Q: In a file drawer, should the plastic tabs on the hanging folders be lined up in the far left lane alphabetically and front to back, or should they be staggered across from the left to the right, alphabetically?
A: Front to the back, even though they are easier to read when they are staggered. The reason you don’t stagger the tabs is because every time you add a new tab, you will have to move and adjust all of the other tabs.
Think about a file drawer looking at it from the front to the back. Here are the rules for tab placement:
• A to Z. Alphabetically going from the front to the back.
• Left to right. Tabs always start on the far-left lane going to the right with the general on the left and the more specific as you move to the right.
• When you have too much information in a hanging folder and you want to find the information quicker, you can break it down into hanging folders directly behind the hanging folder and a tab lane to the right.
• When you move a tab over, it is always one full tab (1/5 tab) to the right so that if all five tabs were spread out, each tab would be fully visible.
By the way, tabs go on the inside front of a hanging folder not the inside back. Doing it this way eliminates an extra wasted motion. The next time you are bored with nothing to do, try it.
© Greg Vetter 2019. All rights reserved.
#File tabs
