Paragraph item and, pressing on the value placed under the Leading item : select the spacing that best suits your needs (I suggest you select the 1.15 option ).
Once these steps have been completed, you should be ready to print the document you have paginated; to do this, press the ⁝ button located at the top right, then scroll through the list of available options and choose the Print item . Then press on the item All printers … at the top and choose the printer you prefer (or leave the default one selected; if you cannot find yours, make sure that it is enabled for the Wi-Fi printing function and, possibly, read my tutorial on how to connect the phone to the printer ).
Now, to make the printer print on both sides and if the printer supports automatic page flip, press the None button under the heading With dual function and choose the Short Edge option . Finally, tap on the printer icon to start the printing process (check first, however, that the document appears paginated correctly in the print preview screen).
How do you print a booklet with Word
How do you say? Would you like to print a booklet in Word ? In this case, the instructions to follow are very similar to those I explained to you in the chapter on computer (in this case, I suggest you to act from the computer or tablet version of the program, taking into account that the browser version of Word and the smartphone apps do not have the print function for book format ).
Do you also want to know how to print an A5 booklet with Word ? No problem – go to Layout> Size> A5 . Once this is done, click on the Margins icon located in the Layout tab and select the Narrow option . Next, go to Layout> Margins> Custom Margins… and click on the button next to the Multiple Pages item , then selecting the Book Format option .
At this point, to proceed with printing and set the double-sided option, the instructions to follow are the same as I gave you previously . For other doubts about this procedure and to discover alternatives to Word for printing brochures, I refer you to my tutorial on how to print a booklet
