Comb binding is another option for books to give out. It's easily done at a copy shop or, if you buy a comb binder machine, at home. The big advantage with comb binding is that the books lie open flat easily, which is more important with genealogy materials than with some types of books. On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 7:44 PM, Lee Hoffman/KY <azchief@bellsouth.net> wrote: > At 9/23/2015 18:13, you wrote: > >> Some of the past discussions of how to ensure our work gets to future >> generations have included periodically running reports for EVERYONE in the >> database to PDF, which can either be printed and filed now and then or >> just >> stored as PDF. >> >> This is my strategy of choice, although I admit I haven't yet done it. >> However, I do something similar for manuscripts I'm working >> on--periodically save them to PDF with the date in the file name so that >> if >> I ever need to see what I had earlier, I can just open a file. >> > > In line with this, especially for those lines which I have declared > "closed" to further research (other than ancillary research), I have output > the data in book form. That is, I have generated journal reports to my > word processor with a table of contents, footnotes, endnotes, and index. I > often also generate various chart type reports that may also be included in > the final book. After final editing (to adjust the table of contents and > index to any other included reports), I print the result to a duplex > printer and bind the result -- sometimes in hard back and other times in > soft cover. Some of the chart type reports are printed separately and > then added separately in the appropriate places in the main text block. > This usually mean that these are charts printed on larger format paper and > after pasting in place are folded to the size of the main text block. > > Self binding is actually a lot easier than many might expect and is a lot > of fun. I can no print a 200 page book (50 sheets of paper) in booklets > form, fold it, press and glue it, add (by gluing) a heavy paper cover) and > be able to hand it to someone to read in just a couple of hours. A larger > book (say 800 pages) usually means that I will want to sew the pages > together (and usually use hard covers) and this takes a bit more time and > effort, but isn't hard -- though it can be a bit tedious. > > Most of the time, I print using standard letter sized paper. Printing in > booklet style means that four pages can be printed on one sheet of paper > which is then folded to make the booklet. When doing this, I usually > generate reports using a somewhat larger font size as the software scales > down the printing to fit the page. That is, a normal 8-1/2 x 11 > letter-size page would now be printed on a 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 half page. Using > normal font size would make the print fairly small and (for old eyes like > mine) a bit harder to read. > > Now, self-binding is not something one would want to do for more than a > few copies -- especially for the larger hard back books. But, for small > press runs of less than about 10 or 12, it isn't bad at all. > > The nice thing about the bound books is that you can give them to family > and thus preserve your research in this way. You can also do a few extra > copies and donate them to libraries, historical and genealogical societies, > etc. Thus, your research will > remain long after you are gone and won't just be thrown out. > > Lee > > -- Karla Huebner calypsospots AT gmail.com