Printing GTD stuff from Circusponies NoteBook
Submitted by ladyinblack1964 on Wed, 2008-01-09 22:09.
Hi folks!
Just joined up today--glad to be here!
I am currently test-driving Circusponies' NoteBook, and would like to be able to print it to my classic size Covey, or better yet, to somehow use a template or create one so that I can print out my Next Actions list, punch holes in them and place them in my 5.5" x 8.5" binder.
I also want to print from iCal without having to purchase iPlanner.
So far the best thing I've been able to do is print at 60% of the actual size, with a 2" margin.
Anyone have any tips? Tricks? advice? I'd be grateful.
Thank you!
Sandra
Circusponies' NoteBook
Is the test-drive free ?
If so, I'll take a whack at it and see what I can do.
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)
Ygor, yes it's free for a
Ygor, yes it's free for a short trial period. Thanks so much!!!
iCal
What specifically are you trying to get out of iCal? Classic-sized pages? What format. I think that iCal may be able to do what you want. We just need more info--oh, and it may take some creating of custom page sizes in the Page Setup dialog, but we'll get you through this.
-Jon
iCal and Notebook
Basically, I want to print my own 5.5" x 8.5" (Classic) pages from both iCal and Circusponies' NoteBook 2.0 program. That includes calendar pages and pages that just have outlines, notes, next action lists etc. on them. Thanks!
Start with a custom page size
like Jon says.
Jon, both apps have a free trial period. I'm going to try them and see if I can get it to do what The Lady wants.
Lady, are you getting any results near what you want ?
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)
NoteBook printing success
Ygor, using Jon's guidelines, I just printed a NoteBook 2 page and it worked like a charm! Let me know if you check out the program and like it too. I'm thinking of buying it.
Cheers,
Sandra (ladyinblack1964)
Custom page size on the Mac
iCal, unfortunately, doesn't allow you to create custom page sizes (no Page Setup dialog), so you will need to do this in another program... TextEdit will do, as it's on your Mac for sure, but you could do it right here in your web browser, too.
Simply go to the File menu, and choose "Page Setup..."
Next, click on the popup menu next to "Paper Size".
At the bottom of that popup, you will see "Manage Custom Sizes..." Choose that.
In the window that opens, at the bottom of the list that shows up on the left side of the window, click the "+" sign. Give the thing a name. I called my "5.5x8.5" but you could also call it "Half-Letter" or whatever you want. ;-)
Next, in the dimensions on the top right, give it a width of "5.5in" and height of "8.5in".
The next part may seem a bit squiffy... margins. The simplest thing to do is to choose your printer from the popup list, and let Page Setup insert your printer's minimum margins. But once it does so, you can make the margings bigger if you want. I think I set mine to .5in all around.I noticed I have another custom page size, called A5-Circa, which has a slightly larger inner margin, so you can see some of the flexibility this gives.
Once done, "OK" out of everything, and go to iCal, and choose that from the page size!
Now, the downside of printing from iCal.
1. Week and month views print _only_ in horizontal format--very frustrating.
2. You have to pick and choose what to put on the page... For instance, I cannot show the mini months on my A5 format (A5 is like half-letter, but European).
3. You have no flexibility in formats to choose from. In the end, probably the best format is the list format--yuck!
I want to thank you for bringing iPlanner to my attention. I had no idea such an application existed! Shame about its price, though. :-)
-Jon
printing from iCal
Jon, I tried this just now...and got a beautifully printed 8.5" x 11" full size page. I can't seem to get it to accept the 5.5" x 8.5" dimensions.
I wonder if this is why iPlanner is being marketed. Somehow it seems there oughta be a better way!
Probably...
That is probably because I forgot to tell you the last step!
Once you have that page size, you need to go to iCal, choose "Print..." and in the Print window, choose that new custom size from the "Paper" popup menu. It should be right under where you choose to print either a day, week, month or list view. Once you choose the new custom size there, it should work. I just printed out a monthly on my printer.
Sorry for forgetting this last, most important step!
-Jon
No dice!
Jon, It won't accept the new custom size that I specified. it's telling me that the page is too small with a gigantic yellow triangle with an exclamation point (like I can't see it?!)
So I decided to remove some of the elements like the mini-calendars. That removed the yellow triangle, and I was able to print it. However, I would much have preferred to have the mini-calendars. Oh well...can't have everything, esp. for free, right?
Thank you, Jon!
The problem
Yeah, the problem with the smaller sizes is that all elements don't scale well. The mini calendars and color tags get in the way.
Oh!!!
I just remembered one other thing you can do!
Keep the full-sized US Letter, but then, in the layout part of the Print window, choose the 2-up layout.
On the main print page, make sure US Letter is selected. It might be wise, however, down below, to choose the "Big" font size.
Next, click "Continue".
In the regular Print dialog that pops up, click on the "Copy & Pages" popup, and choose "Layout".
Next, next to "Pages per sheet" choose "2".
If you want to be safe, choose "Preview" and see how it looks before you print. If you like it, print it.
Now, it is more awkward than printing directly on 1/2 letter, but this does get you everything you want. Let's see if this works for you.
-Jon
more success!
Jon, that worked very well. I'm just gonna tweak the margins a bit.
This is all rather funny--I'm really not "getting things done" as a result of fooling around with all this software and trying to find the right system. I don't like a big learning curve. I like NoteBook because it's well, like, a notebook and integrates well with a planner. My only complaint is that I have to cut and paste from one page to the other to keep a "next action" list and a "projects" list up to date. I'm linking cells to hopefully fix that, but that's a whole 'nother story.
thanks!
yet another option
Since you are using a Mac, you have a nifty tool at your disposal. It's a simple-to-use tool for creating booklets. You can use it with iCal to print two-sided booklets that you can either staple-bind or cut and punch to put into your Daytimer/Circa. This fascinating tool is called CocoaBooklet. You can find it here:
LINK
With CocoaBooklet, you just use your US Letter sized paper, a multiple of four months, and choose the CocoaBooklet option in the PDF menu of the Print dialog ("Make a Booklet"?), and let it rip!
When you first download it, launch it, and it will add the menu item to your PDF menu for you. Can't be simpler. Give it a whirl, and let us know if it works for you. :-)
Oh, one small "gotcha" with iCal. Before you make a booklet from a weekly or monthly calendar, you will need to go to CocoaBooklet's preferences, and set the page orientation to portrait (vertical), otherwise, your pages will look weird. ;-)
-Jon
Ponies and Journlers
I've been playing with the idea here and there of putting everything in the computer and then printing it out to put in my planner. Instant backup, I can carry my important info with me - there are multiple advantages to doing this. If I could just find a way of doing it that would work for me.
The best I've been able to get so far is an application called Journler I went as far as buying two licenses for it (one for a Christmas present for a friend who is a fellow Mac fan). If you can imagine something similar to iTunes for dumping all your info - text, documents, pdf files, images, etc, you've got a pretty close idea of what it's like. The version 2.5 series and earlier are all "donationware" - free for personal use, pay for commercial use. Next version is supposed to be shareware. 2.5.4 (currently in beta) is required if you want to use it on Leopard. I haven't really played much with the printing options, yet.
I've gone back to the trial version of Circus Ponies Notebook because Journler is very lacking in its support for todo lists. You can assign a due date to items, and set a flag called "checked" which I assume means done, but that's about it. Circus Ponies Notebook seems to do everything I'd want a planner program to do except for calendar functionality - and of course address book. Which the Address Book program handles quite nicely.
I've tried just about every journaling/note taking type app on the Mac I could find that had a free trial, and right now it looks like the best thing right now is Notebook if you want your software to look like a notebook or Journler if you want to just have a place to put all your stuff so you can find it later. I think I might just end up using a combination of Journler plus whatever todo list app seems best. Maybe iGTD? I just hope the upcoming version 2 has better support for printing that version 1 did.
-Kenny
iGTD v2-alpha
Did you see the alpha release of iGTD 2 ?
I think I will give that a looking at as well
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)
Task Listers
I use OmniFocus to keep track of my tasks. I don't print it out often, but it does print rather nicely. Of course there's always something like OmniOutliner or TaskPaper (part of the current MacHeist bundle) for a more list look.
I tried iPlanner -- interesting
It is mainly designed to print onto other forms -- like Franklin-Covey pages.
It includes a built-in form that kinda looks like ours.
It appears to drag the info directly out of iCal, making it of no use to non-Mac folks.
I am planning an interface to the Dynamic Templates that uses .ics files (iCalendar format)
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)