outsmarted by a printer

In the process of trying to be eco-friendly (and compensate for my gas guzzling SUV), I attempted to use the advanced settings on our fancy shmancy printer at work to save paper. I had a 3 page document that I needed 10 copies of, and instead of just printing single sided, I thought I would print double sided. So, I selected “10 copies”, “2-sided” and “staple”. What I got was: all the pages double sided… with no break… so page 1 and 2 were on the first sheet of paper, then page 3 and page 1 on the next sheet of paper. WTF? And at the end, one giant staple! Grrr….

Try again… little bit different result, but still nothing I could use. So, after 2 tries printing, a variety of copying techniques, I finally ended up with what I wanted in the first place: a 3 page document on 2 pieces of paper – 10 copies. With a staple in each copy. Granted, the staples were not always in the right place, but they were there.

So, the moral of the story is that when you are printing to a machine that is larger than you are (I mean that literally… the thing is huge!), don’t try to save paper… you will use 90 pieces of paper trying to get your desired result of 20 pages. But, I did recycle my plastic soda bottle today, so I am even, right?

And the most frustrating part of all is that I AM tech savvy! Sigh…

So, if you see me out in a field with a humongo printer and a baseball bat, call Michael and Samir - I am sure they will be happy to join me. (cue: Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta)