10 December 2009

Busy Times & Creating Personal Size Pages

You can be forgiven if you think all we are posting about this week is to help you spend money!! I guess like me the others are busy as well.

Last week I had a week in France and I'm not sure where this week has gone to, the days are whizzing by, anyway time to play catch up...

Creating Personal Size Filofax Pages.

As you will know it's easy to create A4/A5 size pages, it's the one reason I graduated to that size a few years ago.

However creating Personal sizes isn't quite so easy. So here is a quick guide. Create a new template in Word or OpenOffice Write and then make an A4 landscape page.

Add a 3 cell table in a single row, and size each cell to the size of a personal page which is 95 mm wide by 171 mm tall..Also make the borders as thin as possible and with a dotted line - - - - - you only need to use these lines as a guide to cut out your pages.

In each cell make the cell margins at least 18mm on the left and say 5 mm on the top, bottom and right hand side. I've found that you need a 18-20 mm left hand margin to allow for punching the holes.

Now you can either create your own details within the template, or resize some of mine to suit. Most of them follow a similar pattern though and shouldn't be difficult to modify to suit. I also use tables so they are easy to resize and then copy and paste in to the template.

Then all you need to do is print off the pages and trim the pages to size and punch them. You might need to experiment with your designs, but that is part of the fun in creating your own and they only cost pennies/cents.

Filofax actually sell computer paper in A4 size that is already perforated in Personal size, this is easier to use in some respects, but you just have to line up your template to print on this paper.






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8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the help! What about if you don't have access to A5 paper? It isn't very common in the US (that I know of)

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  2. Hi Amanda
    I use A4 and use booklet print which gives me 4 A5 pages on one sheet.

    You can get A4 paper here:

    http://empireimports.stores.yahoo.net/a4paper.html

    Otherwise, experiment with your ordinary Letter size paper, the templates should resize to that easily.

    Steve

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  3. I have to admit with my personal size Urban I do tend to buy the paper refills, not very econmic I know, but the vast majority of my writing it done in my A5 so I make my on refills for that.

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  4. Hi Amanda,

    The Filofax USA website sells 8 1/2 X 11 (US standard size) paper that is pre-punched/ perforated with Personal size sheets, so you can print your info directly onto the size of pages that your computer is formatted for, punch them out and put them right into your Filo.

    Here is the Personal size paper FiloUS website, scroll down and in the right column you'll see the computer paper.

    http://www.filofaxusa.com/store/paperessentials.asp?tn=1&control=processrequest&SizeId=3

    Hope this helps!

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  5. Thank you so much everyone! Philofaxers are the best :0)

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  6. I have to say that I'm not fond of the US perforated, pre-punched personal sized computer paper that Filofax sells. In theory it's good, but what I found is that if I set up a document on my computer it doesn't print evenly on the paper - something to do with where the margins need to be and how far away from the margins my printer will print. Using the Filofax paper, I created three text boxes, all the same size, to mirror the size and layout of the personal sized paper (three to one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper). When I print, everything is lined up perfectly on the first personal page, but the second page is a little off and the third is completely off, cutting off my text in some places. It could be how I'm setting it up or my printer, but it was too much work for me to keep playing around with it to make it worth my while. Plus, I'm such a perfectionist that if my pages weren't all equal as far as the margins then it doesn't work for me. Now what I do is use my own paper, create a text box the exact size I need it to be and cut it down to size after it's printed. (I can fit two to a page - not as good as the Filo paper in regards to keeping waste to a minimum but it works.) And because I have a punch, I don't need the pages to be pre-punched. I find that this works better for me. Plus, I don't spend as much money on the Filo paper.

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  7. I have made quite a few original pages using Excel on my computer. I make a template that I want and then when it prints out I add the holes to it, outside of what I have printed. I have yet to get a Filofax hole punch so I do a few pages at one hole at a time so it is a bit time consuming. I will try and post some pictures on Flickr.

    To get some note paper or scribble paper I use note books with lines that are either small like on Filo paper or slightly wider. Using a Filofax page as a template I line the page up using the front and top or bottom edge of the note paper as the 'good' sides of the page and trace the other edges using the Filo template. I then cut them out and punch holes in them, on the side that I have cut. I use this paper for my shopping lists or to work out my budget for the week. It doesn't matter if I write a bit messier on this paper as it will more than likely end up in the bin.

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  8. Great ideas, everybody!

    I've just printed some Personal project forms of my own design -- I made them gray on white, to match my City Dweller refill. I just set up a Word document with a custom page size of the Personal dimensions (3.75 x 6.75 inches). Then I print on individual blank white leaves.

    However, the leaves were too thin for my printer and kept jamming. Still, I ended up with almost 20 2-sided forms, which will hold me for a while. This packet of leaves was from 1997, and the paper is rather soft and thin. I've ordered some new paper (both the individual Personal blank leaves and the 3-per-page), and I believe the current paper is thicker and stiffer, so it won't jam.

    I'll post some pics of the form I created as soon as I can get to a scanner.

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