Odd Even Printing with OS-X Tiger using free software

Question

I have solved the problem of printing large documents so that they come out double-sided, using a standard printer.
First, download the free text-to-pdf app:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/texttopdfconverterautomatoractio ns.html
When you run this app, you don't see much, but that's OK. The icon is on the bottom in the toolbar waiting to do its work.
Now, take the document you want to print double-sided (the app takes most docs, text, etc). If it's an HTML page, copy it, paste it in TextEdit and, if necessary, convert it to plain text.
Now drag the document over the Icon for "Text to PDF" in the tool bar and, Voila!, as they say, you now have a PDF copy of your original document. It will be in the same folder as the original. I use the desktop since it's convenient.
Now you can print the PDF document using Adobe reader which does have the option to print odd and even pages separately.
Print the odd pages, take out the stack and put them back into the printer feeder so that the backside of page 1 is next to print.
Now print the even pages, and if you have done everything right you have a perfect double-sided copy of your original document.
It's a lot easier to do than it seems by reading what I wrote, but once you do it, you see that it's actually quite trivial:
Run the text-pdf app
Drag your document over the icon in the tool bar
That's it.
If you need to get rid of pictures, images, etc., first copy the document into TextEdit, convert to plain text (maybe rtf will also work?) and then drag that doc over the icon.
Ahhhh, "I love it when a plan comes together" - - Hannibal Smith (RIP)

Answer 1

nerowolfe wrote:
Now you can print the PDF document using Adobe reader which does have the option to print odd and even pages separately.
Print the odd pages, take out the stack and put them back into the printer feeder so that the backside of page 1 is next to print.
Now print the even pages, and if you have done everything right you have a perfect double-sided copy of your original document.
You don't need to go to all that trouble. You can print odd or even pages from any document using the options available in any print window. Use the pop up menu "Copies & Pages" and look under "Paper Handling". You will see that you have a variety of choices on how to print your documents.
If the document is long enough to justify it, I will print the odd pages (reverse order depending on the printer). While those pages are printing, I will bring up the print window again. This time I will use the "Scheduler" menu item to place the job on Hold. Then I select to print the even number of pages. Click the Print button. The even numbered pages will be sent into the printer's queue. After the odd number of pages are done printing, I can reload the paper, highlight the job for the even numbered pages and tell it to Resume Printing. For longer jobs, I can be "done" with the document I want to print having sent both print jobs to the printer. I can do some other work while printing finishes.
Matt