Basic Tips to Save Paper and Ink:

• Before pressing print, check the default print settings to make sure they’re set to a double-sided option.
• Check the beginning and end pages of your documents for additional information that may not need to be printed out.
• Set print settings to multiple sheets per page for any file type; see quick links for Adobe Reader (PDFs) or Microsoft/Office apps.
• If blank pages print out of the machine, don’t throw them away! Save for scrap paper or leave them by the printer - CUMC IT staff will put any blank pages back into printer trays.
• Try to avoid printing out reams of slides whenever possible – study from the computer and/or print one copy to share in a group.
• Switch to fonts that don't use a lot of ink, such as Century Gothic, Times New Roman, or Calibri. Arial tends to use more ink when printing so avoid it when possible.
• Ask professors if it is possible to send/receive papers and comments electronically.

Cut Out Unneeded Space

Are you printing something that doesn't need to be formatted double-spaced with one inch margins? There are many ways to drastically reduce the number of pages you print:

• Word - Shrink text to fit allows you to adjust formatting on documents that have a few extra lines on the last page. Using this will change the document formatting slightly. If you don’t like the change simply press the Control and Z keys on your keyboard (Command and Z on a Mac) at the same time to undo the change.
• Excel - If you see ##### in a cell or column indicating that there isn't enough room to display the actual cell contents, just right-click over the individual cell or column header (Control-click on a Mac), select Format Cells, then the Alignment tab at the top and check off Shrink to Fitunder Text Control.
  If Excel is printing more of the spreadsheet than you need, simply highlight the group of cells you want to print, and select File - Print Area - Set Print Area. Your printout will only contain the cells selected as the Print Area.
• PowerPoint - To print text only from a PowerPoint presentation, select File - Print and change the option under the Settings option from Slides to Outline. If there are some images you would like to print as well, you can go back and print individual slides.
• Free web browser extensions such as Print Friendly for Chrome and Print Edit for Firefox let you remove unneeded parts of web pages before printing, or save as a PDF file to read electronically. As with any freeware, be sure to read reviews and information before installing to make sure they are compatible and that you know how it works.

Use Digital Annotation for Note Taking

• OneNote is a popular free-form information gathering and collaborative app included in CUIMC's Microsoft Office license.
• Adobe Reader – if the creator of the Adobe PDF document allowed for it, you can add your own comments, edits, highlights, sticky notes and shapes to the file. Simply use the Comment button to edit to your heart’s desire.
  Be sure to share this tip with anyone who creates Acrobat files that you’d like to put your own notes on, they can select Comments – Enable for Commenting in PDF within their advanced Adobe program to allow the feature.

See the Sustainable Columbia website for related tips and topics.