09 October 2013

Week Per Page with Appointments and Tasks

Never a week goes by without us thinking about a new diary insert layout or adapting an existing one to our requirements. I'm always looking for improvements.

I recently bought a new bag from Filofax, in my haste to order it I hadn't fully appreciated how big it was. When it arrived I was trying various things in it to see what would fit. My small 10" screen netbook slips in easily, likewise my iPad and A5 Filofax... but so does my A4 Filofax.

I've had the A4 for a few years but not really used it a lot. But seeing it out on my desk again got me thinking, I wonder what sort of insert would work well in something this size.

All of our A5 inserts are in fact designed to A4 size and in the process of printing to A5 they are scaled down to fit A5. So printing them full size they fit A4 perfectly.

Looking at my current A5 set up, whilst it would look great on A4, it would be a bit of an over kill, having a week on two pages with task lists etc spread across two pages.

So instead I looked at a Week on One page and thought that might work better. So instead of using it as it is I divided the appointments column in to two to create appointments and tasks/to-do's.

Once I had merged the file I created a file to do about 4-5 months worth of pages and printed them off.

Straight away I could see an advantage to this, like my week on on page insert I use in my personal you have two weeks in view most of the time, obviously when you are on the right hand week you can't see the next week without turning the page.

So I've set up the A4 with a few weeks of this set up and I'm using it in parallel with my A5 just to see what issues there are with this format of insert.

I'm using the 5 lines per day variant and this is working quite nicely for me, I don't need more than that number of appointments in any one day. It gives me two morning slots lunch time, afternoon and evening or however I choose to divide them. Being a week per page it significantly reduces the number of pages in the insert as well.

The other advantage of course is I can use good quality A4 paper without having to worry about cutting it in half after printing it. Also I've been able to clip in printed off travel bookings in to the relevant weeks without any resizing of the pages.

Naturally there is the size issue, an A4 left open does take up considerably more desk space than an equivalent A5, so I'm not sure if this will be a permanent feature of my set up.

What it has taught me though is that this sort of prototyping and testing in A4 might benefit further developments and revisions of A5 inserts. You can see the errors and spot where adjustments are needed when printed full size.

So here is the insert I've been trying out:


You can download finished versions for this year from our diary inserts page.  

The source files are also available you will need to download the Word and Excel files to experiment yourself.

14 comments:

  1. Very interesting! On many occasions I've contemplated a proper desk bound organiser in A4. I still have a variety of Collins inserts that I purchased for such a project a few years ago. On the basis that this would be an organiser that stays in the office, there is a strong argument for forgetting portability and going for the size that is standard in just about every country around the globe (except Canada and the USA). No need to fold printed documents and no printing/ rescaling issues.

    If I was going to try this, I'm not sure I would use a Filofax binder though. The range of inserts is limited. I think I would use an Arc from Staples. (North American readers have arc in letter size). With the amount of paper generated in the office vastly reduced, an A4 Arc could act as an organiser/ planner and project management tool, all in one!

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  2. In a strange and bazaar way you have given me the solution

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    1. You have given me my solution to next years diary ...tracking...CPD and a lot more

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  3. Steve, this could be very useful to me. I often work at a busy reception desk and need to keep a VERY quick check on most important tasks and 'what's on'. I don't always have time to reach for my FF. I still often end up writing lists on A4 for quick reference. I was thinking of making a more workable template but now you've come up with this. Less likely to be thrown away as scrap too. Thank you! :)

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  4. I love this but can't fathom the printing. Just spent over an hour and all I have is a pile of scrap paper now. How do I print it A5 side and back to back? Also I need the page format to shift across slightly as the hole punch goes through the numbers. I can do it for the whole document, but then half the pages are right and half have moved the wrong way!. Can anyone help my frazzled brain?? :)

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  5. I really like the week-per-page format! I have a classic size Franklin binder (3 ring), and was wondering if anyone knows a way to print these at home on a printer that does NOT duplex...I have read the posts on printing without a duplex printer, but my problem is that the printed page I need is closest to the A5, which is 5.5 x 8.5. The source files for 2014 show each page as 8.5 x 11, so I am MAJORLY confused on how to print what I need without wasting paper and making my head explode. Please help!

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    1. I can try to rejig the file for Letter Size or 5.5x8.5 but it might be a few days.

      Otherwise get your paper cut to A5 size then scale the page set up to 70% and that will then work.
      Steve

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  6. This post will explain things in detail too as to what you are doing with booklet print and printing any of our inserts: http://philofaxy.blogspot.com/2013/06/printing-your-own-diary-inserts.html
    Steve

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    1. Thank you. I read the posts you suggested. I used the 2013 PDF, and tried to print the pertinent pages for October as a trial. (paper is US letter size) I used the Booklet printing option with appropriate settings, and did the odd pages first, turned printed pages over, then re-fed to print even pages only. I still had some problems, and I think they are related to printing a subset of pages from the PDF. Maybe I am wrong....I'll try again later.

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    2. The 2013 sets are not set up to print on Letter size paper, that is where the issue is. We have done or rather Ray has done some inserts for Letter size but not the A5 equivalent ones. The page size proportions are different so that's what they won't work.

      You can buy A4 paper in the US, or have paper cut to A5 210mm by 148 mm

      Then print the pages in their true size

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  7. Hi Steve, Were you able to rejig the 2013 Week Per Page for letter-size paper? I was checking on the site and wasn't sure where to look for the changed files....
    Thanks!

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