Printing out a dictionary or storybook
Before you can photocopy you need to make printouts of the documents from the computer. This should be straightforward, but some people, especially if they are not used to it, might experience some difficulties. Here some things that are nice to be aware of.
Document format: PDF (.pdf) or Word (.doc)?
We recommend using the PDF format if you are not making any changes to the document, such as changing the cover. A PDF document is locked, so even if you try you can't shift or change the the text. You need Acrobat reader to view these files, however.
Word documents are necessary if you want to change something in the document. Every computer should also be able to open this format.
Paper size
All the files are made for A4 paper, which is commonly used all over Africa, Europe etc. (but not common in America). Sometimes the printer is set to paper format "Letter" by default. If this is the case in your programme, you can (and have to) change this in "printer setup". This is the window you get when you click "print". In the window you get there there should be a a tab or button saying "properties" or something like that. Click on it, and make sure "paper size" is A4, not "Letter" or anything else.
Printing margins
With Word documents there is a small risk that your programme (Microsoft Word) changes the margins of the document. If this happens you will see that the text is not neatly in place, but shifted, so that a few lines come in the next page. Especially dictionaries with narrow margins sometimes suffer from this shifting. If this happens you need to go to menu: file>page setup. Adjust the printer margins ("top", "left", "right", "bottom") so that the content fits properly.
Some printers require larger margins than the dictionary files has, resulting in some of the text not being printed. Some printers also shift the text a little bit down on the page, so that when you photocopy and fold it, the pages will not be even. There is not much to do about this, other than printing from another printer. The best printers, and normally the cheapest to print from, are LaserJets.
Please contact the the project coordinator if you have any difficulties or want more information.