What is the best way to use Step and Repeat?

Question

I'm doing booklets, letterheads, business cards and more, with many that need to print on one sheet and then be trimmed in bindery.
The press is critical, and everything needs to be exactly placed or all the end result product will not be identical.
Here is one scenario that I'd like your comment on in order to get the best result.
I have a letterhead designed for standard letterhead size that will print 2-up on an 11x17 sheet. If I have the left hand side letterhead design elements in place and the correct distance from the gripper edge, how do I step those elements over, 8.5 inches to get the second letterhead in exactly the right position. My old way of doing this was to establish a center point and use guides to place the duplicate copy. I'm looking for a more 'mechanically accurate' way of letting Illustrator do the job right and faster than I can do it manually.
Thanks In Advance,
Ken

Answer 1

Piece of cake. Select your content and hit Enter - the Move dialog opens. Insert 8.5 in. in the Horizontal field and hit Copy. Set it up as an Action and invoke the whole thing from the keyboard.
If you don't want to copy, but just move it, hit OK instead of Copy.
If you want more than one copy, put the artwork in its own layer, target the layer, and use Effect - Distort & Transform - Transform. Insert a value for horizontal, and the number of copies, and hit OK. The advantage of this is that the copies are Effects - the copied objects are not really there (although they will be in a saved PDF) until flattened. Use a a template, and any changes to the original art will be reflected in the copies. New project? Just move the new artwork into the layer, and everything gets automatically copied.
If you want copies going vertically as well as horizontal, do the horizontal Transform Effect first, and with the art still selected, do a new Transform Effect, and put values in the Vertical field, and the number of copies.
Fun, heh?