How to make Flashcards!

Over the years, I've had to rely on Flashcard MANY times!!!

As soon as I was done with my medical assisting course, I made a handful of flashcards to keep on me. I'm not in the clinic a lot so it's a nice refresher I can just pull out of my pocket when needed.

Last night I attend a really cool meeting for my coding certification. The topic was Diabetes and it was held by the local endocrinologist. We see a LOT of diabetics at the clinic I work at and it was full of information that I knew I could use. I soaked it ALLL up :). I took down two pages of notes but I wanted to make a flashcard to add to my stack that I take with me in the clinic.

Thankfully Microsoft Word makes it easy!!! 

1. Open a new Word Document.

2. Decide what size you need for your flashcards. Mine are 3x5. 

3. Under the "Page Layout" tab, you'll see "Size" option. Select that. 

 4. A drop down menu will show up and at the very bottom of that menu is the option "More Paper Sizes". Select that.

 5. The "Page Setup" box will pop up and you can chose your custom size. I changed mine to Width= 5 and Height= 3 so it would fit my card perfectly.

6. Hit okay once you've changed your width and height. Your page will now be much smaller

 7. Now that you have the correct size, you need to change the margins. The current margins are set as if your document was the regular size of paper. I like to change mine to as small as Word will let me so I can fit as much info on it as I can.

8. You'll need to go back under the "Page Layout" tab and chose "Margins".

9. Once you hit that tab, you'll see a drop down list appear. You'll need to hit "Custom Margins" at the very bottom of the list.

10. A Page Setup box will pop up and you'll need to change the Top, Left, Bottom, and Right settings. I changed mine to .1 on each of them. When I hit okay a warning popped up that it might not be in the printing area but because I print mine on 8x11 paper, it doesn't matter to me. If you are worried, you can change yours to .2. Hit okay once you've decided on your size.

11. Once you've changed the size of your document and the margins, you can begin typing. Here's what mine looked like once I was done:

12. I printed mine out at work. The printer likes to yell at me because I print it on regular 8x11 paper but I like it better that way. It helps me set it up on the flashcard how I like it. Also, these particular cards have lines on them, which I'm not a fan of, so I didn't want to directly print on it.

13. Once it's printed, I take a blank note card and trace around the area I want on the card. I like to do this because I can tweak it a little so I have room to add a hole punch later without cutting out words. 

14. Cut out on the inside of lines you traced. This was the lines don't show up on your card and also gives you some wiggle room on the card when you glue it on. 

15. One you have it cut, glue it to your card. It doesn't have to be exactly perfect- you can cut off any tiny overhang you have- if you want. I'm kind of particular with my cards and I want them all to match exactly or it drives me insane :)

16. Once you have both sides cut and glued onto the flashcard, you'll need to punch a hole. I have no idea what size mine is- I believe it's one I found at work years ago. 

17. Attach any size Book Ring. I got a pack of mine at the Dollar Tree. Doesn't have to be anything fancy. You can also use key rings too but these book rings are easier to open. My next goal is to laminate them... but I'll get there some day. I love laminating but usually I like to do a bunch at a time rather than just one single sheet. 

18. Tada!!! You made your very own flashcard!!!!