Printing B6 Size Inserts

In previous posts about B6 organisers/inserts I have mentioned 'how easy' it is to print them from our existing set of inserts for A5 or A6 size inserts, what I failed to say was that you do need to add B6 as a page size to your printer set up or to Word to make the magic happen!

Hopefully I can correct that situation with this post. The route I'm going to take is to add the page size to Word. My screen shots are from Office 2016 for Mac, which is part of the Microsoft Office365 suite. However, I suspect it is similar in the Windows versions.

So on the Mac version you access the Page Set Up screen from the 'File' menu option.  And you will see your current setting as shown below.

Clicking on the up/down arrow on Paper Size you will see Manage Custom Sizes.. Click on that and up pops this box. As you can see here I have already set up a custom paper size for Filofax Personal size. To add B6 is just the same.

I click on the + sign and that adds a new option. Double click on the name and give it a name of B6. Then enter the paper size dimensions 125mm by 176mm. The 'Non-Printable Area' will be filled in automatically and the measurements are dependent on your own printer. 

Once you have entered the details click OK to finish.

You are now ready to print inserts on B6 size paper.

Open the inserts file in Word and when you are ready to print you will need to 'Scale to fit' and select the page size B6 and Word will scale the file to 59% or if on your printer set up set the scale size to 59%.

On some printers you will need to add a new paper size of B6, I can't go in to detail on this because the screens will look different in each case. However, in theory it should be possible to do assuming your printer can handle paper smaller than A5 (most can) via their Manual or Envelope feed.

Remember when printing like this that you can't double side print using the automatic duplexer, so you will be doing that manually.

So you will print All Odd numbered pages first. Re-stack the paper and then then print All Even numbered pages. It is best to set the print order to Normal rather than reverse or auto. So you know the order in which the pages will be printed.

I hope that helps. Please do leave a comment below if you need more information to help solve the mysteries of printing your own B6 inserts or any other sizes for that matter!

Other posts on B6 are here.