Travel Journal insert for the Midori Traveler's Notebook to download and print

One of my more popular Filofax insert designs was the Travel Journal, which I produced in Filofax Personal Size and Filofax Pocket size.

The Midori Traveler's Notebook is, of course, a travel journal in its own right, but some users might like to use an insert with a little structure to help them plan and fully enjoy a trip. So I have produced a Travel Journal insert you can download and print.

Here is what you'll see when you open it up.

Then follows a two-page spread for each day of your trip.

The standard file contains 48 notebook pages, which gives you 23 of these day-spreads. You can cut and paste to increase this if you want, of just cut to reduce it.

The last page looks like this:

This is designed to work as a Midori Traveler's Notebook insert but will work equally well as a stand-alone booklet.

You can download the file and print it for yourself. The file prints double-sided on A4 paper in booklet mode. You can then bind the sheets into a cover and trim. This post will show you how.

Download the file here to get started.

Another handmade Traveler's Notebook

Recently, I made my own Midori-style Traveler's Notebook. Today I made another, this time from undyed vegetable-tanned leather.

Here they both are together.

Monthly diary for the Midori Traveler's Notebook to make at home

A reader requested this. It is an insert containing a month-to-view diary layout that you can print out and make at home.

This is designed to work as a Midori Traveler's Notebook insert but will work equally well as a stand-alone booklet.

You can download the 2013 set and print it for yourself. The file prints double-sided on A4 paper in booklet mode. You can then bind the sheets into a cover and trim. This post will show you how.

Download the file here to get started.

Which size of Filofax is best?

This is a frequent question with no single correct answer. Even if we put aside the choice of binder colour and model there are still fundamental choices to be made.

The largest size is the A4 Filofax. If you are planning to add your own content to your organiser this is the easiest size to accommodate you. At least in Europe, A4 paper is ubiquitous. It is almost certainly what emerges from your (European) printer when you click on the PRINT button.

Unlike all the other Filofax binders the A4 features standard rings and spacing. There are 4 rings and the configuration is exactly the same as a standard 4 ring binder you can buy in a stationery shop. That shop will also be able to sell you an inexpensive hole punch that is compatible with your Filofax.

The A4 binders are heavy and big. They work best when confined to a desk. Carrying one around with you everywhere is impractical, so these work best for people with sedentary jobs, or those who don’t get out much. For the rest of us, one of the smaller sizes is likely to be more convenient.

The A5 Filofax is one you see more frequently in business use than in social settings. The pages are half A4 size and in the same familiar proportion. A5 paper gives quite a generous space in most diary layouts, so take this into account. A week on 2 pages layout might be too cramped for you in Personal size, but ideal in A5. Overall this would save you considerable thickness in your diary section.

A5 is fairly easy to use if you want to print your own pages, but the 6 ring system means you’ll have to buy a special hole punch. A5s can be a little heavy, too. This size is not one you can practically carry everywhere in your hand, but kept in a bag or briefcase it is ideal.

If you are going to be writing more than just the occasional note this is a far more practical choice than the smaller sizes. Writing pages of meeting notes in the Personal size is much harder work than in the A5.

The next size down is the Personal Filofax. This was the only size at one time. If you owned a Filofax organiser it was one of these. Personal pages are a few millimetres wider than a credit card and about the height of three credit cards.

If you’re going to go with Personal size you have more of a ring size choice than with other sizes. The biggest rings in Personal size are 30mm. You can find these on the Cuban Zip, for example, and they will accommodate more pages than most A5s, albeit smaller ones. For me, the Personal size is the one you carry around in your hand. If you want to carry one around in your inside jacket pocket you can choose from the Slimline range and enjoy rings as small as 11mm, which are not going to be suitable for a page per day diary. But these binders are barely bigger than a full-length wallet, so are discreet and convenient if you always wear a jacket that will accommodate one. In between is the Compact, with medium-sized rings. Not as thick as a regular Personal, but accommodating more pages than the Slimline, these are fairly new. I think they will prove popular.

All Personals use a 6 ring layout so you’ll need a special hole punch if you make your own pages. Sadly, the spacings are not the same as in the A5, so it will need a second punch if you have both sizes. Another issue is that if you want to make your own pages you’ll find it hard to get paper in the right size except from Filofax, so you’ll probably want to print onto bigger, less expensive paper like A4 which you’ll then have to chop down.

The next size down is the Pocket Filofax, which is something of a misnomer – unless you have very commodious pockets. The page size is close to that in a Moleskine pocket notebook. The attraction of this size is its lightness and greater portability. Most of them can carry a good number of pages. Most are designed to double-up as a wallet as well. Six rings again, but with a different spacing once more.


Finally, we come to the Mini Filofax. I’m sure that the Mini is ideal for some people, but they are not people I know. All Filofax binders are wider and taller than the pages they contain, of course. For instance, Personal binders are about the same size as an A5 page. This extra size is for the rings, the pen loops and so on. In requiring the binder to be so small – and for those for whom this has any meaning we’re talking audio cassette-sized here – the page size has to be titchy to the point of unusability. There is only room enough for five rings and once you have punched the holes there is not much paper left. It would make a great stamp album if you are happy for each page only to bear a single stamp.

So there we are. Lots of choice. How do you decide which is right for you?

I think it comes down to the sort of life you live. If you do all your planning sitting at a desk, you will appreciate the space and convenience of the A4. If you want to take your planner home at weekends you’ll probably be glad you chose an A5. If you’re going to be using it more than occasionally on the go or in a social environment, Personal or Pocket might be your best bet for their easy portability. You need the right compromise between having paper big enough to organise your life on and a binder that is small enough and light enough to carry around everywhere with you.

On the other hand, if you have tiny pockets, minuscule writing or a very small stamp collection there’s a Mini with your name on it.

My handmade Traveler's Notebook

The Midori Traveler's Notebook is a design classic. But it is expensive. I wanted to see if I could make one myself. It turns out to be pretty easy.

I started with the leather. It's not easy to buy leather in the UK for some reason, but eBay came to my rescue. The type of leather you need is 2 to 3mm thick and you're clearly going to need a piece large enough to for the notebook cover. I found an eBay store specialising in leather and ... er ... related specialist interests. They had lots of pieces of leather. Here's what I went for. I bought a 'Large' piece, which measures approximately 30cm x 60cm, large enough for at least two full-size notebook covers and a few smaller, passport-size ones as well. The piece cost me £13.50 plus 99p postage. This was the single biggest expense.

I was delighted when the piece came that it had three straight, squared edges that needed no trimming at all. To measure the piece, I simply laid down my real notebook cover on the corner of the large piece and drew around it with a grease pencil. If you don't have a notebook cover to draw around, for a full-size cover you'll need to cut a piece that is 215mm x 255mm.

The next step is to set the fold. 3mm leather doesn't fold easily, but I found a great way to bend it to my will. I folded it in half to create a spine and laid the folded leather - kicking and screaming - between two pieces of wood that I then clamped together. I didn't tighten the clamps all the way, but enough to hold the fold in shape. An hour later, I released the leather and although it sprang open somewhat, I had an established fold that would become permanent with use.

Next, using a tiny leather punch and a hammer, I made 5 tiny holes in the leather along the spine. One was dead centre, then at each end I had one 5mm from the edge and another 20mm from the edge, like this:

Then, I used some thin elastic. With the notebook lying open in front of me, with the inside towards me, I threaded the elastic like this:

Pulling the loose ends tightly, I tied them together in a reef knot and trimmed the ends. Just like with the real thing, this is what will hold the main insert in place.

In the Midori Traveler's Notebook, the securing band comes out of a hole in the back cover, but I wanted mine to emerge from the spine. This is what the fifth hole is for. Getting the elastic both ways through that little hole is the trickiest part of the whole operation, but I worked out how to do it.

Pass some very thin thread through the eye of a thick needle - say an embroidery needle. Tie this thread into a loop with a knot as small and tight as you can manage. Now pass the elastic through this thread loop. You should have a rig that looks like this:

Pass the needle through the central hole from the inside to the outside and then cut the thin thread. This will leave you with a loop of elastic on the outside and loose ends of elastic on the inside, like this:

Tie off the ends, and you now have your closure loop. You are now done and will find your new notebook works just like the Midori Traveler's notebook. Here are some pictures of mine.

First of all, here is what the top of the spine looks like. You can see the two holes and the elastic threaded through them.

Next, here is the securing band emerging from the central hole in the spine:

And finally, a top view showing the cover loaded with three notebook inserts using the rubber band method:

This project is easy enough that I'd encourage anyone to have a go. The finished result is superb and will last a lifetime.

Make a slip cover for your Midori Traveler's Notebook insert

This one is just for fun. It's a slip cover you can make to store a spare or completed insert booklet.

It's really very easy to make. Begin with a file folder. It can be A4, foolscap, letter or legal size. Open it up flat so the central fold is horizontal, like this:

Next, use a ruler and carefully draw the lines illustrated below.

Cut along the red dotted lines, and score the green ones. Your piece, once cut out, should look like this:

Fold the bottom flap up. Glue the two side flaps and fold them over. It's best to do this while an insert is tucked inside, because this will give it the right, slightly three-dimensional shape.

It will now look like this - sealed on three edges and opening only at the top:

Now you can take a circular punch and make the semi-circular hole at the top edge - front and back - to provide a finger-indent.

The insert will sit fully enclosed by the slip cover except in this indent, where you can grip it with your fingers and pull it out.

Filofax Pocket monthly diaries for free download

Another request today. This time it is month views in Pocket size. You have a choice of one month per page or one month per view (i.e. across two pages.

Month to view version

You can download this layout as a prepared set or you can download the source files to adapt the design for yourself.


Pre-prepared sets

You can download the 2013 month per page set as a Word file or as a PDF file.

You can download the 2013 month per view (pictured above) set as a Word file or as a PDF file.

Print these 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.


Source files

You can also roll your own using our source files. For month per page, you'll need this Word file and this Excel file.  For month per view size, you'll need this Word file and this Excel file.

If you want to know how to go about using the source files, this post will help you. If you look at the 'Free Diary Pages' link in the navigation bar above, you'll find some videos which explain the mail merge process for different generations of the Office application, too.