Continuing the theme of using the right tool for the job, here’s my take on a tool that is everywhere: the trusty old stapler.
Most everyone uses the usual kind if stapler, either the small size 10 or the regular standard office model. The problem is, neither of these is any good for more than a few pages. Yet they are readily available and people use them, accepting the frequent frustration of misaligned, crooked or ineffective fastening for thicker jobs.
My recommendation: go and buy the two following units, which do a far better job on midsized print jobs. The first is a plier-stapler, a replacement for the standard office model. It uses the same staples, but its grip is far better, its alignment is perfect, and applying the required pressure for a perfect fastening is natural and effortless. No office or home should be without one of these.
The second may not be needed in every home, but if you create serious documents you should get one: a heavy duty stapler, one designed to grab – in the case of the one in the photo – 75 pages of paper with ease. Be sure to try before you buy, though – I’ve seen many poorly designed models that were almost useless. But a good make – I’m very happy with my Max model HD-3D, for one – will slice through those fat printouts and photocopy stacks like butter. That’s what you need!
April 2, 2010 — 11:39 pm
Actually, all staplers ARE created equal – equally obsolete. Printing in general is in most cases a mere waste of resources and nothing more. While a lot of electronic media is prepared in formats originally suited for printing, like word processor documents, or photo printing, new formats are coming up which are more effective as purely electronic documents, and more effective in general:
* Wiki pages
* Slide shows
* Online help files, replacing user manuals
It’s interesting to see, by the way, how we cling to archaic concepts like page numbers, headers and footers, when the electronic counterparts (e.g., links and window titles) are so much more useful.
(please do not print this reply, it’s a waste of trees 🙂
April 7, 2010 — 8:49 am
Nathan,
Quite right. However, since your advice is so good, I think you could add the following information: staple size and number of pages the staple can properly staple. I have the following list:
size 26/6; practically for 2-20.
size 9/8; officially for 5-50; practically for 15-30.
size 9/10; officially for 40-70.
size 9/12; officially for 60-90.
size 9/14; officially for 80-110.
Cheers,
Boaz
April 7, 2010 — 2:53 pm
Amitai, if there’s one thing that is not happening, despite all hopes, it is the “Paperless Office”. Evidently paper just works well for people; the only people who have really given up on it completely are on TV – the Star Trek spaceship Enterprise, for instance, is totally paper free (by decision of Gene Roddenberry, I heard).
I’ve long since given up on “Paperless” as a goal; instead I consider “Paper optimized”, where paper is only used where it makes sense, as a realistic vision.