a million monkeys typing

Some D*I*Y Planner Housekeeping

Posted March 31st, 2005 at 06:01pm

First, I want to thank the hundreds of people who have dropped me email in appreciation of the planner. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and knowing that so many of you are finding the package useful is all the motivation I need to keep working on this project.

That being said, I need to address a few things that keep coming up time and again.

I’ve had a couple dozen email wanting to know when I’m planning on releasing a letter-size version of the templates (as in 8.5″x11″). From the D*I*Y Planner Handbook:

7. Can you make some letter (or A4) versions?

Well, let me put this in perspective. There are over 50 templates currently included in this kit. To create a letter-size version, I would essentially have to redesign every template, since it’s not simply a matter of doing a quick scaling-up. New layouts would have to be imagined, new objects would have to be created, new base templates would have to be set up, a new set of guidelines would have to be written, each file would have to be worked on individually, and then each form would have to be tested, printed and tweaked multiple times. And so on. That’s a lot of work. Now, I’m not saying I’ll never create a letter-size kit, but given the fact that there is only one of me, it’s not very likely in the near future. I’ve had a couple of people volunteer for this task, but as far as I know, nothing concrete has yet been done.

I’m not trying to be mean here, but my time is very limited. I use an 5.5″x8.5″ planner, so that’s first off the assembly line. Next is A5, because it requires very few changes in the template layout. And that’s it for now. I did get one email back from a rather rude individual that reads:

That’s stupid. The whole world is using letter size paper. Why would you force everyone to buy that size planner. One of the studpidist things i’ve heard in a long while.

The email does downhill from there.

First, as my good friends across the pond can attest, not everyone is using letter-size paper. Second, I’m not forcing anyone to buy anything: that’s the point of giving this away for free. I’m not going to belabour these points, but they were worth mentioning.

Seeing a lot of people are sending me their problems without caring to read the “Printing How-To” section of the Handbook, I’ll summarise two points in particular here. Do not tell Acrobat to scale, center or auto-rotate the forms when printing. That way, the forms will print at the top left, which is generally where you put your 5.5″x8.5″ paper. Also, create a greyscale printing profile for when you do go to print, else your printer might mix colour inks to produce the grey tones (and you will go through a lot of ink). There are plenty of other things in the Handbook, so please take a few moments to skim through it if you are experiencing any problems before you mail me. If your issue isn’t addressed there, send it to me and it may make the next edition.

Finally, the A5 templates are pretty well ready, but I need some more volunteers who are willing to print out the forms and give me some feedback — preferably within a couple of days. As I mentioned earlier, I have to rely on testers to do this for me, as I have no access to A5 paper or planners. Any takers? If you are, please drop me an email (address is at the bottom of the menu at right).