Download free 2015 diaries for your Pocket Filofax

2015 is on the way. If you're looking for diary pages for next year for the Filofax Pocket format, you might want to look at these layouts, which are free to download and print yourself at home.

Although you'll still find the source files on this site to produce your own diary sets for any year (or any shorter period) people seem to like the convenience of downloading full year sets. Here are Pocket sized sets for 2015. I've already posted A4 and A5 sets and Personal sets.

Day per page

Day per page minimalist:   Word file   PDF file

Day on two pages

Original day on two pages:   Word file   PDF file

Two days per page

Two days per page (unruled):   Word file   PDF file
Two days per page (ruled):   Word file   PDF file

Week on two pages

Week on two pages enhanced TM layout:   Word file   PDF file

Week on two pages CC-inspired layout:   Word file   PDF file

Month per page

Original month per page:  Word file   PDF file

Month on two pages

Original month on two pages:   Word file   PDF file

Each file is set up as an A4 document. Print this double-sided. If you have a duplex printer, set it to flip on the short edge. If you don't then you'll have to print odd-numbered pages and then refeed to print the even-numbered pages on the reverse. You might have to experiment to find out how to refeed the paper.

On one side of each sheet you'll find crop marks. Use a craft knife and a steel ruler to release the Pocket pages and punch them. The templates are set up with mirrored gutters to accommodate the holes.

If using the PDF be sure to set it to print at full size as explained here.

Download free 2015 diaries for your Filofax Personal

2015 is on the way. It will soon be time to set up your new diary pages. If that happens to be in Filofax Personal format, you might want to look at these layouts, which are free to download and print yourself at home.

Although you'll still find the source files on this site to produce your own diary sets for any year (or any shorter period) people seem to like the convenience of downloading full year sets. Here are Personal sized sets for 2015. I've already posted A4 and A5 sets and Pocket sets will follow.

Printing on A4 or Letter paper

Day per page

Original day per page:   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)
Day per page minimalist:   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)

Day on two pages

Original day on two pages:   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)

Two days per page

Two days per page (ruled):   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)
Two days per page (unruled):   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)

Week per page

Original week per page:   Word file   PDF file

Week on two pages

Week on two pages enhanced TM layout:   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)

Week on two pages CC-inspired layout:   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)
Week on two pages vertical layout:   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)
Week on two pages landscape layout:   Word file   PDF file     (Letter versions:    Word file    PDF file)

Month per page

Original month per page:  Word file   PDF file 

Month on two pages

Original month on two pages:   Word file   PDF file   

Year planner

Fold out (Z fold) year planner:   Word file   PDF file   

Each file is set up as an A4 document. Print this double-sided. If you have a duplex printer, set it to flip on the short edge. If you don't then you'll have to print odd-numbered pages and then refeed to print the even-numbered pages on the reverse. You might have to experiment to find out how to refeed the paper.

On one side of each sheet you'll find crop marks. Use a craft knife and a steel ruler to release the Personal pages and punch them. The templates are set up with mirrored gutters to accommodate the holes.

If using the PDF be sure to set it to print at full size as explained here.

Printing on Filofax Personal blank paper

If you have a printer that can print directly onto blank Filofax paper, you might prefer to download from the following selection. These are set up to print two-sided and you're likely to have to print even pages first, then restack in the printer tray to print the even pages.

Original day per page:   Word file   PDF file
Original week per page:   Word file   PDF file
Week on two pages CC layout:   Word file   PDF file
Week on two pages vertical layout:   Word file   PDF file
Original month per page:  Word file   PDF file
Month per page with notes:  Word file   PDF file
Original month on two pages:   Word file   PDF file
Month on two pages with notes:   Word file   PDF file

How to print in booklet mode

I get lots of questions about printing in booklet mode. Today, I’m giving this topic a post of its own.

What is booklet printing?

Booklet printing shrinks individual, large pages of content to the size where two will fit on a single sheet, placed sideways. A multi-page original document will be organised so that a stack of output sheets can simply be folded in half and bound into a booklet.

Note that this is different from merely printing two pages per sheet, which will place your shrunken pages side by side in normal order. Booklet printing by contrast reorders your pages. Take this example of a four page document:

As you can see, the single sheet has pages 4 and 1 on one side and 2 and 3 on the other, which only makes sense once the paper is folded:

Here is a more complex, six-page document:

How do I print in booklet mode?

There are a few methods:

1.     Using built-in printer functionality

Many printers have booklet printing as a setting, but you may have to root around in your print settings to find it. Here it is in the settings of my Brother printer:

Generally only duplex printers (those that print on both sides of the paper) will have this function.

2.     Using a third-party utility

Third-party utilities can print booklets for you. My own favourite is FinePrint, available from www.fineprint.com. You can download and try it for free but will need to pay $49.95 currently for a fully functional version.

Once you own a utility like this, you’ll find many uses for it beyond printing organiser pages.

3.     Using Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat has its own, built-in booklet mode. So if your document is already a PDF, great. Otherwise, start by saving it as a PDF if your software allows. If it doesn’t, download a free PDF converter like DoPDF at www.dopdf.com. Once you have your document in PDF format, simply print it directly from Acrobat with these settings:

What if I don’t have a duplex printer?

With a simplex printer (offering only single-sided printing) it will be more difficult – but not impossible.

A simplex printer won’t have a built-in booklet mode, so method 1 is out.

If you use FinePrint it will guide you through the process of single side printing, restacking and feeding, then reprinting the second side.

Without a third-party utility, you can still print booklets on a simplex printer. Here is how, step by step:

1. Open your document and save as a PDF or convert using a tool like DoPDF (see above).

2. Now open this PDF file in Adobe Acrobat (double-clicking the file should do this) and set up to print as a booklet:

3. Crucially, you need to show DoPDF as your printer. This will produce a new PDF file that is set up like a booklet.

4. Now open this new PDF file in Adobe Acrobat and set it to print odd pages only (NOT as a booklet this time!):

5. Restack and reload your printed sheets in the paper tray. You will need them oriented properly for your particular printer and there are several aspects to this:

• Unprinted side facing up or facing down
• Pages in numerical order or reverse numerical order
• Pages oriented leftwards or oriented rightwards

Some trial and error may be needed. Take notes as you go and keep them.

6. With the pages re-fed, print again, this time the even-numbered pages only

What if I use Letter paper, not A4?

Booklet mode will not work well for you. The proportions of A4 mean two sheets shrink to fit on one sideways sheet perfectly. Letter paper behaves differently.

Sadly, booklet mode is never going to work perfectly with Letter-sized documents. The good news is that virtually all printers are produced for global use and will happily use either A4 or Letter paper through adjustment of the paper tray sliders. And Amazon in the US will happily sell you some A4 paper:

Happy printing, everyone!

Bullet Journal pages for your Filofax

I have previouly made available a Bullet Journal insert for the Midori Traveler's Notebook. First described by Ryder Carroll at www.bulletjournal.com, the Bullet Journal is an effective system for organising the notes you make in your daily notebook.

Today I am offering for free Filofax inserts designed to make it easy to use Bullet Journalling in your personal size Filofax.

The main page provides a grid layout on which to record your items and their associated planning symbols. This page is double-sided and you should print a generous number when you start using the system. At the top of each page is a box for your to record the date or the special purpose of the page (e.g. monthly task list) and the page number if you are using an indexed numbering system.

Most of your work in the system will be done on these pages, but there are also two special pages. The first is an index page, which can make it easy for you to locate special purpose pages once your Bullet Journal starts getting filled up:

The second special purpose page is the layout and symbols guide:

This page provides a key to the standard symbols used in Bullet Journalling and gives space on the reverse side for you to set your own, custom symbols.

You can download these inserts as A4 documents or as Letter paper documents, in either Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Here all all the combinations:

    Main pages:
    Word A4 version   Word Letter version   PDF A4 version   PDF Letter version

    Index & key pages:
    Word A4 version   Word Letter version   PDF A4 version   PDF Letter version

Print the files double-sided. If you have a duplex printer, set it to flip on the short edge. If you don't then you'll have to print and then refeed to print on the reverse. You might have to experiment to find out how to refeed the paper.

On one side of each sheet you'll find crop marks. Use a craft knife and a steel ruler to release the Personal pages and punch them.

If using the PDF be sure to set it to print at full size as explained here.

How to start a notebook: curing notebook stage fright

Have a look at this:

This is the first page of a brand new notebook. Do you find it inviting? Do you want to start writing something in it straight away? Or do you find yourself unable quite to ruin the sanctity of the untouched book, worried that what you write won’t be good enough or that a mistake on the first page will ruin the entire book? If you fall into the latter camp, you’re experiencing what I call “notebook stage fright”. It’s why people sometimes have shelves filled with notebooks they cannot bring themselves to sully by using them. 

Well, here’s a way to get past that. On the first page, the perfect, blank page you’ve been so worried about ruining, write your notebook’s mission statement. It might look like this:

Draft your own version first on scrap paper if you like, before copying it into your notebook. Then you’ll find it a piece of cake to just get going because you’ll have broken the book in and given yourself and it permission to work together.