One of the sins mentioned in the poll is “recklessly use the printer.” That one hasn’t received any votes, yet I’m guessing we could all talk about our printer usage a bit.

I have a paper-few office.

What does that mean? I’ve heard the term paperless office tossed about a lot, but it’s an inaccurate title. Even “paperless” offices still send out paper bills sometimes. I wanted a more realistic term for my office.

My biggest paper saver has been the wonderful PDF.

Whenever I feel the urge to print something, about 98% of the time it’s possible to make a PDF instead and file it away on my desktop. I have a “PDFs of interest” folder with several subfolders. They include: writer’s guidelines, user agreements, recipes, press releases, order confirmations/receipts from online shopping, misc. reference, green topics, cat topics, jobs and more. I have other main folders with PDFs sprinkled in as well. For instance, I have PDFs of invoices in my freelance folder.

Most of the time I really don’t need to print that order confirmation for the coffee. But just in case, I make a PDF. I may or may not use that great cat article for reference, but I have a PDF saved just in case. See what I mean?

Another bonus of making PDFs instead of printing is that you don’t have a stack of paper to file away (and probably never use).

I’m on a Mac, but I don’t think making PDFs is much different for a PC. I just go to File, Print. Then drop down the PDF menu, and there’s my option to save as a PDF. Adobe is a popular software for reading and creating PDFs, but there are others — many of them free.

Do I print anything?

Yes, I print directions sometimes because I don’t want to make a mistake handwriting them, and I don’t have a GPS. Plus, I need all the help I can get in the directions category.

Also, I usually print a semi-final draft of articles or other longer writing to proofread. I was a professional proofreader for several years, yet I could never catch everything proofing online. It’s still that way for me. I’m not sure why that is since I can proofread my blog posts online. I never print those. Maybe it’s because articles are longer and I need to see them on paper to get a feel for moving things around.

I sometimes need to print contracts in order to sign them. But that’s it. My printer stays off for days at a time. I save some big bucks on ink cartridges. I don’t worry about backup either. I back everything up to an external hard drive. If my computer dies, I’m OK. If I have a fire, well… I need to keep a copy elsewhere I guess.

Do you have a system to avoid printing?

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Post from: Tree Hugging Family