How to print one A4 page as two A5 pages in Microsoft Word
It’s a common problem: you have written your article, poster, flyer or handout on an A4 page in MS Word, and you suddenly think to yourself, “I could do with printing two of these per page at A5 size”.
Figure 1: Initial A4 Page
Now, Word has what looks like the perfect option; the ‘Pages per Sheet’ dropdown in the Print dialog box.
Figure 2: Print dialog with 2 pages selected
Trouble is, if you pick this option, what you get is this:
Figure 3: A5 page, but only one on A4
No problem, you think, I’ll just choose 2 copies in the print dialog. Unfortunately, what this gives you is two copies of Figure 3; you don’t get the two A5 copies side by side on one sheet, but instead you get two bits of A4 paper, with the same wasted space on the right.
At this point you probably bite the bullet and copy your A4 page onto another page, so your source document is now two pages long, page two being a duplicate of page one. This is less than ideal because any subsequent changes will have to be made to both pages, increasing the risk of errors creeping in, and also wasting valuable time.
Figure 4: Two separate A4 pages
There is a better way! My method uses just one A4 page, so any changes need only be made once. All you need to do, in the Print dialog box, is change the ‘Page Range’ from All to Pages: 1,1. Remember to keep ‘Pages per Sheet’ set to 2.
Figure 5: Print dialog with custom page range selected
VOILA! Your A4 page is now perfectly printed as 2 A5 pages, side by side on a single A4 sheet.
Figure 6: Two A5 copies on a single A4 sheet
253 Comments to How to print one A4 page as two A5 pages in Microsoft Word
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Thank you. That was a brilliant tip. Very simple but worked very well.
Ruth.
Thanks. Spent all morning trying to do this until I read your post!
So, why didn’t I see this before? Excellent advice that saved me so much time! Thank you!