How to print and put your planner together

Hi friend! I’m so excited that you’ve chosen to use The SOS Planner to get yourself organized! As you get ready to put this planner together, I want to share a few tips with you that I think might help. Let’s get started!


PAPER & PEN RECOMMENDATIONS:

You can see ALL my top recommendations in my Amazon shop, right here.


BINDING OPTIONS

  • SPIRAL BOUND: After printing, you can take your planner to an office supply store and have them bind it for you using a spiral coil. You can either laminate the front and back covers provided for you in the planner, or you can have the store add a clear plastic front cover and hard back cover. This usually runs around $4-6.
  • 3-RING BINDER: You can also keep your planner in a 3-ring binder like this one. The great thing about using a binder is that you always have the option of adding pages in! If using a binder, I recommend these dividers. 
  • DISCBOUND NOTEBOOK: This is my preferred choice of binding, because I love the ability to move pages around. If I need an extra notes page, or want to add in a collections page, it's VERY easy to do with a discbound notebook! You can find the covers, the discs, and the special hole punch you need for this system in my Amazon shop, right here.


FULL-SIZE PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS:

This document should be printed at 100% or less.

  • The Full Size SOS Planner is ready to print! It’s all in order, and all you have to do is set it to print. Here are a few tips...
  • To print at home, simply set your printer to it’s two-sided setting, and press print. If your printer doesn’t have a two-sided setting, simply print all the odd pages first, and then feed them back into the printer to print the even pages. (PLEASE do a test run on a few pages before you print everything! This is a large document!)
  • If you’re printing at an office supply store, simply send it in, as is, and ask them to print it two-sided. (This printing option will be much more costly. I highly recommend printing at home, or at a friend’s house!)
  • If you absolutely cannot print at home, but are looking for a more cost effective option, I recommend bestvaluecopy.com. Many of our planner girls have used this site & saved a bit of money on printing.
  • PLEASE do a test run on a few pages before you print everything! This is a large document! Pay special attention to your scale settings.


MID-SIZE PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS:

This document should be printed around 93%, depending on your printer.

  • The Mid Size SOS Planner is the trickiest planner to print and trim, but you can do it! Here are a few tips...
  • Set your printer to print at a scale of 93%, and try a few pages to make sure that you like the size. If not, play around with the scale. Every printer is a little different.
  • Once you’ve got your sizing set, you’ll want to set your printer to it’s two-sided setting, and press print. If your printer doesn’t have a two-sided setting, simply print all the odd pages first, and then feed them back into the printer to print the even pages. (PLEASE do a test run on a few pages before you print everything! This is a large document! You’ll want to make sure the the front and back line up - again, every planner is different. Most will do this, but if your planner does not, you might prefer using the full or half size planner.)
  • After printing, you’ll need to trim the pages. I recommend turning on your favorite TV show and grabbing your paper cutter. This will take about 20 minutes to do, hence the TV show. The planner is designed to measure 7.25“ x 9.75”, which means you’ll need to trim 3/4 of an inch off each side, and 1 inch off the top and bottom.
  • PLEASE do a test run by printing and trimming just a few pages before you print everything! This is a large document! Pay special attention to your scale settings and don’t be afraid to tweak the scale to get it to your perfect size. 


HALF-SIZE PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS:

This document should be printed around 100%, depending on your printer.

  • The half-size SOS is an A5 size planner. That means you have two options for printing.
  • If you would like to print it single-sided, simply adjust your printer layout to print 2 pages per sheet. You’ll need to cut each sheet of paper in half after printing, and then you can bind the planner as you see fit. (See below for binding options!)
  • If you would like to print the planner double-sided, you’ll need to cut your paper FIRST. Cut each sheet of 8.5x11 paper in half, and adjust your printer’s paper tray to the half-size (5.5x8.5) paper. Then, make sure the size of paper is also changed on your printer settings (you’ll want to select the A5 setting). After that, you can either print two-sided, or print the odd pages first, then flip those over (keeping the correct order in mind) and print the even pages.
  • PLEASE do a test run on a few pages before you print everything! Pay special attention to your scale settings. This document should be printed at 100% or less. 


Any questions about printing? You'll want to check out the printing thread right here in our SOS Planner Facebook Group. We've answered a lot of questions, and planners just like you have shared their best printing tips!

Complete and Continue