Conundrum

[nsivin@xxxxxxxx (Nathan Sivin)]

I have been bugged for some time by a problem that someone has no
doubt long since solved. I keep bibliography files in both XY4 and
XW. From time to time I print out the accumulated entries on heavy
8.5x11 paper, with margins set so that I can print each entry as a
separate 3x5 card, 4 to the sheet, and cut a pile of the sheets into
cards.

I have never figured out a way to do this job with one pass of each
sheet through the printer. I can of course set the paper size at ,
sheet and, with a page break between entries, print two at a time, one
above the other. But then I have to change the left margin to print
two more further to the right. I can invert the sheets for the second
two, but then cutting the sheets into cards becomes more complicated.

On WordPerfect 6.1, this is an extremely simple task. One sets the
page format to 8.5x11, *subdivides the page into quarters* using the
format menu, and prints in landscape format. The whole file prints
out, 4 to the page, as fast as the printer can extrude sheets. By
using a style, one need not do these settings manually. Is there a
way to do it that simply in XY? I can't find anything pertinent in
the manual.

--
Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-3325
(nsivin@xxxxxxxx)