jsphweid said...
MBLAP. Whatever.

Anyone who makes booklets in Finale should check out and give feedback on this macro I created. It worked well in test runs.

Here's how it works:
If you have a bunch of parts, say even 15 parts in an orchestra or whatever and you've already figured out page turns and the likes, you can select all of those pdfs and run a few macros (using reputable 3rd party freeware/opensource) and:

1. automate booklet making for each selected file
2. separates the files into even and odd pages
3. merges all odds together and merges and REVERSES all evens together.

All in about 2 minutes. Yeah.

All you really have to do is put paper in, print the ODD (single sided 11x17, 12x18 or whatever), FLIP THE PAPERS CORRECTLY (the only part you HAVE to figure out), put them back in and print the EVEN (reversed) stack.

Like magic, all the parts will come out of the printer like you have some $5,000 machine that is duplexing 12x18.

CHECK THE VIDEO DEMO HERE:
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOoakBoOsmk



Here is the link to the Dropbox folder.
/www.dropbox.com/sh/2j0m0v8siwdeiey/AACmQA_BM-C2gbh7FTAxAtnfa?dl=0


It is 36MB or something because it includes those freeware programs that are dependencies. No install should be required. Just unzip to a folder and run the .exe (or the .ahk if you have Autohotkey). If you feel technically inclined, you can edit a few global variables (in bookletMacros v0.10.ahk) that control things like click speed/file naming. I should put it in an .ini like I do with my larger macro... maybe some day.

Ralph L. Bowers Jr. said...

Have not tried it yet.....just got done with your video.

I do want to say I appreciate your work here and with your GHIFF. It's people like you, Jari, Patterson, Tobias, and others that make Finale into a more efficient platform for all of us.

Thank you.

Harpsi said...
+1

I don't have a large format printer, but I will try this anyway. The principle should be the same with other paper formats, right? Or do I have to change something in the settings?

Motet said...
Very cool.

If you load the paper face up but it comes out face down, you need to reverse the even pages. But if it comes out the same way it's loaded (up or down) you don't.

Motet said...
If the 5200 is like the 5000, you can open the tray in the back and the pages will come out face up (I assume you're feeding the 12-inch paper in the manual feed tray). On the 5000, the manual-feed tray is loaded face up, while the "drawer" trays are loaded face down.

Note that if you're going face-up to face-up you print the odd pages first, but if you're going face-down to face-down you print the even pages first.

(But the back tray is not so good if you're doing multi-page documents one-sided.)

jsphweid said...


I haven't seen something back there. I am using the front. When I bought it, it said "no tray" which is probably why. It has the front feed, and one rack/track below (so 1 and 2). This works for me though. It's the easiest this way.

It goes face up to face down. I print the odd pages first and reverse the evens. It is all multi-page one sided.

jsphweid said...

So if it goes face up to face up it isn't reversed? And face down to face down, it also isn't reversed (but what varies is whether you should start with even or odd)?

Motet said...

You sure there's isn't a "gate" you can open in the back? This is useful for printing in heavy stock, where the paper has trouble bending. It goes straight through from the manual feed tray.


That's right. When the output pages are face up, then the pages come out in order but flipped over, since you're laying subsequent pages on top of each other. SBut since you're running the paper through twice for double-sided, that's OK--they flip back the second time. You want to wind up with the even sides face up, since the first page is on the bottom. So you start with odd.

Face down to face down, the pages come out in order, and you can just flip it over and put it back in the tray since it prints on the down side. But you want to wind up with page 1 on the bottom the second time, so you print the even pages first.

Face down to face up can't happen on my printer, but there you'd have to reverse either the odd or the even pages, I think.

jsphweid said...


I haven't seen something back there.

Wiggy said...

Yes, the 5200 has an output at the back of the printer, so you can do "flat" printing in one pass. Useful for thicker paper that won't go round corners easily!

jsphweid said...
Although one annoying thing about this paper is when I fold it, it kind of cracks on the fold, becomes a little flaky maybe. It's subtle.