Match-cards, revision-cards, flashcards… Yes, it’s easy to use the default Microsoft Word†, add boxed text etc and trim-out cards. But it’s not very tidy or economical and to be honest there’s an easier, tidier and more economical way.
Our old friend Microsoft Publisher*. If you have MS Office then it’s there. Often underused it’s a great tool of creating multiple odd sized cards, tags, stickers etc.
It’s easy to make the bespoke page size to fit on A4.
I given examples of this before, ‘Save Paper, Time & Money’ here.
So, we set one Publisher page at the desired size. You could have any size card, as long as it multiples into an A4 page.
Duplicate a master, and create your different pages (or mail-merge your data/text into a master). With Publisher we can then print this on A4 as a set (multiple pages per sheet) or as a stack of sets (multiple copies per sheet). These can be easily electronically guillotined and banded.
It’s versatile, can look great, and it saves time and paper**.
*Horror, Yes, Publisher! When I first was prompted to use publisher, because the situation didn’t warrant the cost of the more professional options, I was horrified. My preconceptions about Microsoft turned out to be a tad misplaced. It initially looks like you’re using a child’s toy. But get over it! It’s a very versatile tool for simple multiple-page publishing needs – you can create print-impositions for press that InDesign can’t do! Projects can even look qood, if you use design elements created in Photoshop and Illustrator etc.
Uneconomical unproductivity can be easily sorted – saving money, with zero paper wastage, more print per sheet, and easy guillotining and set sorting – and we can make it look good! In the long-term, planning economically and productively can save an institution £1000s
†Word is a word processing program. PowerPoint is for creating screen presentations.
Jules P Richards 