I either do it manually or use Qimage (another endearing feature of that tool). I do prefer strips to smaller versions as most of my energy goes to certain areas of the image that I want to make sure print large well.
Qimage (from the PDF)
Test Strips - Before printing large prints and committing large amounts of paper, printing a small section of the large print can be helpful for the purpose of judging detail, sharpness, and color. There is a "Test strip" function on the full page editor that will allow you to create a small, proportional print that contains a piece of the larger print. From the main window in Qimage, start by adding the photo you wish to print at the desired final size (20x30 inches for example). Then click the "Full page editor" button below the preview page, select the print on the page, click the "Cropping" button on the right and the "Test strip" button will be visible under the small crop window. The test strip button can be used in any of the following ways:
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You may repeatedly click the test strip button to make your test strip progressively smaller until you have a size as small as you like.
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You may click the test strip button once and then change the size of the print manually using the sizing functions on the main window. Once the test strip button is clicked, that print remains a test strip which will conform to a piece of the original size print until you remove the print crop or manually move the crop zoom lever in the page editor. You could, for example, start with a 20x30 inch print, click the test strip button, and then choose a new size of 4x6. Since the print has been identified as a test strip, the 4x6 print will be a 4x6 portion of the 20x30 print! The area of the 20x30 print shown in the 4x6 can be adjusted by simply dragging the crop in the page editor or using the high precision cropping tool in the page editor.
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You may select a smaller paper size (4x6 for example) and add your large print to the queue, specifying that it is OK to create a poster larger than one page. Then simply click the test strip button in the page editor once and the test strip will automatically be resized to the size of your (smaller) paper. The crop can then be moved manually to any part of the print using the cropping tool in the page editor.
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Note that while left clicking on the test strip button will make the test strip smaller, right clicking or Ctrl-clicking on the test strip button will make the test strip larger.