Best Results Organizing

Last week, we looked at a new kind of label tab for sorting and organizing with hanging folders. (Don’t forget, you’ve still got a few days to enter the Filertek contest!) Today, we’re looking at a variety of adhesive tabs for helping you sort, file, and label in style even when file folders are out of the picture.

POST-IT

For Post-it, it was a natural progression from squared-off and pinpoint tape flags (the kind that say “Sign Here”) to creating a full line of labeling tabs.

Post-it Durable Flat Filing Tabs are ideal for organizing individual papers within file folders, as well as marking sections in books or loosely collected but unbound documents. The flat filing tabs come in two styles — white but striped at the top to aid in color-coding, and full-color tabs.

In both styles, the portion below the labeled tab is clear, so that when you’re reviewing paperwork, there’s no need to move the tab to read what’s underneath. The flat tabs come in 1″ solid-color and striped for easy sorting, 2″ solid-color and striped for traditional filing, and 3″ solid-color tabs for more detailed filing and sorting jobs.

The flat tabs are re-positionable and made of extra-thick, heavy-duty material to stand up to repeated use. Both the solid-color tabs and striped tabs come in Red, Yellow, Light Green and Blue Green assortments.

Post-it Durable Angled Filing Tabs are specifically for vertical filing and come in 2″ solid-color and striped formats, in the same color schemes as the flat tabs.

 
These angled tabs are suitable for use with hanging folders or with individual pieces of paper when you’re not using file folders, such as with accordion files (as illustrated above). These tabs are also re-positionable and sturdy, and lean just slightly back from the user to make them easier to read.

[To speed the filing process, Post-it also makes Pre-Printed Tabs, with solid-color blocks labeled with the months of the year, days of the week, letters and numbers.]

Post-it Note-Taking Tabs combine the “Hey, here’s what you’re looking for!” quick efficiency of tabs with a solution for keeping notes associated with documents. With the flat and angled tabs, both the tab itself and the clear “body” portion are made of a slick writing surface. The Post-it Note-Taking Tabs just go one step further.

The extra-thick and sturdy Note-Taking tabs measure 3 3/8″ x 2 3/4″, offering up a nice-sized piece of real estate for the user to make notations regarding the page being marked. Make notes of mnemonics in your text book, substitutions for recipes in cookbooks, or specific language for arguing your point in a contract dispute, all the while keeping the original pristine.

You can position tabs anywhere — top, bottom, left or right — just flip the tab and orient yourself before writing. Affix your tab adjacent to the applicable section, and then leave yourself notes about the written material. Students can even use highlighter on the writing surface of the tab’s body, instead of directly on the page, so they’ll be able to sell the books back at the end of the semester.

The Note-Taking tabs come ten per pack in a variety of single-color (pink, aqua or yellow) and assorted color packages.

AVERY

Avery sometimes takes a back seat to Post-it in terms of “celebrity sticky” status, but Avery’s innovations really deserves some attention.

The Avery Small NoteTabs are perfect for traditional filing, and are much like the Post-it flat tabs, specifically designed for color-coding files, organizing documents, marking references in books and journals, and creating divided sections in notebooks. The tabs bear up under heavy use, allow you to write or highlight anywhere on the tab (or see-through writing areas), and are re-positionable without removing any ink from the printed page.

However, Avery’s tabs come in a slightly wider array of styles. The basic Small NoteTabs are 2 x 1 1/2″ notes and come in Primary (Red, Yellow, Cool Green and Cool Blue, with clear writing areas), Cool (Cool Blue and Cool Green with matching-color writing areas), Pastels (Blue and Yellow, with clear writing areas), all in packages of 40, and Taupe (white tabs with Taupe writing surfaces, as well as all-Taupe) in packages of 10.

Beyond the traditional form, Avery expands the tab definition with sets of 2″ x 1 1/2″ Rounded NoteTabs in various assorted colors,

including two sets of Neon (Yellow/Clear and Magenta/Clear or Blue/Clear and Magenta/Clear), and Citrus (Lemon/Clear, Green/Clear) in packs of 10.

For those needing a more expansive writing area, Avery makes 3″ Square NoteTabs (with 1/2″ tab surfaces), which work exactly like the Post-it Note-Taking tabs. However, unlike the slick tab surface of Post-it’s tabs, Avery’s have a paper tabbed surface, although the body is still a slick poly-style.

Some of the combinations seem standard, with a clear writing surface and a colorful tab in pastels or neons. However, the Cool Green and Taupe varieties have colored writing surfaces. Although writing surfaces purport to be see-through, one imagines that it might be hard to read the printed page, depending on the colors of the papers to which the tabs are affixed. Cool green on a dark page might be iffy.

In addition to these standard tabs, Avery has partnered with Martha Stewart, Doyenne of Domesticity, to create a special line of notes available only at Staples. The tabs come in two styles, the straight-top Classic and the curvier Flourish

 

and in three sizes (1″ x 1 1/2″, 2″ x 1 1/2″ and 3″ x 1 1/2″) in assorted packs of 24 or 40. The color assortments include Custom Blue, Custom Green, Dark Yellow, and Pastel Pink tabs, with clear extended writing surfaces.

Avery has two other intriguing products. The 3″ x 7 1/2″ Perforated Tabs, are positionable vertically or horizontally on the page, and can be adjusted to the size(s) you prefer (like when you’re reading narrower or shorter books). Much like adjustable-sized paper towels, you can tear off as little or as much as you like, and even reposition the detached, non-tabbed portions to affix notes on other sections of the reading material.

Finally, Avery PocketTabs bring together two disparate needs — the ability to mark your place and the opportunity to hold onto small resources.

The sturdy adhesive-backed tabs are re-positionable without lifting ink or damaging the underlying paper. The poly translucent pockets hold receipts, business cards, digital media, ID cards, and more, with a secure closure. The PocketTabs come in two sizes, square-ish 5 1/8″ x 6″ and half-page 5 1/8″ x 8 5/16″, in assorted Pastels, Neons and Taupes.

SEE JANE WORK

The big guys, Post-it and Avery, aren’t the only ones who know how to stick around and show off. See Jane Work carries a spiffy line of Sticky Tab Dividers from Semikolon in wide array of truly gorgeous colors. Create tabbed sections in journals, binders, cookbooks, and more, and keep your loose papers fashionably sorted.

Each set comes with approximately fifty 2″ x 3/4″ tabs in each of twelve colors, for 600 tabs per set. They’re designed for labeling — not note-taking — but what they lack in size, they make up for in dazzling color and the ability to snappily customize and accessorize.

No matter your tabbing style, there’s something to suit your needs, whether you’re a student, a professional, or a family filer. Happy tabbing, and don’t forget to enter the Filertek Contest!