paper

Save Paper, Ink with Free Software

jplatt — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:00:00 -0500

I first wrote about GreenPrint World -- a great computer program that helps you reduce the amount of paper and ink you use in your computer printer -- several months ago, but a little voice told me it was time to write about it again. And that voice was right. Because now, for the first time, GreenPrint World is available for Macs.

GreenPrint World is free for PC users (or $29 for a premium version that does not display advertising), and $29 for Mac users (you can also get a free 30-day trial). Each version of the program analyzes your print job, then lets you decide what elements to print and which ones to skip (say, photographs, or the legal disclaimers at the bottom of a web page). It keeps track of how many pages you don't print, allowing you to "track your impact" (how much paper you have used, or how much ink you have saved) and monitor your overall printing habits.

You can also use GreenPrint World to generate PDFs of any document, allowing you to keep a digital copy of a web page instead of printing it at all.

According to GreenPrint Technologies LLC, "GreenPrint saves the average user over $90 and 1,400 wasted pages per year and allows enterprises to quantify the ecological and cost-saving benefits that result from using the software."

There's one more new thing -- the GreenPrint EverGreen font, which has been designed to use less space and ink while not sacrificing readability. Says the company, "Compared with common fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman and Helvetica, EverGreen reduces paper use by 15-20%." The EverGreen font costs $10 and works for PCs or Macs.

Businesses looking to save money on their printing expenses can also purchase enterprise editions of the software.

What are you waiting for? Give it a try today!

Filing Right Away

flibertino — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:36:20 -0500

Filing Right Away Is The Right Way

Today's offices are extremely hectic and most people cannot seem to find the time to file on a regular basis. As difficult as it can be, we suggest filing right away. In other words, as soon as a paper crosses your desk and is ready for the file, put it there.
There are several reasons why this strategy is a good one, here are 5 of those reasons:

1) Prevent lost files and misfiles. The longer a document sits around on a desk, a shelf or anywhere else but in the file, the more chances it has of being misplaced, covered up, hidden or otherwise lost. Furthermore, if you let papers sit idle until you have a mountain of documents to put into the file, misfiles may occur.

2) Keep confidential information secure. Many files contain information that is not for everyones consumption, such as priority data about budgets as well as personal information about employees and customers. When such papers are allowed to sit instead of being filed immediately, the opportunity for information falling into the wrong hands is increased.
3) Raise productivity. If everything that is supposed to be in the file is there when co-workers access the file, less time will be wasted searching for documents in the file drawer. This will help make your department, perhaps your entire company, more efficient and more productive...which in turn will most likely make your job easier.

4) Avoid confusion. When papers are placed into the file immediately instead of allowed to sit idle, the chances of confusing documents are decreased substantially. In a file, instead of strewn about the office, each paper is neatly organized in its place, with a file heading that clearly identifies what the file contains.

5) Create a cleaner desktop. Rather than piling up on your desk and leaving you with two square inches of workspace, putting papers into the file right away means that you will have more room on your desktop and that can change your whole outlook every morning when you start your day!

If there is ever a folder / filing topic that you would like for me to write about
please send e-mail too custservice@americanfolder.com

Americanfolder.com

Paper Management

flibertino — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:34:02 -0500

Paper Management

Did you know that the average executive wastes 150 hours per year looking for documents? One in 20 documents is lost and never recovered. As an organizational consultant, the most common question I hear from clients is: How Do I Get My Papers Organized?

Id like to help you create a working system for your home or office. A basic filing method can be set up with3 easy steps: sort it, file it, or follow up on it.

1) Sort It. Before you can file a single piece of paper, you need to sort through the stacks. Get rid of anything that you havent used for the past year, except tax and business documents. This applies to business and personal papers, magazines, newsletters, business cards, and your Rolodex.

2) File It. 80% of what you file is never looked at again! This puts things into perspective, doesnt it? There are two basic file types: archives and current. Archive files contain legal and tax papers, while current files include receipts, warranties, instruction manuals, reference material, client information, etc.

3) Follow Up on It. There are several ways to keep track of projects you need to complete, or clients you need to contact at a later date. File Box: Purchase index cards with labeled dividers. You can use an alphabetical system, or write your own category name on the tab. Note important dates and projects on each card, then file. Accordion File Folder: Buy a 3-sided folder labeled A-Z or 1-30 for your desktop or cabinet. Place each document to be processed at a later date behind the corresponding numbered or lettered divider. Keep only the current month in the dividers, placing the distant dates in the back of the folder. At the beginning of each month, pull the papers for the current months attention to be filed. Repeat as necessary each month. Computerized Planner: The software is designed for use alone or with a companion notebook organizer. Some have an alarm or flagging feature, which automatically notifies you of upcoming projects and their due dates.

Now that youve established your paper management system, lets think about maintaining it. Just remember three easy rules: keep everything in its place, file as you go, and be consistent.

Mail order catalogs contain wonderful organizing products such as bill paying notebooks, greeting card files, budget managers and planning calendars. Discount stores or office supply stores offer magazine holders, hanging folder holders, milk crates, vertical file holders, wicker baskets, and stacking trays.

Use a tray or a folder to collect mail and process daily.
File business cards or update your database on a daily basis.
Post upcoming business and personal transactions in your planner or follow-up file, then file the documentation.
Keep receipts in a folder or envelope, then cross-reference with your itemized bills.
Purge files at least once a year.
Designate a time and place to process mail and record incoming bills.

Remember to only be as organized as you need to be. Tackle those stacks of paper ten or fifteen minutes at a time each day until you can finally see your desktop. I think youll be surprised at how much you get done in a short time.

Set up your files where they will actually be used, not where you think they belong. Once youve set up your working system, commit to maintaining it. And youll find that you have created more time to spend on the things that are really important.

If there is ever a folder / filing topic that you would like for me to write about
please send e-mail too custservice@americanfolder.com

Americanfolder.com

On the Trail of Missing Files

flibertino — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:31:04 -0500

Speedy Recovery of Missing Files
Uh oh, that original contract from your companys biggest customer is missing in action. Now what?

First, take a deep breath. Its in your office somewhere and running around half-crazed is no way to find it. Chances are very good its simply been misplaced, not lost.

To follow are 6 easy tips that will likely result in retrieving the missing document:

Start at your desktop. A desktop filled with stacks of records as well as many loose papers scattered around is a perfect hiding spot for a missing document. Carefully check under and around each pile and beneath each loose paper.
Go to your in/out box. Maybe you mistakenly placed the document in that tray on the corner of your desk, the tray thats normally reserved for ingoing and outgoing mail. Take a look, you might find it there.
Ask around. Finding a missing document could be as simple as inquiring among co-workers. As you well know, papers in a busy office are constantly circulating and it could be that your AWOL contract was routed to someone elses desk accidentally.
Visit the file cabinet. Lets say the contract is for Baxter Corporation. Possibly the document was inadvertently put into the file...either by you or a co-worker. Go to the file, check the B section. And, be sure to check surrounding sections...because in addition to being mistakenly placed in the file cabinet the document might also have been misfiled in the wrong section.
Check office machinery. Perhaps the document, without your knowledge, has been brought by a co-worker to a fax machine or to the copy machine. Take a look, you may just find it there.
Make a call to the mail room. Many companies employ mail-room workers who are continuously making the rounds throughout offices, delivering incoming mail as well as picking up outgoing mail. Maybe your document was mistakenly identified by a mail-room employee as outgoing and the document is sitting either in the mail cart or in the mail room itself.

If there is ever a folder / filing topic that you would like for me to write about
please send e-mail too custservice@americanfolder.com

Thank you for taking the time to ready my newsletter

Americanfolder.com

The Tickler File

flibertino — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:25:36 -0500

Creating a Tickler File

Anybody who files in a busy office knows that papers are constantly
coming across their desk, and if those papers are not organized on a
regular basis, messy piles can accumulate...resulting is misfiles, or
even worse, lost documents.

An easy and smart way to keep constant track of paperwork as it
mounts, particularly documents that relate to ongoing projects, is to
create whats called a tickler file. In addition to making it easy for
you to manage the continual stream of papers you have to deal with, a
tickler file helps simplify the process of determining what to save
and what to throw out by allowing you to temporarily store papers for
future use.

To set up your own tickler file, here's all you do: Just place a
hanging folder in your drawer with five interior folders inside the
hanging folder. Label each interior folder with a different day of the
week. As the week progresses, drop papers for review into the
respective interior folders and review at each days end. When Friday
rolls around, sort through the entire file for the whole weeks worth
of papers and you'll be able to easily decide what to save and what to
discard...or, what to transfer into a more permanent file.

Tickler files are perfect for projects that you work on over long
periods of time. Indeed, many projects tend to take on a life of their
own, accumulating mountains of papers some of which are not needed
right away. Its those papers that can clog up your days and weeks and
rob you of filing efficiency as well as productivity.

Using a tickler file can alleviate the challenges of paperwork
build-up, making your entire office and your life more organized every
day!

Thank you for allowing me to inform you on the many ways to file. We
at American Folder Company are experts in the manufacturing of custom
folder designs, That along with stock folders we carry can provide
your with many filing options.

If there is ever a folder / filing topic that you would like for me to write about
please send e-mail too custservice@americanfolder.com

Sincerely,

American Folder Company

flibertino — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:22:06 -0500

When you purchase from American Folder Company, you don't have to wait until there's a special sale. We offer "EVERYDAY LOW PRICES!" And we manufacture file folders on a per order basis so you'll never receive anything but fresh-off-the-line filing supplies.

American Folder Company lends itself to assure that your company will be provided with top quality filing supplies, lower prices, first class service and Free Shipping.

We invite you to browse through our web site and compare our prices with your existing suppliers...or any other supplier for that matter!

Should you should find a folder price that's lower, give us a call and we'll meet or beat the price
"GUARANTEED"!

AmericanFolder.com was created to add money to your bottom line.

Whether you're a small business owner or the purchasing director of a fortune 100 company, filing supplies can be a significant percent of operating costs.

The founders of AmericanFolder.com have been filing supply vendors since 1985. During that time, they have gained years of experience distributing products that help assist companies remain organized.

A cooperative effort between suppliers and AmericanFolder.com has allowed us to bring direct costs to you for all your filing needs. Our partners manufacture on a per order basis, thus allowing the consumer fresh merchandise on each and every order at substantial savings.

Benefit from 22 years of experience, a lean distribution network, and our manufacturing supplier partnerships, which results in savings passed on to you.

If you should have any questions please feel free to write or call anytime.

We all here at American Folder Company Thank you for the continued ongoing support of our family owned business since 1985, and we very much look forward to helping you and your company with all its filing supply needs.

Please visit us at AmericanFolder.com

Books vs. eBooks: Which Are Greener?

jplatt — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:39:56 -0400

Amazon.com has sold nearly 300,000 of its Kindle eBook readers since it introduced the device earlier this year. Rumors of a Kindle 2.0 release before year-end have been squashed, but that doesn't mean that the interest in electronic books is fading. If anything, it continues to grow and hit new markets.

But is an eBook really greener than a regular, paper book?

Let's examine some of the issues:

Books are printed on paper. Paper requires trees and extensive chemical processing. But paper can be recycled, and a paper book can be read more than once, by more than one person. The more times a book is read, the "greener" it becomes. (Libraries, gotta love 'em!)

Books are heavy. Paper weighs a lot, especially if we're talking about hardcover books, books printed on glossy paper (say, graphic novels), textbooks, etc. The more a book weighs, the more expensive (and less green) it is to deliver it to a retailer or to your mailbox.

eBooks need energy. Every time you read an electronic book, you need to use some electricity. This need will be minimized as electronic paper technologies improve, but no matter what, you can't search for, buy, deliver or read an eBook without the "e."

eBooks have no resale value. Once you've read a paper book, you can keep it, discard it or sell it. Some used books are barely worth 25 cents; others can become collectors' items and be worth a fair amount of change. Any time an object can be re-used or re-sold, it is greener than something that can not.

eBooks = eWaste. eBook reader technologies are still developing. Early adopters are going to end up trading in their devices for new ones, and that creates the possibility that the old devices will just create electronic waste.

What's the bottom line? It's still a decision that should be made by the individual reader. If you read books more than once, collect them, trade them, or just enjoy the feel of a paper book in your hand, traditional books are still the way to go. But if you read books once, don't want to worry about disposing of them, read a lot for business or school, and want to avoid shipping costs (include greenhouse gases), then an eBook reader might be the best thing ever.

Five Green-Tech Ways to Use Less Paper

jplatt — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0400

Are you using too much paper in your job? According to reduce.org, the average office worker uses a shocking 10,000 pages of per ever year. Averaged out to 200 work days, that's 50 sheets of paper every single day!

But don't worry, there are several easy things you can do -- both as an individual and on a company level -- to reduce that pile of paper, which will improve your environmental footprint and save money.

1. Work digitally -- You don't always need to print things out. Share documents electronically and try using collaborative software like Google Docs.

2. Print to PDF -- Think before you print. Do you really need a paper copy of that web page? Or will a saved digital file work better? I use a free program called PDF Creator that uses the "print" feature in any of my programs to generate a PDF of any document.

3. Go Green -- Have your company install the enterprise version of GreenPrint World. This program (which costs $70 per user on your site, with volume discounts available) examines every print job and lets you decide what elements to print and which ones to skip (say, photographs, or the legal disclaimers at the bottom of a web page). It keeps track of how many pages you don't print, allowing you to "track your impact" (how much paper you have used, or how much ink you have saved) and monitor your overall printing habits.

(By the way, individuals can download a free version of GreenPrint World, so you don't necessarily have to wait for your company to do this for you.)

4. Print on both sides -- Many printers can automatically handle duplex printing, and you should be able to change your print defaults (either individually or system-wide) to always print documents on both sides of a piece of paper.

5. Kill the fax -- Why is this technology still in use? Electronic documents are more flexible, easier to send and easier to read than faxes. If you absolutely have to send or receive faxes, use an online service to get rid of your fax machine. You'll use less paper and less energy in the process.

Give these tips a try and see how quickly you cut your paper use. Even a 50% reduction saves 5,000 sheets a year, so what do you have to lose?

The Benefits of Recycling: Let's Talk Trash

RiverWired.com — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Sure, recycling benefits the environment in a variety of ways- it uses fewer resources, reduces landfill waste, etc etc. We’ve all heard about the three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in case you live under a rock) a thousand times before. With that in mind, we’ve compiled this list of seven facts about recycling that you may not have heard before, in the hopes that this newfound information will invigorate you to take your own personal recycling initiatives to the next level (which, if you’re looking at this website, are probably already pretty stellar in the first place). Here goes:

1. To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down. If every American recycled just one tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.

2. A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf in as little as 60 days, creating a highly efficient closed recycling loop. If thrown away, aluminum cans will stay intact in can form for over 500 years.

3. Over the course of one year in the U.S., the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18 million homes.

4. Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.

5. Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles an hour (!), most of which are thrown away. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

6. Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that could have been composted.

7. On average, every American produces about 4.4 pounds of solid waste per day, amounting to almost a ton of trash per person, per year.

You already knew recycling was important. When you examine some of the statistics, however, the numbers are pretty staggering. So pack up your plastic bottles and head to a processing plant already. What are you waiting for?

Sources:

Recycling-Revolution.com

BuyRecycled.com

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

RiverWired.com — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

So as you probably know, cardboard, like all other types of paper products, is recyclable. At the same time, though, you’re probably saying to yourself, but cardboard is just so cumbersome to dispose of! Can’t I just put it in the dumpster behind my building and be done with it? The answer, my friends, is no, you cannot. Despite the fact that cardboard often comes in large, box-shaped forms that are not the most conveniently recycled refuse you’re likely to encounter, it’s still just as important to recycle it as it is anything else. That said, the following is a list of the benefits of recycling cardboard, in the hopes that you’ll think twice the next time you’re contemplating leaving your cardboard boxes on the curb in the middle of the night.

Economic Benefits: Since cardboard is bulky and takes up a lot of dumpster space, businesses and apartment complexes that generate large volumes of cardboard may rack up costly disposal fees for the extra volume the cardboard refuse creates. Recycling will not only eliminate those fees, it’ll also potentially generate a profit for businesses able to sell large amounts of collected cardboard.

Social Benefits: Corrugated cardboard boxes can be donated to charities for resuse, or to schools for creative/educational purposes.

Environmental Benefits: Recycling cardboard (like any other type of paper) reduces the demand for new paper from virgin pulp, thereby saving trees and decreasing the amount of pollution generated in new paper production. Finally, because cardboard is such bulky waste, recycling it saves significant amounts of space in landfills and reduces pollution in areas where trash is incinerated.

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

The Benefits of Recycling: Let’s Talk Trash

Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?