Paper isn’t free and ink ain’t cheap so why print something before you know what it’s going to look like on the printed page? I wonder how many pieces of printer paper get thrown away straight from the printer’s output tray simply because the printer didn’t do what was expected. Hmmm.
There’s an easy fix for this – it’s called the Print Preview. Depending on your operating system (Win/Mac) or your application (Word, Internet Browser, Email), there’s almost always an option for viewing your print job before sending it to the printer. Check the File menu for ‘Print Preview’ in most apps. Mac users can choose the Print Command from any app, which will open the Print dialog box. A Preview button can be found along the bottom margin of this box.
I use Print Preview many times every single day and it’s a real paper saver. The biggest paper eater, in my opinion, is email. Often I’ll need to print an email message but left to its own devices, the sucker eats up 2-3 sheets of paper…and it was a short email! There are several reasons for this that vary from message to message but the most common culprit is when email providers tack on ads to the end of every exchange of a message which translates into printed paper later on. Avoid this by checking the Print Preview first and selecting only the page that contains the information you wanted on paper in the first place.
Make it a habit to check the Preview before hitting the Print button. Who knows, you may save a tree this year.
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“Tech Tuesday” is published every Tuesday. To reach Tracy with comments or questions, email her here.
