10 April 2012

Free For All Tuesday No. 62

I trust you all had a pleasant Easter break.. 

Let's hear your Filofax related questions for this week....

58 comments:

  1. Hello! I need some help with diary size and inserts. I'm due to start a teacher training course in September and have decided that the student planner I have used throughout university will just not be sufficient enough.

    I think I will need an A5 diary but am stuck on choosing what type of inserts I should get. Should I get a day per page for meticulous planning (which I will need to do), a week to view pullout thing to put down important dates, meetings etc and a year to view to get an almost birds eye view of dates, holidays, teacher training days etc? Alongside, lectures and seminars I will also have to include info on when I am teaching and maybe lesson plans as well as personal life info. Will be buying a notepad and sticky notes thing that goes at the back for those moments when you need to jot something down asap - have a memory of a fish!

    Apologies for the long post. What are your recommendations and how much approx will I be expected to pay? Thanks in advance! :) x

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    1. Christina - if you have access to a printer than I would have a good look at the diary inserts Steve and Ray have designed. They are really well designed and can save you a fortune - and be printed onto coloured paper if you wish.

      Don't be frightened to use more than one diary in your binder to see different things - this can allow you to see trends. I like to use different views (i.e. monthly/weekly/daily - the daily I tend to use mostly for planning purposes).

      I haven't done what you are doing so I can't advise specifically, if you have time to browse the website you will find a lot of different setups that can give you ideas.

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    2. Christina, I am a teacher, currently looking for work though due to school merger. I have a school planner in A5, and a multi planner in A5 and have designed a lot of inserts to use for my teaching load. As they are in Word, they can be adapted to suit your individual needs, but may act as a springboard for your own A5 planner. I have an A5 for my diary, which includes school and home events in the diary bit. 1 diary 1 life is less complicated as it avoids clashes.The rest is my lists, medical, computer, reading etc. I use Steve and Ray's amended TM planner for my diary, and colour code.... school, light blue, home, violet, and social pink. I also have an A5 school planner for day to day timetables and daily overviews, extra-curricular registers etc etc.It is necessary to have a huge A4 file or two for all other stuff, lesson plans, school policies etc etc, as the paperwork is substantial and a Filofax will not hold it all I am afraid. My big files stay at school and I decant this week's A4 lesson plans and termly overviews into an A4 thin filofax Strata.Every school has its own format for these long medium and short term plans. Putting the essential into a thinner folder saves me lugging such huge A4 spring bound folders back and forth to school, along with my 2 A5s. Policy documents stay at school and on my PC as a hard copy to refer to at home. A memory stick will be a must for you too, but remember the Data Potection Act,remembering to have pupil or staff personal data stored carefully and safely. Your school(s)and uni will advise you on all this, so worry ye not.E. mail me at je.mccourt@virgin.net and I'll send you my planner inserts which I use for teaching. Use and adapt as you wish.... or indeed discard if they don't suit you. If they have the philofaxy logo on, they have come from this site, under files, so just keep the acknowledgement logo there. Glad to help, so just e. mail me any time any place. The TES forum is useful for all sorts as is Hamilton Trust site... just for initial starting points for you. E.Mail me any time...... so glad you are going into teaching..... enjoy.... and all the best. Jane. xxxx

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  2. Hi Everyone,

    I was wondering how people use their Filofax (if they do) for weight loss tracking and meal planning. I joined the gym and started dieting In December and I have been trying to keep a daily log of what I eat, how many calories it has, what exercise I did in the gym and how many calories I burned off. So far I've just been writing on scraps on paper or in random pages of my Filofax but the longer I stick to it the harder im finding it to keep track. Im also attempting to budget and get control of my money and try and plan meals for me and the kids and only buy what I need (Steve made me some shopping lists which have been fab) but im struggling with where to put this in my Filofax also.

    My main problem is that I just dont have anywhere to write it down. I've found the only diary insert which works for me is a week on one page with notes. My week pretty much stays the same, school runs and play group things like that, so I dont need much space for appointments, which is far to small to fit on daily meals plans and exercise log. I thought maybe a day on two page could work and I could write all the info, meal plans exercise etc on the day but I found that the diary page didnt get used and the task lists and notes box weren't big enough. Being a stay at home mum I have lots of things to get done but they very rarely have a deadline, I think this is why the week on one page with notes works so well cause I can just write a big list of things to be done and they can be done as and when during the week. Using the two days per page I found I was just re-writing to-do's over and over again each day!

    Im just really struggling with a way to keep track of this in my filofax, so any ideas would be really appreciated (sorry for the long post)

    Princess K x

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    1. @PrincessK- a filofax novice here & I'm only using a pocket- I use my filofax for personal stuff only.

      I use month on 2 pages to track where my kids/husband are and I use stickers to mark the exercise type I did.

      I use week on 2 pages as a tracking device for food/exercise/emotions.

      In my to do section, I have 2 pages-a separate list for business and personal, with the meal plan for the week on the following page. I've written it so that when I leave the filo open, I can see both lists.

      Its working so far, fingers crossed, but could be better organised into zones or a regular schedule.

      I've seen other filos on here where the diary page is split into half or quarters for the key areas.

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    2. @PrincessK - I found it easier to keep my food diary etc on separate diary sheets. Could you have a separate tab in your binder for 'health' and a week on two pages on which you could record your food intake and your exercise?

      For menu planning I still use a pad my sister-in-law got me for Xmas - it is A5 but I use it in my A5 binder. I've removed the pages and punched to fit. On the left of that page it is divided up into the seven days of the week and this space is used to record what you plan to eat. On the right hand side is a shopping list layout so you can make a list of what you need to buy. It has perforations down the middle so you can remove the shopping list half to take to the shops. - I've just found it here: http://www.mumsoffice.co.uk/quick-shop/mums-shopping-list.html

      I have a feeling Ray and Steve could come up with something similar - the only difference is that this does have perforations down the middle to remove the list. However there is no reason why you couldn't have one sheet for the menu and another for the shopping list.

      Once I got out of the mindset that everything had to be on one diary I found it much easier to sort things out - I'm still not as organised as I'd like to be, but I'm getting there slowly!

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    3. PS I do like the Mum's office layout, but if I were to redesign I would divide the shopping list area into sections, for example fresh fruit and veg, chiller, condiments etc. I do like my shopping list to be organised when I shop otherwise I find I forget things - probably because I always have two lists as I do my Mom's shopping as well! I don't know how simple shopping can get so stressful at times!

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    4. Princess K,
      Could you try using a dedicated page per day/week/month (as it suits your needs) with columns or sections to track what you want to record? i.e date, time, foods and calories with exercise done. Could this be a section under a separate tab in your Filo? Or does it need to be kept on your weekly pages?
      I have a section in my planner where I keep a list of all the meals that we eat so that when I plan my shopping I can cook different things. This list is laminated to my divider. I also have made some pages with top tabs cut out that I use to make a 'stock' list of the items I buy regularly. This is broken down into areas - pantry, fridge, bathroom, cleaning and misc.
      Could you keep your shopping/meal/menu plans in one section and just add a sticky note to your current week with your menu for the week?
      Hope these ideas help. If you want I could design a page if you gave me specifics of what you needed to record.

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    5. @ Alison. No it doesnt have to be in the diary section, its not at the minute just on random bits if paper lol. I think I've just about tried every diary layout possible and its always a case of not enough room to write everything (my are only young and the baby eats different meals to my older child and I eat different to them, they dont need to be on a diet :-)so its not just one evening meal) and the day per page is just too big and its annoying not to be able to see a weeks worth of meals, I have to go hunting through pages to find out what i've planned when im writing a shopping list and something always gets missed! I have steve's shopping lists and they work brilliantly but its the meal planning that imn struggling on. A diary just doesnt work well for fitness tracking at all i dont think. Again i end up scribbling everything down and I cant see what been going on that week, thats why I thought some type of list/log might work better. I might try and copy the grid from the link onto some filofax squared paper and see how that works though

      @ Silver_Elixir A separate section sounds like a good idea, but like I said to Alison diarys havent really worked for me. I dont have a printer, cutter or hole punch so anything I use has to be something I can buy or something I can easily draw up myself on Filofax paper, im not an organised person by nature so I get myself into a right mess trying to design grids and tables lol

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    6. what about a dodo pad insert and the other ones to track how you have gone on a weekly basis?

      You could set one column for each of the separate areas that you wish to plan ie food, exercise etc, with the other side for your to do list?

      http://philofaxy.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/my-new-a5-domino-filofax-with-dodo-pad.html

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    7. I dont know, im seriously considering changing to A5 then I can print out meal plans and fitness plans at my local library as its a much easier size than personal. My filofax generally doesnt leave the house so size isnt really a problem. So if anyone has a pink Finsbury or pink A5 malden they want to sell? (any excuse for a new Filofax) :-)

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  3. I've just received my new pocket crimson malden- not sure whether I should return it or not.

    This one seems a bit weird compared to my ochre one- it smells of plastic not leather, the texture is more rough and it doesn't lay flat.

    Is this normal? can i fix these problems. thank you.

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  4. I've just bought an A5 filofax, I'd like to have a go at printing one of the diary inserts made my Ray and Steve. What paper does everyone use for this? I had a look at the filofax computer paper but its £9 for 50 sheets. The diary I'd like to print is 366 pages which is going to cost a lot...

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    1. @lostwithoutyou Depends where you are based. If in UK or Europe it's easy to buy some A4 paper in your colour choice and weight (for example if you use a fountain pen a 90gsm or 100gsm is a good choice) and then print in booklet form. I have a feeling that either Steve or Ray has some instructions for this (I'm sure someone can point to it?), but it's easy enough if you just experiment with a four page document first. Good place to find paper are Staples, Rymans, Amazon etc. Some people like to buy cream (to emulate the cotton cream look) but you can also get almost every other colour in the rainbow! Good old white is usually cheaper if you are on a tight budget.

      I'm not sure where you can buy A4 if you are in the US - perhaps someone else can advise? I definitely think the filofax paper is over prices and low quality, so I'd avoid it if possible. You can but A5 paper for a straight double sided print, but it usually works out a lot more expensive.

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    2. Don't buy the Filofax printing paper - our templates aren't set up to print on that. Use just regular A4 printer paper or a type you know works well in your particular printer.

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    3. Oh, and here's how to print and cut the pages:

      http://mylifeallinoneplace.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/how-to-print-filofax-personal-pages-on.html

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    4. That's great, thanks everyone, I'll have a go tonight :)

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    5. @Ray - it's A5 pages lostwithyou is asking about not personal! Actually A5 are easier as you only have to slice them in half!

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    6. Good point. I missed that. Steve has a good page on A5 printing:

      http://philofaxy.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/printing-a5-pages.html

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  6. You might try printing them on A4 size printing paper, 75g weight, 2 pages per sheet, front and back. Start with, say, April, and see whether you like it?

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  7. Hi Ladies and Gents, Hope you all had a good Easter break. I`m in the Middle East so I just read the posts and watched enviously.....

    I have just taken over a new role in which I:ll be responsible for Business Partners, and I have spent some hours over the weekend trying to devise a Contact Sheet that will contain all the relevant data for the Business Partner, but will also somehow help me to keep track of both contacts between us, plus orders signed. Not sure if I am trying to do too much with one sheet (not got round to adding the back page yet, as couldnt decide if that should be orders, calls, or both).

    Hoping someone else in Philofaxyville will be experienced in a similar role and may have suggestions. My fields at the moment are:

    Company name; Primary contact person; Address; all teh various types of phones and email; Partner`s main customers; other contacts in company:

    Then an order section (Customer, order details, price, date);
    Then a Calls section (Date, topic, outcome, actions).

    Grateful for any suggestions for fields that others find useful. I looked at the Contact Sheet in the files but it didnt really seem suitable for what I need. I can upload a sample if required.

    Happy Easter all :)

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    1. Paul - you don't say what size binder you are using? I think you will struggle to maintain all this info by hand - certainly in anything less than an A5. An A4 would be better. I did try to do this some time ago when I had a different business and it was a bit of a nightmare. I ended up using outlook and putting order and contact info under separate headings in the notes area of the contact page.

      Others may have had more luck and help you out here!

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    2. Thanks, Alison. I should have mentioned, Im using an A5 for work (and this) and a personal for my ....personal life! I use Outlook for calendars, but we dont use Outlook at work, alas, so I have to add everything manually into Outlook Calendar.

      At least I know that others have tried it and its too ambitious. I did wonder if I:d be better with three different pages: Call log, Business Partner info )a la classic Contact sheet) and Order summary. Oh well, it was worth doing the exercise, if only to reach this conclusion.

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    3. Paul there might be some mileage in splitting this up as you suggest and you could file it all under customer name in an A-Z format. However you may prefer to use an A4 type binder so you can record more info - it depends on the volume of calls and order of course. Could you use a web based CRM (customer relationship manager) system? Something like Capsule for example?

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  8. Hi everyone!

    I spotted this link on Amazon over the weekend

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004PVBQAS/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

    The picture is of a portable hole punch, but the item code, title and description are for an A5 Finchley in Black. The price seems to be a little too good to be true for an A5 Finchley (just shy of £12 including postage) but I thought I would give it a go and have ordered one. If it turns out to be the hole punch I can just return it, but if it turns out to be the A5 Finchley, it's a really good deal.

    Just thought I'd pass it on in case anyone else fancies a gamble!

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    1. Haha, good luck. I have ordered on amazon.uk a A5 Filofax for 8.45 GBP. Thought it might be a very good deal. They took my order, amazon send a confirmation, after all they send me their regrets, but they couldn't send it overseas by airmail!!! Explanation: to heavy to send?!?! I think they found out, that they made an error in pricing. thats all. Please let us know the end of your story! ;-)

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    2. I've ordered one too - I've had the confirmation so we'll see what turns up! I only ordered it really as I believe it has the larger ring sizes - I'll probably sell one of my others if it does turn out to be genuine.

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    3. I've ordered one as well. Good spot. I hope that behind this there isn't some small business that will make a big loss.

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    4. Ok I ordered too. I love A5, it is the best size for me, and it'll be nice to have one in reserve. Who can resist such a good price? I too hope it's not either a. a scam, or b. a small business who will make a big loss.

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    5. I think if it is a small business they may have noticed by now with 4 of us ordering! I'm guessing we might just get an email saying they are no longer available if it is a problem.

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    6. Well spotted - I wasn't looking for a new FF, but if it is what it says it is, then who could resist :o)

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    7. Oh, a band-wagon I'm more than happy to jump on! I hope it isn't a hole-punch in the end!
      [posted this twice, but the first time it got posted in a completely random place...]

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    8. Mine was just cancelled - with no explanation ...

      Not sure if they just ran out or if they realised their mistake.

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    9. Likewise Alison and the item is now listed as unavailable on the link. Ah well. Win some, lose some!

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    10. Ditto. I guess if things are too good to be true, they're too good to be true.
      At least they didn't send me a hole-punch!
      :-)

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    11. The Amazon Finsbury picture has changed to one of an organiser but is now unavailable

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    12. The good news is, none of us were sent a hole punch that we would then have the hassle of returning :o)

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  9. Hi everyone! I have massive planner fail going on right now!
    Since the New Year I have been using Day Timer Flavia day on 2 pages inserts for my daily planner, and Day Timer Flavia week on 2 pages for week to view and future planning, because I only have 1 week of DO2P in my filo at once. But the DO2P is REALLY not working for me- it's a huge expanse of space for me to write on every day, but I'm not using it all, it's silly. On the left page I write my appointments, but I might only have 3 per day, and on the right I list my to-dos and any quick notes, but this only takes up 1/4 of that page. In all, I'm only using about 1/5 of the whole DO2P insert for every day! This gets worse in the holidays when I have very few appointments, or when I'm writing essays, when I tend to not write anything down for that whole day. I'm really not using these pages to their full potential, so I think I need a change, but I don't know what inserts to use!
    I DEFINITELY need to have appointment slots written down the page because I can't see things if they aren't in chronological order. I also think I need just 1 page with the to-dos/notes for the whole week, like the notes page on the right in the week on 1 page with notes inserts. This is so I don't have keep transferring them over to another page if I don't get them done on the day before.
    What I really need is a week on 1 page vertical with appointment slots, with a notes page on the right. I'm using personal-sized paper and I know this could get pretty cramped- does anyone think this is possible?
    Or do you have another solution for me? Thanks!!

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    1. @the perpetual student TPS - why not use a 2 page per week and slot a todo sheet between the two pages? You can get diary pages in this format with time slots from some of the European sites. Then you can just move your todo list to the next week if you have any outstanding items.

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    2. @TPS: the vertical WO2P for Personal is already pretty cramped, there's no way you could squeeze all those columns on only one page.
      You could try Ray/Steve's template for the vertical WO2P: it has hourly appointment slots and on the bottom it has several lines for Todo's. That could be a solution for you!!!!
      Or you could use the daytimer hotlists, Josh suggested. One advice: if you wanna try them, try ebay first. I got a whole box of them last year from somewhere in the US and it was dead-cheap, especially compared to the rather high DT prices ...
      Also, if you wanna try out the Hotlists, send me an emai and I'll send you some. jotje69 (at) gmail (dot) com

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    3. Kate, Moleskine has printable templates based on their books but they could be used if sized right and hole punched They do have a wo2p with lines but dont know how small it would be once printed. And other options... You have to sign up to access them but then there are a nice assortment.

      Tracy

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    4. Tracy I can't find where this is you mention above about moleskin, any chance you can post a link? Ta

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    5. Cat,

      It's http://www.moleskine.com/mymoleskine/ which is off the mymoleskine link off the main moleskine.com page.

      Tracy

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    6. @TPS I bought the DO2P last year and after 3 months, I had to admit defeat. I started out diligently writing every action, call, email and task in the Notes page, and then the next day, I had half of them left, and diligently wrote them out again....and so it went on ad infititum. I only discovered this site 2 months ago but reading about how many people are using two different diaries for different purposes in the same organiser, I think I:m tempted to try it. I:m also going to check out these hotlists too and see if they could help as well.

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  10. Kate,
    DayTimer sells double punched to do list sheets, which you could use side by side with a day per page and flip the page each day. I think they call them hotlists? Nancy did a write up on them on her "sense of gravity" blog. Seems to answer your needs! If you want a filofax 2012 dpp diary please email me at joshua dot LaPorte at me dot com and I can mail you my unused one.

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  11. Yes, I am one of those horrible suckers who bought a Temperley Filofax (I got mine off of eBay, if that makes anything better)... What I was wondering was if anyone thought it might be possible to switch out the Personal rings for A5 rings, as the Affair is A5 and I prefer the A5 size for writing.

    Thanks for any and all feedback!

    Esmé

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    1. Esme - I'm sure Tim has done this with a flex. If you get no comments here, try reposting on Friday (it's free for all Friday) and I'm sure he will see it and respond.

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    2. Esme/ Alison - I've switched Filofax rings in an A5 Kendal (25mm instead of 30mm) and have fitted 17mm Time Manager (TMI) rings into my A5 Holborn. I've also fitted a 13mm slim ring mech into an A5 Flex.

      It is fairly easy, WITH CARE, to ease back the rivet edges to remove and replace an A5 ring mechanism with another A5. (The rivet centres are 175mm apart). However, you can't do that with an A5 into a Personal as the rivet centres are only 110mm apart. With the price of Temperley, I would think twice before carrying out major sugery anyway!

      Whilst I've long thought it a good idea to combine Flex ideas into some Filofax products, I'm at a complete loss as to why they designed Temperley for personal Filofax pages but for an A5 Flex notebook.

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    3. Thanks so much for your input, Alison and Tim. I'll stick to the Personal rings, I suppose -- and I agree, Tim; I have no idea why they mixed the Flex notebook with personal Filofax pages.

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    4. So YOU"RE the one who outbid me by £5.00!! haha I knew it would be someone from here! Well if you change your mind about it I would be more than happy to take it off your hands! x

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    5. Tim, could you make a tutorial on the replacement of the ring mechanism? Also, where would one get a 13 mm ring mechanism for the A5?
      I'm most intrigued, to say the least ...

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    6. Jotje - I'm going to write a guest post on this subject when I get chance!

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  12. Bit late - has anyone here got a Personal Kendal and can weigh the empty binder, and post the weight in grams or ounces?

    I know it's a lot to ask and probably won't get a reply but my work tote is weighing in at a hefty 7lbs now and that's with a nylon Fax, I want a Kendal off e-Bay badly before they become impossible to find new but I need to know the weight first, because if it's too much more I might have to re-think... I'd go in the shop with my scales except the ones I checked at the weekend had no Kendals left...

    Hope some wonderful kind angel can help! :o)

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    1. You could ask Josh to weigh his Kendal???

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  13. Stupid me! Steve made a document comparing the weight of the empty binders. An empty Personal Kendal weighs 258g.
    Here's the link to the document:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhlmQ-9jjqX0dERzQ2pvMlo1NHBqMjlucHl3LW9qVWc&hl=en_GB#gid=0

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    1. Oh that is magnificent - as a part-timer round here I didn't know about that at all, thanks SO MUCH!!

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