Every now and then we shall post our top 10 favorites of certain items, I’m going to start by posting my favorite 5 Star Items!

10.) 918060 – 5 Star Office Premier Copier Paper Multifunctional Smooth 120gsm 250 Sheets per Ream A4 White [1 Ream]

9.) 912912 – 5 Star Office Manuscript Book Wirebound 70gsm Ruled 160 Pages A4 [Pack 5]

8.) 296190 – 5 Star Office Correction Fluid Fast-drying with Integral Mixer Ball 20ml White

7.) 918842 – 5 Star Office Punch 2-Hole Metal with Plastic Base Capacity 27x 80gsm Silver and Grey

6.) 295160 – 5 Star Office Subject Dividers Multipunched Manilla Board 5-Part A4 Assorted

5.) 907182 – 5 Star Office Envelopes Wallet Press Seal 90gsm White DL [Pack 500]

4.) 332918 – 5 Star Office Desktop Copyholder with Line Guide Ruler A4 Black

3.) 906209 – 5 Star Office CD-R Recordable Disk Write-once Cased 52x Speed 80Min 700Mb

2.) 397964 – 5 Star Office Fibre Tip Pen Medium 0.4mm Tip 0.4mm Line Blue [Pack 12]

1.) 393628 – 5 Star Office Pencil HB Red Barrel [Pack 12]

5 Star is our budget office supplies range and offers a great selection of your office basics at realistic prices.

How do you know which pencil best suits your needs? Pencils are graded to enable you to choose which one is best for you. The darkest and softest pencils are graded as 6B and this scale goes all the way to 4H – these being the hardest and lightest pencils. The most common pencil is HB – this means Hard and Black. (N.B:This is just the range we tend to stock – if you’re looking for a darker softer gradient try these)

Pencils can come in different types, mechanical or normal wood cased ‘leads’. Strangely enough the ‘lead’ pencils don’t actually contain any lead at all, in fact, they use a mixture of graphite and clay!

Did you know that in 2003-2004, 4.7 million working days in Great Britain were lost due to RSI?

Repetitive Strain Injury, (RSI) is caused by continued overuse of the same muscles, tendons and nerves. This usually affects the neck and upper limbs, although it can affect other areas. It can also be caused by poor posture.

Athough RSI is not exclisive to computer users, it is very common within this group. Many people now use computers for both work and leisure and this has lead to an increase in the number of reported cases of RSI.

Causes include poor posture when sitting at a desk or having your monitor at the incorrect height which means there is straining of the muscles, tendons or nerves, and if they are strained or tensed for too long this could lead to RSI.

You can help decrease your chances of RSI by doing stretching exercises and taking regular breaks, also there are chairs similar to this one which we use, keyboards and mouse mats to name but a few. Take a look on our website and uncover all the different items we have available to make your working day a more pleasant one!

Rotring Pens have long been recognised as some of the best in the business and as such are consistently asked for by our customers. Our range of Rotring equipment, doesn’t only cover their range of pens, but also mechanical pencils and drawing aids, but it is mainly the pens that people ask for.

Most Rotring pens are now refillable, with bottled ink being the preferred choice and the nib has a special easy clean system to prevent ink clogging and blotting. The pens are ideal for both black and coloured inks, and produce precise line widths in accordance with ISO Standard 128 & 3098/1 for drawing and lettering respectively.

When considering pens the nib size and the line size are important especially for detailed work, the Rotring range starts at 0.1mm tip, with other nib sizes 0.13mm, 0.18mm, 0.25mm, 0.30mm, 0.35mm and the largest sizes 0.5mm and 0.7mm nibs.

If you damage the nib of your Rotring pen it is possible to purchase replacements and this can save money when compared with cheaper brands for which spare nibs are not available.

If you own a small business and you would like to get a special offer really noticed you need Avery High Visibility labels

These labels are great for special offers for short time periods as you can produce as much or as little as you require. They come in a range of different neon colours and shapes for all your labeling requirements.

A good thing about this product is it’s easy to use and compatible with most laser printers for a great final finished look.

Ideal for labeling products for all occassions, packaging, brochures and highlighting special offers or new information.

With fast and changing technology in this 21st centaury, presentation and interaction between individuals and groups has evolved from basically handing out notes to graphical presentation i.e. interactive whiteboards , with uses of graphics, sounds and videos to make the presentation more interesting and less time consuming to prepare. An interactive whiteboard is a touch-sensitive projection screen that allows you to control a computer directly by touching the board rather than using a keyboard or mouse.

An interactive whiteboard needs a multimedia projector and a computer to display. With the connection of the projector to either a pc or laptop, the displays are then seen on the interactive whiteboard which acts as a display screen. There are several different types of interactive boards but the two most popular are: pen (works on electromagnetic technology) and analog resistive (finger).

Computer interactions are usually carried out on the help of mouse, but with an interactive whiteboard you can touch the buttons and carry out functions without having to click on the mouse. The interaction on a white board is done with either the finger itself or a special pen. Interaction on a whiteboard is similar to the use of mouse where here the pen or finger acts as the mouse and the cursor follows with the pens or fingers movement and to perform a function you simply double tab on the desired section of the screen.

The finger touch sensitive whiteboards are ideal for use in the different sectors of buth education and business training environments which includes schools and colleges. The corporate and training organisations can choose the best type of digital whiteboard according to their needs. Medical environments usually use the finger touch boards such as dragging pictures or having other functions. Whereas Business environments tend to use finger touch boards for report presentations.

Interactive whiteboards are connected to the computer through either USB or a wireless network. The software device driver is usually loaded to the computer and then the board can be used with the pc and projector. Whiteboards come with built in OCR (optical character recognition) which means the characters you write on the screen can be recognised by the computer and be run as commands.

Organising your filing cabinet is always a complicated, boring task. Make your boring filing days end with these Pink Suspension files!

Sometimes choosing the right files for your filling cabinets can be a bit confusing. I have put the approximated measurements of the files which we supply below, for the suspension and lateral files.

Suspension Files

These files come in either A4 or Foolscap sizes.

A4- The file size (WxD) is 315x245mm and the runner width = 345mm

Foolscap – The file size (WxD) is 365x245mm and the runner width is = 400mm

Lateral Files

Lateral 330 – (WxD) 330x280mm

Lateral 275 – (WxD) 275x280mm

Lateral 12 – (WxD) 275x350mm

Did you know that the majority of stapler faults are due to the incorrect staples being used? The manufacturer always recommends a staple number which along with the staples packaging can cause some confusion.

The first digits 23, 24, 26 etc usually indicates the gauge of wire – the smaller the number the heavier the gauge.

The second digit indicates the length of the shank in millimetres – hence 26/6 = 26 gauge wire with a 6mm shank length.

I t is important to use the correct shank length as if it is to short it will not bind the paper together, and if it is too long there will be too much “fold over.”

To view our range of staplers click here or to view our range of staples click here.

Pens – most people think as long as it writes, then thats all that matters. But as personal preference, there are thousands to choose from!! Writing systems all work in different ways and differ on the writing conditions and paper used.

You could have a ball pen which is made with an oil based ink and can resist extreme temperatures and writes on most surfaces. The main characteristic of a ball pen is that they can write between 15,000 and 30,000 metres before running out!

Or how about a rollerball pen? Traditionally rollerballs work by feeding the ink to the ball from an ink soaked fibre reservoir, but you can also get liquid ink rollerballs (Free ink). The liquid ink rollerball pens use a water-based ink. Free ink rollers use an ink delivery system which ensures a constant flow to the nib. These pens also allow you to see the remaining ink level in the barrel.
The main nib types for rollerballs are the ‘Cone Tip‘ – this tip is ideal for high volumes of writing and offers great protection to the ball and the ‘Needlepoint Tip‘ – this reduces friction between the ball and produces very free flowing writing. This tip is usually favoured for detailed writing work.

Gel ink is another type, they are avaliable in lots of bright colours and they offer smooth writing, as the gel not only lubricates the ball, but also places a greater amount of ink on the paper.

Fineliner pens are perfect for stenciling and work where precision is everything as the ink is laid down in a small line width! Fineliners usually have a fibre or a plastic tip, but there are some rollerball fineliners available – just to confuse matters!

Fibre tipped pens have tip made from fine nylon and other synthetic fibres ground to a point. The ink is fed to the tip from a soft fibrous reservoir being drawn by capillary forces. The fibre tipped pens tend provide smooth writing and a consistent line.

Fountain pens are one of my favourite types. They tend to have the smoothest writing out of all the different types of pens. They can be used with replaceable ink cartridges or bottled ink.
They have the ability to last forever. (Unless your like me and constantly lose them!)

Take a look at the all pens we do by clicking here or on the links above.

If you’d like to recommend a pen you have which you are really happy with, then post a comment here and tell the world about it!

With 70% of the workforce suffering from back problems at some point in their working lives it is important to have an Office Chair that meets your needs.

At Office365 we have a wide variety of chairs that will put your back pain days behind you.

Our Trexus range is the most popular, with back shape to match the spine and fully adjustable features, such as arms (these some times are sold separately to the chairs).