Index Tab Templates Made Easy

If you been through the process of trying to set up tab titles for printing pre-cut tabs on your laser printer and have become so frustrated that you given up, then this article is for you. The process is not a hard as it appears if you use the correct tools.

Blank, copyable tabs are now readily available over the internet and your local office supply store but effectively using these products takes patience to set up for your laser printer. First of all make sure that your laser printer can handle an oversized sheet. Common overall tab sizes are 9 inches x 11 inches, 8½ inches x 11½ inches and 9 inches x 14 inches for legal size. Standard desktop laser printers will not handle these sizes.

The most common tab cut is the 5 bank or 5 tabs per set. Each tab is 2 inches wide x 1/2 inch tall. By taking the total number of tabs (5) and multiplying by the width of the tab (2 inches), you can see that the total printing area is 10 inches. Add the inset of 1/2 inch on both sides and now we have a total of 11 inches, the standard length of all US letter size documents.

Using the above measurements, we can now make a table in our favorite graphics program. We have used Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. Whatever your comfortable with will work, just as long as the program has the ability to generate graphics tables. Graphics tables are a set of cells that have a consistent measurement across a given space. An example would be like a ladder on its side but in a program.

Set the table length to 10 inches, the table height to 1/2 inch, the number of cells to 5 for a 5 bank, 6 for a 6 bank and so forth. Set the x coordinate to ½ inch and the y coordinate to zero(0) inches. Set all the cells to align in the center, both horizontal and vertical and finally choose the type style and size of the tab titles you wish to print.

It may take you one or twos tries to get it right but all in all its not a difficult task. If the boss has you on a hundred different projects and you just don't have the time to set up tables for tab laser printing, then you can visit our site at The Tab Store and search on templates. You'll be able to download 3 through 20 bank templates already set up in Microsoft Publisher or Adobe PDF.