31 January 2012

Philofaxy Charity Donation - Thank You

Hi Everyone

It is always nice to receive a thank you letter, especially in relation to Philofaxy.

In today's post was a nice letter from MacMillan the cancer charity thanking us for the £175 donation which was made using the commission earned in the last 6 months from all your purchases made through the links on Philofaxy to Filofax UK, WH Smiths and a few other UK retailers.

Thank you for your support with this donation. Look out for further fund raising activities later in the year.

Free For All Tuesday No. 52

So here is our usual Tuesday point when you can ask any questions you need answering about your Filofax. Step forward and pop your questions in the comments and we will do our best collectively to answer your questions.

30 January 2012

How I use: Week on Two Page

With thanks to one of our readers for sending me this idea.

As we all know, we all benefit from picking up ideas from seeing and hearing how other people use their Filofax organisers in their daily lives.

You only need to look at our webstats to see the most popular posts tend to be ones describing in great detail the inner workings of their own individual Filofax, which might not contain fancy inserts or specially printed diaries, it's just their own way of using the standard off the shelf inserts.

So this week let's focus on people that use a 'Week on Two Page' diary insert or WO2P  to all Philofaxers!  We will cover other formats in later posts, so please be patient if you are a Day Per Page person or any of the other formats available.

So the Week on Two Page, a fairly standard diary insert... they are standard in most sizes, come with most new organisers, there are a few variations, some have appointment times, there are some slight variations, Sunday or Monday start. Some have reduced space for Saturdays and Sundays. Some available in cotton cream. Single language, multi language, non-English. So quite a variety in just this one format.

So if you are a WO2P person.... how do you use it? Tell us about your use of this format, include links to a Flickr photo if that helps. Include as much or as little detail as you like. Which version of the WO2P do you use... etc etc.

29 January 2012

Starting over

Do you ever start completely over with a new Filofax?

Normally when I move over into a new binder, I transfer long-term inserts, information, addresses, and accessories so that I don't have to re-write things that are still current.

But this time when I start my new Aston Filofax, it will be entirely new inside. My plan is to start using it when we move away from Indonesia (which will hopefully be this summer sometime). It will be my all-new Filofax, a fresh start in planning and in life.

I want to make a clean break from this chapter in my life and move forward fresh and new. So I'll have a new diary insert, rewrite my info and address pages, get new maps and even a new sticky notes accessory rather than just transfer over my old ones.

Especially long-time Filofax users, do you always transfer still-current things over from your old Filofax to your new one? Or do you sometimes make a clean break and start completely over with your new Filofax?

Date for your Filofax - Sunday 5 Febuary 2012


New York



London



Paris



Jakarta





We are going to run another conference round-table voice chat using Skype.

I'm sure we are gradually getting to know each other's voices, but I will make a point of going 'around the table' to get everyone to introduce themselves this time.

So...When, Where, What, Who and How?

When? - Sunday 5th February from 10am (US East Coast time), 3pm London time, 4 pm Paris time 9pm Jakarta etc.  See the clocks at the top of this post to see roughly what time you should be on line.

Where? - an on-line chat using Skype.

What do I need? - just a micro-phone and some head phones(in ear phones work fine) and a free Skype account. Using headphones reduces 'echo' on the call.

Who - All of you... connect up with Philofaxy and we will attempt to get as many of us linked in to the audio conference as possible.

How -
  1. Connect to Philofaxy by firstly searching for Philofaxy in Skype, I will then add you as a contact.
  2. Then  'Start Chat',  I will then add you in to the chat room. 
  3. Then if you request it, I can add you to the audio conference as well. But if you just want to chat via keyboard that's fine. That way it's slightly less hectic for me! 
Come and join in the fun, even if you only pop in to say hello...

As with previous round-tables there will also be a parallel text chat room going at the same time as the voice conference.

If you need any assistance setting up Skype, please pop a comment in this post and I will try and help you get one line. Skype is free for computer to computer calls....

Here is my post on how to improve your Skype audio with headphones or a headset.

Hope to be chatting with you on Sunday 5th February 2012.

28 January 2012

Filofax 2012 New Range - Part Two

Following on from part one. Here are the rest of the significant new additions to the range.

The next new addition is the Pennybridge, now this has been available in other markets before (Germany, Denmark etc) It comes in Pocket, Compact and A5 all are zipped in 'leather look' in black and purple. They range in prices of £29, £35 and £49. The A5 comes with an iPad pocket...


The Breast Cancer Campaign organiser, still in pink is now also available in Personal size as well as pocket.

Moving on to the Finsbury, as usual they have phased out colours and added new ones. This year we gain Blue and Yellow. The Finsbury will also be available in Compact size as well as Mini, Pocket, Personal, A5, A4 although the colour availability varies a little depending on the size of the Finsbury.


The Holborn will no longer be available in Zip format, but will be available in Compact format...and in Wine colour.

The Filofax Classic will be available in two new colours Sage and Lilac in Pocket and Compact sizes


The Osterley becomes available in Orange, bright and different!


And finally... the Purple Malden...











That's it for today... I will try and pick up on some of the other changes later. Once again thanks to Nina for her detailed report from Paperworld 2012

Filofax 2012 New Range - Part One

Special agent Nina has been at Frankfurt today going around Paperworld 2012. You can read her full report on her blog... but I thought I would share with you some pictures from her 'concealed camera'

So first up is the 'Petal' it will be in Pocket size only and will retail for about £15.


And those of you who will recall the discussions and posts we had about a Union Jack Filofax a few months ago, will be forgiven when you suggest that the idea has been taken and used by Filofax when you see this one... the 'Jack Vintage'.



It will be available in Pocket and Personal size for £17-20.


This next one is the Domino Mix again in Pocket and Personal sizes only it has textured exterior surface. It will sell for between £21 and 24.




The Swift is the replacement for the Songbird, and it is fabric covered and comes in Pocket and Personal sizes with a price of between £28 and £34






That's the news for today... more coming up tomorrow hopefully....

Web Finds - 28 January 2012

Another busy week for me, but I still had time to dig out these posts for your enjoyment.
Enjoy

27 January 2012

Filofax UK - Free Delivery

Filofax UK have announced Free Postage and Packing until the end of January. Click on the graphic below.


It's also the last week of their 50% off Sale. Grab them while you can....Pockets in Malden, Finchley and Deco's all at half price.

Free For All Friday - No. 167

So what changes have you made to your set up that you are finding that are working well for you? One of my success stories is moving my Blog Calendar to A5 size, it's a Google Calendar Month to a Page format printed on to A5 paper and punched.

It works great, it's tucked in to the end of my planner section and I flip to it when I'm planing and dating future posts. It originally started life on A4 size sheets but I downsized it to A5 and it's still working well. 

But as it's Friday feel free to discuss anything Filofax related.

26 January 2012

Tickler Filofax

Many of you are probably familiar with the idea of a Tickler File. This is a set of file folders, each labeled with a number 1-31, corresponding to the days of the month. Each day you look in that day's file to see if there are any papers you need that day.  So if you have a concert to attend on the 15th, you put the tickets into the file labeled "15" so you know where to find them when you need them.

I, and other people I know, use a similar system in our Filofax diary pages. For example, last February we went to our friends' wedding. I wrote our hotel information, reservation numbers, address and phone number of the hotel, and directions to the hotel on a notes page. I put this notes page on my Filofax rings between the diary pages of the date we would be there to make it easier to find when I needed it, instead of buried behind a tab somewhere.

I have an expat friend who keeps her list of things to buy the next time she's home in the UK on her Filofax rings in the pages of her diary at the date she will be home. That way when she is in that time and place, literally, her list will be there.

Does anyone else use this method of putting reminders and information on the rings in your Filofax diary pages at the date you need it?

25 January 2012

Musing for a Wednesday....

To say I'm short of ideas today would be a little bit of an understatement... ok let me get the excuses out of the way. I've been busy with a few non-Philofaxy projects, some of them payment type projects some pro-bono ones, as usual, more of the later than the former... but that's life!

In terms of Filofax news we are in a little bit of a lull awaiting announcements which will start to appear in the public domain from about the end of the month and then hopefully through February. Filofax are at a trade show in Frankfurt next week, so most of their 2012 range will be on display there I would think.


You will have seen the 'Temperley Teaser' which I've seen reported else where as being priced £379 and £399, there are two sizes and two designs we do know that... and the 'inflated' price is mainly because it's a 'limited edition'

But it got me chuckling when I saw our popular posts list in the side bar. There was my post from last week on Filofax News, sat next to the other post about dividers...  You won't be seeing old chocolate box dividers in your Temperley Special Filofax now will you!!! How much am I bid for these colourful chocolate boxes...

I don't wish to comment until I have seen an actual example of these organisers before I make a firm comment on 'are they worth it' However, I've received some 'material samples' for both of the models, and I think they will be quite stylish, but I'm not sure how robust in everyday use they will be. Time will tell.

I would also like to publicly thank you for being such good sports about the part 1 to last weeks News story, I was in stitches of laughter when I saw some of the comments and the barbs throw at me at the time for leaving you all hanging at the end of 'story'. I had given my brief outline to my dear wife Alison to enhance it a bit and suddenly the idea came in to my head of not saying anything about the news! Yes it was cruel... but funny when you think back... and yes I know I won't be able to pull that stunt for a while!

The other thing I'm trying to sort out at the moment is a date for the next meet up in London, this is just a case of finding time in my schedule sometime in the Spring. So look out for announcements soon I hope.

As usual any Guest Posts are welcome... please send them in to philofaxy at gmail dot com  Our popular series of posts of Readers Under The Spotlight is also open for new interviewees, email us if you would like to go under the spotlight.

24 January 2012

Free For All Tuesday No 51

It is Tuesday, so fire away with any Filofax related questions you have... and hopefully there will be more answers than questions!

22 January 2012

Poll: Business or Social?

A simple question really... What is the primary use of your Filofax organiser Business or Social?

Please vote in the poll in the side bar.

New to Philofaxy?

Welcome to Philofaxy

If you are new to the site or you have been here for a while, this post is a way to show you around so you get the most from the site.

As you might have seen there is a lot of information on here and you might have problems remembering where everything is, so we hope to be able to help you out with how to find things to get the most out of the site.

So looking at the Home page you are on now, below the banner you will see: Home, About, FAQ etc

Home: Takes you back to the start page from where ever you are on the site, clicking on the banner does the same.

About: How to contact us at Philofaxy and some background on the contributors.

FAQ: This is a good place to look for the simple often asked questions. We try to up date it from time to time to reflect the current topical questions.

Files: This the home for all our downloadable template files which you are welcome to customise to your own needs or just print them off as they are.

Links: Links to lots of blogs and other Filofax related sites. 

Suppliers: Looking for a Filofax or inserts or accessories, then this page is a good place to start.

Ad Spot: This is our readers advert page, you can place a wanted or for sale advert for your Filofax goods here free of charge. However, we do recommend donating to one of our favourite charities, but it's based on an honesty system, we don't check up on who has made donations and who hasn't.  This page is great because you are buying from people that do understand the Filofax range unlike some Ebay sellers...

All Stars: The Philofaxy All Stars... a group of readers who have done guest posts on each others blogs not all Filofax related, but a great read anyway.

Flickr: An overview to the Philofaxy Flickr group where you can share pictures of your Filofax and there is a small discussion group there too.

Searching Philofaxy - 
With in excess of 1000 posts on Philofaxy spread over six years, finding exactly the information you want could be quite a task... however we do have some tools to help you:
  • Search - Pop a key word in to the search box in the sidebar and the search tool will find all of the posts with that keyword in it.
  • Labels - Further down the sidebar you will find the label cloud again this will find all the posts with those labels on the posts. We try to label all posts, although some of the earlier ones are unlabelled... another job still to be done!

Subscribing to Philofaxy
  • RSS - You can add Philofaxy to your favourite RSS reader such as Google Reader.
  • Email - If you want to receive each post by email, pop your email in to the subscribe by email box  and follow the instructions. This service is provided by Feedburner. They will send you a verification email which you have to click a link in to confirm your email address in the usual way.

Philofaxy on the Web
  • Facebook - You will find our Facebook page here
  • Twitter - We are very active on Twitter as @philofaxy and our experimental newsfeed @philofaxynews
  • Flickr - As mentioned above there is a Flickr group for sharing your Filofax photos and ideas
  • Linking back to Philofaxy - If you would like to link back to Philofaxy from your website or blog we have a 'badge' with the exact code which you will find at the bottom of the side bar.
Regular Posts on Philofaxy
  • Free For All Tuesday - Questions and Answers on any Filofax related topic
  • Free For All Friday - General discussion, open house for anything Filofax related
  • Webfinds - Each weeks round up of other Filofax related posts on the web
Other Philofaxy Events
  • Skype Roundtable Voice and Text Chats - once a month we have a Skype voice conference, this is open to anybody to join in. It is an open agenda and we don't only get to talk about Filofax things. People taking part can be spread around the world, so it can be quite educational as well as good fun. Look out for announcements on the blog about when the next one will be. Generally they are the first Sunday of the month, but they can move slightly if this conflicts with public holidays or Steve's travel arrangements!
  • Meet Ups - We have held several very successful meet ups, they vary in size from as little as two or three people up to twelve people, these have been held in London, New York, France, Holland, with other ones planned for other countries around the world.
    Although meeting 'people off the internet' can sometimes seem a little odd, we all have at least one interest in common and everyone I've met at all the different meet ups have been great people to sit and chat with. 
That was a bit of a lightening tour around the site and some of our activities. Please do add a comment on to posts, we love to get feedback and we do read all the comments.

If there's something you haven't understood or there's a topic we haven't covered that is Filofax related please get in touch with us and we will do our best to respond to your email within a day or so.

21 January 2012

Web Finds 21 January 2012

So another week passes by, but still a great number of excellent posts for you to read and enjoy. I can't think of a suitable excuse today... so just grab a tea, a coffee, a wine or a beer, put your feet up and enjoy!
Enjoy

20 January 2012

Free for All Friday No. 166

Only connect...what does that mean? The prose and the passion...the future and the past...the sacred and profane?

I've always used my Filofax to schedule and prepare for the future, but I believe that most of a Filofax's value may lie in preserving and honoring the past.

Do you usually write things down before the fact or after?

What's on your mind (or Filofax) this Friday?

19 January 2012

Dividers with a difference

We have seen some very creative and beautiful section dividers from different blogs and websites in the past. I have to be honest I'm not that sort of creative person really, crafty but not in a craft sense!

So I've been looking around for some alternative things to make dividers out of, that would be different to the plain cream ones, that would make use of items that are no longer used.

One idea I saw on someone else's site was to use old road atlas pages cut to size then laminated to give them a bit more 'stiffness' I might try this with my French road atlas when I replace it soon.  I would most probably pick the pages from our surrounding area which will mean the divider serves two purposes, and I like things like that.

So that was one idea. But at Christmas sitting around with the family I started to think there has to be other ideas that we can try... and there it was stirring at me....



A big stack of chocolate, 7 bars in fact, all neatly packed in their own individual boxes. So what do you do after you have eaten all that chocolate? Well you recycle the boxes.... but I had other ideas... Pull the box apart... trim it to size and punch it and you get this:


A perfect, functioning divider. and the folding bit on the right acts as a tab that can fold out of the way, it can be labelled, trimmed to a tab shape or left as it is.  Oh and the chocolate was very nice apart from the milk chocolate with lime... I swapped it for some plain instead!

This week I also received in the post a lovely Vogue desk calendar from our friends at City Organiser. Each week is a different picture taken from the magazine. The picture and the calendar part are perforated, so as each week passes you tear off the picture and the calendar bit to reveal a new week.


Here are the first two weeks pictures, which you can send as postcards.


But instead of using them as postcards. I've punched them and they make great personal size dividers.


These are just some of my simple ideas, but once you start looking around your own home it is surprising what there is that you can reuse like this.

18 January 2012

Philofaxy by Email...

If you subscribe by email to Philofaxy, there were problems with the RSS feed early this morning.  I ended up having to delete the feed and recreate it. Unfortnately this meant that all the subscriber details were deleted as well.

So please resubscribe to the feed using the box in the side bar. I've tested it out and it appears to be working again.

Filofax 2012 News... Chapter 2

I laid the pages on my desk in front of me...... 

Is it safe to come out yet? Yes that was a cruel thing to do this morning wasn't it.....

OK let's get down to business... what will you see this year... not every single detail, but some of the 'headlines' that I'm sure you will be interested in...

So new to the range.... first off... Purple Malden in Mini, Pocket, Personal, A5... no need to read any further is there....  oh you want to know what else was in the envelope...

How about a Raspberry Finsbury in A4 size, should brighten up that end of the range. Some other new Finsbury colours such as yellow and blue in all the popular sizes.

Some brighter sounding colours for the Classic in Sage and Lilac. Osterley brown is replaced by orange.

This year is the year the Compact size expands in to more styles and colours, with compacts being made available at all price points in the range. Overall the new colours sound as if things are brighter and more colourful compared to the 2011 range.

Now we have heard about some of the outgoing colours and models, some quite short lived styles, the Chameleon will be made extinct this year.  Also surprisingly the Slimline in Finsbury and Cuban will be going.. replaced by the new Compacts I suppose...

Also good bye Kendal, it has I suppose had a long run... Likewise a lot of the Zipped organisers are set to disappear from the range.

Maldens in Vintage Pink, Black and Grey are also due to bow out this year. Ochre lives on.

Short lived life for the Regency and Enigma.

As usual some Finsbury colours disappear to be replaced by others, like wise the Domino, and Apex...

There are some new models... but my 'insider' wasn't able to grab any digital pictures... so we will have to wait for details of that they look like... he muttered something about sending off his film to Kodak to get it processed.. so 1950's....

As usual as we get any Filofax news we will of course share it with you.....

Finally, I would like to thank my dear wife Alison for polishing up my basic story line and developing it in to that cliff hanging suspense thriller you had to enjoy/endure this morning...  but I will take the credit/blame for the way it finished... by not telling you anything!

Thank you for being such great sports...

Oh just one more thing.....

Filofax 2012 News

A side-street cafe, dusk falling rapidly. A man approached my table. His wide-brimmed felt hat was pulled down hiding his face, his dark trench-coat cinched into his waist. He turned his head left and quickly right, as if fearing somebody, or something, was following him. He hesitated, but with one more glance backwards, slid into the seat opposite me.

'Mr Philofaxy?'

'Yes.'

'I have something for you,' he whispered.

He reached inside his coat and produced a large plain brown envelope. He glanced down at it. His hand was suspended in the air, as if reluctant to take the next step. He placed it on the table, his hand still on the envelope. The tendons on the back of his arched hand cast little shadow valleys in the subdued light. With a jerky movement, he thrust the envelope across the table.

'This envelope contains information vital to the well-being of your community. I cannot over-emphasise how important it is. But you must be careful.'

I pulled the flap open and inserted my fingers into the envelope.

'No!' he hissed at me. 'You can't read it here. You never know who's watching this cafe.' His eyes darted around and settled back to me. 'Take it home to read. But shut the curtains and bolt your door.'

I looked at him, trying to guess at what was behind his dramatic manner. What could be such a secret that it made him so frightened?

Almost to reassure him, I smiled and replied with a simple 'I understand.'

He touched the brim of his hat, looked around once more, stood up and made for the door. I followed him to the entrance, but when I looked up and down the street lit by dull orange lights, I could see nothing.

I looked at the envelope. It could only contain a few sheets of paper. I folded it and thrust it into my pocket. I finished the last of my coffee, dropped some coins in the saucer and got to my feet. I tried to act unconcerned, even throwing a quick smile at the waitress, but my hand trembled. Once out of the door, I hurried around the corner where I'd parked my car in the shadow of a warehouse. As I stood in front of the corrugated steel door, I wanted to rip the envelope open. I looked up and down. The street was deserted. But I remembered what my contact had said. After the risk he'd taken, I had to tamp down my curiosity. If I gave in now, somebody could so easily come along and snatch it out of my hand.

I only drove through one red light. My mind was so full of thoughts chasing each other that I didn't see it. The tyres screeched in protest as I braked hard on my driveway. I ran across the gravel, fumbling with my front door key, dropped it, but managed to open the lock at the second attempt. I slid my coat off and left it lying in a heap in the hallway. In my office, I locked the door, threw myself into the chair and opened the envelope.

I read the pages inside wide eyed..... the details of the new 2012 Filofax range......

17 January 2012

Free For All Tuesday No. 50

So what questions do you have for us this week?

And for our new readers... Firstly Welcome.. and feel at home and feel free to ask any Filofax questions, this is a regular feature every Tuesday.

Fire away.

16 January 2012

Poll results: How many weeks of diary pages do you keep in your Filofax?

Thanks to everyone who participated in this poll!  Here are the results:


How many weeks of diary pages do you keep in your Filofax? (252 total votes):

Less than 1 month  11 (4%)

1-3 months  45 (17%)

4-6 months  41 (16%)

7-12 months  130 (51%)

More than 12 months  25 (9%)

I was really surprised that so many people keep 7-12 months' worth of diary pages in their Filofax at one time!

Phone Directory

So what do you do when the new telephone directory turns up on your door step or in your mail box?

Most people I expect grab the old one and put it in the recycling..... you do recycle don't you??

Anyway, during my meet up with Nikki last month here in France, she showed me some things she had in her A5 Filofax that had come straight out of the old phone directory.

When I looked at our recently replaced phone directory there was a great map in the back cover of the area which I will salvage. Some of the introduction pages include information from local government agencies, lists of useful phone numbers etc.

Now some of this information was printed on the very thin paper used for phone directories, but I will copy Nikki's idea of laminating those pages with a laminating machine and then punching them to fit my Filofax, this will make sure the pages don't tear when the pages are turned.

15 January 2012

UK vs French paper catalogues

I realise that the paper catalogues have been out for several months now. But it was only last month during the meet up in Poitiers that I managed to pick up a French edition of the 2011/12 catalogue.

At first I thought they would be the same, just in French, but no they have some slightly different products, which we more or less know from looking on the website. However, in the catalogue although they have used the same photos etc they have ordered them differently.  In some cases different colours are available compared to UK, but again this is obvious from the website. The other oddity was that the French catalogue doesn't include prices on the pages, were as the UK one does.

I think the few extra pages in the UK catalogue (78 pages vs 72 pages) can be accounted for by differences in stock that is available in both countries.

In terms of organisers. The UK has the 2012 Olympic range, France still have the Sketch, which I think was discontinued in UK recently. France also has the Luxe and the Dakota. Overall UK carries 5 more designs than France. Although in website terms I suspect there is more of a difference, the Deco doesn't appear in either catalogue! So it must be on it's last year I would think.

Reading both catalogues side by side can be a bit mind boggling! It makes you wonder what we are likely to see next year.

Although the Flex isn't mentioned in the paper catalogue. Looking on the Filofax French website, for 2012 they have introduced a slightly different format Week on Two Page diary insert for the Flex, with appointment times and horizontal lining.!  So we are also going to be faced with differences in those product ranges as well as normal Filofax products...

I think I need a rest!

14 January 2012

Web Finds 14 January 2012

Well another week has zipped by. I've been submerged with my head deep in another unpaid project for another organisation all day, so it's been great to finally finish that one and emerge to do some things on Philofaxy that I love and enjoy doing.

So what have we discovered this week. Lots of 2012 set up posts still coming through naturally. 
Enjoy

13 January 2012

Free For All Friday No. 165

Happy Friday the 13th!  I was born on a Friday the 13th so I don't think of them as unlucky, but if you are superstitious, watch out today!

Now that we are a couple of weeks into the year, and you're back to your usual schedule, how is your Filofax setup working for you? Swimmingly? In need of a few tweaks? Total overhaul? Going back to what you used before?

And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything Filofax-related.

Have a great weekend everyone!

12 January 2012

A Journey Back In Time - Part 2

So after yesterday's first half of our journey back in time, we continue today with the second half of our journey.










Thank you for all your feed back on yesterday's post, I'm not sure if we have come to a definitive conclusion yet on the date of the catalogue, but for the point of discussion I will use '1937'.

So consider this for a moment, irrespective of the date of the catalogue. Compare the price of an organiser with the price of a punch.  The punch is just about the most expensive thing in the catalogue at £2, yet a leather organiser is £1/7/6 or £1.375 for 1 inch rings.  Now in today's money the punch from Filofax will cost you £27.75 which would make the organiser in today's money about £19.08

Even my Winchester back in 1985 cost more than £19.00, remember the organisers where sold empty during the period of the catalogue and during the 1980's.

So what has changed...  The cost of making a punch back in '1937' must have been considerably higher than today, I suspect the parts although made on a machine where made by a skilled metal worker and assembled by hand.  These days and looking at the way the Filofax punch is now made the parts are most probably made using automated machinery.  So that might account for some of the changes in price.... there is of course that horrible word 'profit' I suspect the profit margins on today's organisers are higher than they were back in say '1937'

The catalogues in the 1980's were not that different to this one, higher prices of course! But they also listed all the forms and inserts, quite baffling some of them. I will cross check the list against the ones shown in 'Filofax Facts' although that book was published in 1988, it will be interesting to see the differences. But there has definitely been quite a decline in the number of different inserts available.

If more information comes to light about the history and date of the catalogue I will be sure to let you know.

High resolution versions of the scans can be found here.

11 January 2012

Filofax France and Italy 50% off sale

I hate to start an enabling frenzy, but Filofax France is having a 50% off sale. Don't say I didn't warn ya:

Click here to go to the sale items

And Filofax Italy as well
Click here to go to the sale items

A Journey Back In Time - Part 1

So today I would like you to join me in a journey back in time, to a time a long, long time ago, before I was born and maybe before some of your parents were born even. Gosh, that is a long time ago!

But before we can go on this journey together back through time, we need to understand how money worked in UK before 1971. After 1971, UK money was decimalised so now we have 100 pence make one £1. Before 1971 UK used pounds shillings and pence. There was 240 pennies in each pound but more commonly it was thought of as twelve pennies equals one shilling, twenty shillings equals one pound. So when we go back in time together and you see £.s.d., it stands for pounds shillings and pence

How amounts were written in the past is also different. So if you see 20/- that means 20 shillings, which equals £1 (one pound) 1/6 is one shilling and six pence or 7.5 new pence (£0.075).

As a young 12 year-old the changeover to decimal coinage was quite a change. You can read more about it here. But in actual fact, as you will all know, the decimal system is a lot easier to use as long as you forget about the pre-decimal system and stop converting back in to it.

So how are we going to travel in to the past, Steve? And what has all this got to do with Filofax... Have you been drinking too much of that French wine again.... ???..... Just stand by, I'm getting there. OK? But I needed to prepare you all for this shock... I could have just taken you back in time and said, 'Right here we are' and you wouldn't have known when we were!

Now, to get back in time we aren't going to need a time machine made from a modified DeLorean DMC-12,  the vehicle's time displacement being powered by plutonium, which supplies 1.21 gigawatts of energy to a device they call the "flux capacitor". No, we can do it with a simple desk top document scanner!

So now I need to introduce you to my able assistant... Mrs M or 'The Hand of Philofaxy' to some people, without whose help we wouldn't be on this journey back in time. You see, Mrs M was sorting through an archive box of hers the other day and in it she discovered something that I last saw in the late 1980's - a catalogue for Filofax dating back some considerable time. I thought this had been lost completely so I was very pleased to see it again. How old the catalogue is we aren't quite sure.

So what you are about to see are scanned in images for the pages from the catalogue. Just click on the pictures to see a larger version of each one.











Be sure to come back tomorrow to see Part 2 of this journey back in time!

10 January 2012

Free For All Tuesday No. 49

With the posts about punches and hole spacings in the last week or so I suspect you are either more puzzled or now up to date on that topic for a while! But what ever your Filofax question is, this is the best place to ask it...

Fire away.

09 January 2012

New poll: how many weeks of diary pages do you keep in your Filofax?

Please vote in the new poll at the left!

Seems to me that most people keep only a few weeks or months of diary pages in their Filofax, and rotate out used pages regularly. Especially people who use daily pages need to keep their binder at a reasonable thickness and can't keep too many weeks in there, especially if they have a lot of other pages and tabs.

Whenever I use a Filofax as my diary/ planner, I like to have as many months in as possible, usually 4-6 months past and at least 6 months future. One of the things I've always liked about using a Filofax as a planner is this ability to constantly see back and forward no matter what time of the year it is.

So what about you? Do you keep only the immediate future diary pages in your Filofax? Or like me do you like to have many months' worth of planning pages in at once?

Please vote to tell us how many weeks of your main diary pages (weekly or daily) you like to have in your Filofax at a time!

The Great Organiser Hole Spacing Conspiracy

A dramatic title to this post I know... but when you read on you will begin to wonder!

The focus of this post will of course be Filofax organisers and what hole spacing they use. As well as hole spacing I will include notes on paper size, so you will at least have the information for Filofax if you come across another brand of insert and you can ask them the right questions with regards to size and hole spacing. 

Before we get in to this too deeply, here is an explanation of what I mean by 'hole spacing' and a picture might save a few words!


This is the dimensions for a European 'Two Ring' binder, in this case the hole spacing is 80mm the drawing also shows the tolerance of ±0.5 mm on that dimension allowed for in the ISO standard for hole punches.... yes such a thing exists!

Filofax Mini 

The Mini size uses 5 rings each spaced by 19.050 mm or ¾ inch. The paper size is 67 mm x 105 mm.

Filofax Pocket

The Pocket size uses 6 rings each each spaced by 19.050 mm or ¾ inch. The paper size is 81mm x 120 mm. A number of other brands use this size and spacing.

Filofax Personal

Filofax Personal size is a very common size, it uses 6 rings split in to two groups of 3 rings. The two groups are spaced by 50.80 mm or 2 inches with the three rings having the common 19.050 mm or ¾ inch spacing between them. The paper size is 95mm by 171 mm.

Whilst the hole spacing is a common feature of other brands, be aware that some brands use paper wider than 95mm, this can cause problems especially in the compact and slimline Filofax organisers, which with their smaller ring sizes have narrower covers. Try before you buy... is the best advice... or if you are buying on line, establish the exact size of the paper or the tabs and make a mock up of your chosen size.

Filofax A5
Filofax A5 uses paper that is 148 mm by 210 mm, exactly the size of European ISO standard A5 paper. However the company chose for what ever reason to use 6 rings, again like the personal size split in to two groups of three rings. The two groups are spaced by 69.85 mm or 2¾ inch with the three rings having the common 19 mm or ¾ inch spacing between them.

Now looking at other brands, it all gets very different to Filofax, so much so that re-punching some of these other sizes can turn your diary insert in to something resembling a Swiss cheese.

Quo Vadis Timer 21 is A5 paper size with six holes, but they use the same hole spacing as Filofax Personal size! Yes it took me a while to realise that! So QV Timer 21 pages need to be re-punched but the Filofax holes fall neatly between the original QV holes.

Time Manager International TMI like Quo Vadis use Filofax Personal hole spacing in their A5 products, but only 4 rings not six, they miss out the middle ring of each 3 ring group. So they have 38mm and 50.8 mm spacing Again re-punching their inserts results in having 12 evenly spaced holes. 

Franklin Covey and Day Timer in the USA use a page size of 140mm x 216 mm (5.5 x 8.5 inches) which is close to A5 in size (slightly narrower, but slightly taller), but the hole spacing is very different to Filofax. Firstly they use a 7 ring binder, but ignore the middle ring! If you then think of their insert as being 6 holes split into two groups of three. The two groups are spaced by 38.10 mm or 1.5 inches with the three rings being space by 1 inch (25.40 mm)  

Punching one of these to fit a Filofax A5 will result in pages that look something like this:


As you might be able to see, the top and bottom holes of the row of 7 holes are very close to the top and bottom holes of A5 Filofax, in fact when punched those holes become oval in shape.

Mulberry for reasons best known to them, use A5 paper, but their 6 rings are spaced in to two groups of 3 rings. The two groups are spaced by 50.8 mm or the three rings having the common 19.05 mm spacing between them. As we have previously mentioned Mulberry sizes on all of their binders are different to Filofax, a previous Philofaxy post gives all of the details for this brand.

Filofax A4
As previously discussed the A4 size is 297 mm by 210 mm a standard European ISO paper size, the four holes are each spaced by 80 mm, again which is an extension to the ISO standard spacing (ISO 838) Nearly all binders in Europe that use A4 paper use this four hole spacing so finding alternatives shouldn't be an issue.

In the USA, Day Timer sell a 'Folio' size which is 216mm x 280mm (11 inches by 8.5 inches) which is a fraction wider than A4 but shorter. This also uses 7 rings, again if you ignore the middle hole. You then get two groups of three rings. The two groups are spaced by 5.5 inches with each ring spaced by 1 inch. None of these 7 holes aligns with the Filofax 4 holes.

Putting all of the hole spacings together in to one detailed picture I came across this graphic below. US 7 rings is the Day Timer/Franklin Covey 'standard'


I hope things are a little clearer now... if not... please ask questions in the comments and I will try and respond.

08 January 2012

Filofax Future Products

We have often shared our thoughts on what we would like to see in the the Filofax product range in the past. Filofax will soon be announcing their 2012 range, although I have no idea yet what will be in that range, we have had a few clues as to what won't be in the range.

But what would you like to see in 2013 and beyond?

Personally I wouldn't concentrate my suggestions on organisers too much, apart from may be some colour suggestions, and may be some additional ring size requests (A true A5 slimline.... and may be a 30mm Personal Malden).

My requests would mainly be on inserts, better quality paper, better availability of diary inserts from abroad, or some new designs of diary inserts, may be a some more specialist inserts that are aimed at GTD.

So what are your suggestions?

Drop them in to the comments in to this post, or if you want email them to philofaxy[at]gmail[dot]com or if you are on the Skype chat today, I will take your suggestions verbally and I will compile our 'wish list' and make sure it gets to Filofax UK, I can't say how much notice they will take of our suggestions... but if we don't try then we will never find out.

07 January 2012

Web Finds 7 January 2012

So here are some I found this week in between finishing off the mince pies and Christmas Cake and taking down the Christmas Tree.
Also:

Yearbooks
Philofaxy posts in electronic book format for you to download, print out, put on your portable device and carry around or on your eReader for late night reading. Just send the pdf files to your Kindle email address and you will always have something to read!

2011 PDF Format
ePub Format
    As you can see some of the files are still quite big, so please be patient downloading them.  All previous years are also available in the Files area.


    Enjoy