Create Greeting Cards in Microsoft Word 2003

If you want to create something in Word that will just dazzle someone, try your hand at customized greeting cards. To set up Word to create a greeting card from a single sheet of standard letter-size paper, follow these steps:

1. Choose File --> Page Setup.

2. Click the Margins tab.

3. Select the Landscape option in the Orientation area.

4. Choose the 2 Pages per Sheet option from the Multiple Pages drop-down list.

This option tells Word to vertically split each page down the middle, creating (aha! — you guessed it) a greeting card.

5. Click OK.

Now your document is properly formatted. All that remains is for you to fill in the greeting card with text and maybe a few graphics. But there's a special way you need to do it!

The greeting card must be four pages long: two pages on the inside and two pages on the outside. (Only one sheet of paper is used, two "pages" per sheet.) Here's how the various pages shape up:

• Page 1 is the inside left-hand page. Usually, this page is left blank. So, in your document, you can press Ctrl+Enter to create a hard page break and leave that page blank.

• Page 2 is the inside right-hand page. This page is where you put your sappy message — maybe a graphic.

• Page 3 is the outside "back" cover. This page can be blank, or you can put at the bottom some tiny text boasting of your word-processing prowess or that the card would have cost $3.95 ($5.95 Canadian) had you bought it at a fancy greeting card store.

• Page 4 ends up being the cover for the greeting card. Put a graphic and/or flowery text here.

Got it? Don't worry, it all works out.

Fill in your greeting card accordingly.

To print the greeting card, you need to be tricky. Follow these steps:

1. Choose File --> Print.

2. Type 1-2 in the Pages box.

You want to print only pages 1 and 2 the first time.

3. Click OK.

Take the page out of the printer and put it back into the printer tray. Ensure that the page is in the printer tray upside down so that the next page prints on the backside. (This may take a few tries, so be patient.)

Now, print the backside:

1. Choose File --> Print.

2. Type 3-4 in the Pages box.

You want to print only pages 3 and 4 this time.

3. Click OK.

If everything goes well, you should be able to fold the paper down the middle and — voilà! — you have a greeting card.

• If you're into elaborate greeting card formatting, consider using section breaks to divide the greeting card and not just the hard page breaks you get by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

• Watch out for fancy, thick paper. It tends to jam most laser printers. (If your laser printer has a single-sheet feed and a pass-through slot out the back, printing on thick paper may work.) Greeting-card stock is difficult as all heck to get through an inkjet printer, too!