From the original Ubuntu bug report:

"
When you click file -> print onopenoffice, you get a small window with a
"collate" checkbox. Now, it's very nice that the little graphic changes when I
click or unclick "collate", unfortunately, it is ambiguous.

When the "collate" box is checked, it shows pages arranged like this:

3 3
2 2
1 1

When the collate box is unclecked, it shows this:

1 2 3
1 2 3

Now, which is which? Do I read from bottom to top then the next column,
or do I read across, row by row? The trouble is, the printer is going to produce
a stack of pages, and the printer's output won't look like *either* picture. It'll
look like this: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 or like this 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3.

Please make the graphic show what I will see in the printer's output tray.

Obviously, if you are sure what collate means, or (obviously) if you wrote the
code, it will seem obvious. However, I feel the need to get a dictionary because
the little pictures didn't help me. (Or, just print the darn thing twice and
don't worry about the "collate" button...)

Oh, and one more thing. The pictures don't help you decide what happens if you
are doing double-sided printing.
"