Unless there is some sort of huge paper malfunction, there is but one way to staple papers together: 1 staple in the upper left-hand corner. The upper right-hand corner is wrong but acceptable as is upper middle.
Not acceptable: [ol][li]Half-way down the page, left hand margin.[]Three times down the left-hand margin, book-like. []Once half-way down the left hand margine and once half-way down the right hand margin.[]One quarter of the way in from any paper edge.[]Stapling together papers that have already been stapled together in some random pattern.Under penalty of paper cuts to the tips fo all your fingers and tongue-- never, ever, ever take the last page of a bunch of randomly stapled pages and staple that to the first page of a bunch of randomly staple pages.[/ol][/li]
I’m thinking of buying a ticket to Croyden, Pennsylvania and beating you about the head and chest with a Swingline, Ms. Mann. Why would you mail, to a place of business, papers stapled together in every fashion mentioned above EXCEPT upper right hand corner? I think it is because you want me to hunt you down. I have a staple gun and I know how to use it!
Sorry, but your “upper left corner” dictat (I presume you really didn’t mean “upper right”) can’t be universal.
Among other exceptions:
Tax forms. The 1040 explicitly instructs you to attach your W2s about half way down the left side.
Health insurance claims forms. (HICFAs) They don’t tell you where to attach things, but they specifically tell you NOT to staple anything to the upper left corner.
And let’s not get into the old argument on vertical vs. horizontal vs. 45 degree angled staples, shall we?
I did say upper left. Upper right and upper middle is wrong but acceptable. And I did not say it was universal, hence my comment about the paper malfunction.
That’s nice. I don’t work for the IRS and neither do most people who deal with stapled paper. If you are instructed to staple a paper a certain way, then do so by all means. If there are no instructions and there is no other mitigating circumstances, place your staple in the upper left hand corner. I mean it!
Presumably we won’t get into this argument because we all acknowledge that a 45-degree angle is the only proper position for a staple in a corner? :dubious:
Arggh!!! We had a woman like this in Purchasing at my old company. It would drive me bonkers when I had to disassemble one of her stapled everyfreakingareaincludingtheabsolutemiddle but the upper left corner packets. I made it a point to steal her stapler once or week or so.
Alright, unless it’s affecting readability (meaning, words are covered), I can’t see the big deal with 1 and 2 on your list. They’re still stapled together, they’re still readable, and still (presumably) in the right order. The rest are just boneheaded though–left and right hand margins? On the same bunch?
Book style is OK if the pages are printed double sided with sufficient margins. Stapling two sets of stapled notes together using just a few pages is evil and deserves paper cuts and lemon juice in my oppinion.
What is the consensus for stapling together more paper than a single staple can accomodate?
If you’ve got a big bunch to staple, get a proper, large, heavy duty stapler. If you have more than those babies can handle, get bulldog clips.
My peeve, and it’s nothing personal, guys, is lefties stapling so that the staple angles the wrong way, and is difficult for me (a rightie) to remove.
And don’t staple in the middle, either. I’m not as forgiving as Biggirl on that one. When I’m flipping through a bunch of stapled documents, I want them all attached at the same place. Staple in the upper left-hand corner unless you have a government dispensation not to.
featherlou wanders off, muttering about burning the place down.
JN: * The rest are just boneheaded though–left and right hand margins? On the same bunch?*
Yeah, how are you even supposed to read something stapled together in #3 style, halfway down both sides? Peek under the top half of the preceding pages and read to the middle, and then peek under the bottom half and read to the bottom?
I thought my students had exhibited every bizarre variety of techniques for fastening pages together that the known universe could provide, but I ain’t never seen shit like that. Thank heavens.
BtB:What is the consensus for stapling together more paper than a single staple can accomodate?
Don’t. Get a bigger stapler, a binder clip, a spiral binding, whatever. Those “tag team staples” where the first one fastens, say, pages 1 through 10 and the second fastens pages 7 through 15 are a giant pain in the fingertips.
Yes. And toilet paper goes on the holder with the loose end up and over.
Stapling is where I get into OCD territory. Unless the papers are exactly in line with one another, I have to remove the staple and redo. Staple must be at 45 degrees and equidistant from the edges.
(And SbS was right–you (inadvertantly) mentioned “upper right hand” in your last paragraph. Great thread title though )
Excuse me but toilet paper gets hung down the wall, not up over the top of the roll.
As for staples, I hate everyone in my department. Not one of the fuckers has any clue how to staple.
When I was a file clerk, I noticed that excessive staples actually take up more room in the file cabinet. So, I decided to remove all extra staples. Well, some 3 page orders had 10 or more staples, all in different positions. There was one fuckwad who would take a really big order, divide it into multiple portions and staple each portion. Then, the last page of one portion and the first page of the next portion would be stapled together! WHAT THE FUCK!!! That doesn’t even make any sense. The stupid bitch even had a heavy duty stapler on her desk. The same idiots would use crappy store brand staples that break in half when you try to remove them.
I actually stayed home sick on the day after I had a lot of filing to do because I hurt so badly that I couldn’t move my entire arm. I got to the point where I didn’t even want to remove the staples but my boss didn’t like messy files so I had to continue removing them. Now that I work in customer service, I only occasionally get pissed off at my coworkers.
I once asked KellyM to staple my resume. I was horrified when I got to the interview and the pages were not perfectly aligned. Now, I see it could have been worse.
My last company did not allow staples on any documents going to the upper execs. At first I thought it was just a quirk. As I got to know the heart of the business, I guessed the reason. The core business handled film back in the day. The film would travel around and finally be shipped to clients, often along with documents . A film with a scratch was no good, and represented a lot of lost revenue. I’ll bet the founder of the complany had lost enough money to staple scratches he never wanted to see one again.
So what about a staple in the correct corner but upside down so prongs go out the front and not back? Is that ok?
Wrong! My cat has mastered rolling down the front of the roll with his paw. Toilet paper placed this way leads to a pile of TP on the floor hanging from the last couple of glued on squares.
Exactly! My cat has not yet mastered rolling up the front of the roll with his paw. Toilet paper placed this way = no pile of toilet paper on the bathroom floor.
Nooooo! :eek: Over the top - why is that so difficult?
My boss makes me staple purchase orders in the upper right hand corner to make them easier to sort through because of the way they are filed. It feels woogy everytime I do it, but after 6 months I’ve managed to sufficiently adjust.
I also cannot stand for papers to not be aligned perfectly when I staple them. What kind of half-ass person bothers to staple two papers together when one is all wonky? Fuck, tap the papers on your desk once or twice, is it really that much trouble?
I can’t get into the remove all of the other staples first bit. If I have 8 different pieces of paper come in at 7 different times, I’m not going to go back through every one and remove every previous statement. One of the women - at another branch of my company - does that, and it’s a colossal waste of time. I understand and appreciate the order that it creates, but it’s annoying.
No.
At the last company I was with that had staple build-up issues (10 staples for 3 pages kinda thing) I wanted to establish a “take a staple, leave a staple” policy, but unfortunately I wasn’t running the place.
One time I comitted the mother of all stapling infringements.
I stapled the top left coners of pages 1 and 2 together, then the top right corners of pages 2 and 3, then the top left of 3 and 4, and so on. All the way through a 42 page document.
I was deliberately trying to be an asshole that time, if that’s a valid excuse.
)