Being assigned the task of buying in the offices envelopes is not a nice chore when you don’t fully understand the sizes. The consequences of making a mistake can be catastrophic as a business relies heavily on its outbound mail for both invoices and sales purposes. So if that’s you, then good luck, or if you a spare moment, read on. This post will give you a simple explanation as to the different envelope formats available, their measurements and which paper fits inside them unfolded. Once you fully understand paper formats, it does make comprehending envelope formats a lot easier as they go hand in hand.

• C4 Envelopes – In basic, C4 envelopes are made to complement A4 paper, as a sheet of A4 paper will fit perfectly UNFOLDED inside a C4 format envelope. These are particularly useful for when the contents of the envelope must not be folded and must remain pristine. Dimensions – 324mm x 229mm (12¾” x 9″).
• C5 Envelopes – These are intended to be used with A5 paper UNFOLDED or alternatively with A4 format paper FOLDED ONCE. These too are a very popular envelope style and commonly contain leaflets and small brochures. Dimensions – 229mm x 162mm (9″x 6⅜”).
• C6 Envelopes – These are designed to work with A6 format paper (see the pattern here?) UNFOLDED, or alternatively with A5 format paper FOLDED ONCE, or A4 format paper FOLDED TWISE. These have many uses however most commonly are used to issue wages and payslips. Dimensions – 114mm x 162mm (4½” x 6⅜”).
• DL Envelopes – The most popular business envelope is the DL format envelope. This takes a sheet of A4 format paper folded TWISE into thirds or A5 paper FOLDED ONCE. There’s an art to folding paper for use in DL envelopes, carefully bend the letter without actually folding it into an ‘S’ shape, adjusting it until the three sections look the same size. To be extra cautious, check it against the envelope to make sure it will fit. Once you have found your three equal parts press down to a permanent fold and you’re done. Dimensions – 110mm x 220mm (4⅓” x 8⅔”).

Now that you’ve found the right format envelope you will now have a choice of seal and style. Wallet and banker variety envelopes will have the opening along the long edge and are probably the most popular envelope type. Alternatively, pocket envelopes have an opening along the short edge, these too are a relatively popular choice. Other choices include gusset which expand to hold their contents, or padded and protective envelopes which are reinforced by means of board, foam or bubble wrap.

When it comes to the seal, you have three choices. The oldest is of course gummed where the flap must be moistened in order for the adhesive to work. These are great if you don’t mind the taste, or have a wet sponge to hand, as they are the cheapest option. Alternatively, we have press and seal envelopes which simply require you to apply the two glued flapped together. Finally, peel and seal envelopes have a glued strip protected by plastic, simply fill the envelope, then peel back the plastic strip and close.

It can be difficult getting to grips with our ‘A’ paper formats, especially when you’re used to them being referred to as something else! So if your finding it difficult grasping our paper sizes, read on and I will do my very best to explain. A4 and the other A paper formats are based on metric measurements, with an A0 piece of paper equalling one meter squared. A0 format paper folded in half is then equal to the next size down, A1. A1 format paper folded in half is then equal to its next size down, A2 , and so on, so forth until you reach size A6. All these ‘A’ paper formats have a height to width ratio of 1.414:1.The international paper size standard (ISO 216) is based on the German DIN 476 standard for paper sizes. ISO sizes are all based on quite simply, the single aspect ratio of square root of 2. A4 (210 × 297 mm) is the most frequently used paper format.

To summarise, the ISO 216 definition of ‘A’ paper formats is based on the following:

• The length divided by the width is 1.4142
• The A0 format has an area of 1 square metre.
• Each subsequent format ‘A’ is defined as ‘A’ cut in half parallel to its shorter sides.
• The standard length and width of each size is rounded to the nearest millimetre.

Our most popular papers are the A3 and A4 format papers which we have available from both budget brands and the highest quality brands. Choose from glossy paper to card, water marked to specialist, listing paper to blotting paper, the choice is yours. So for your pick of the best A4 Paper and A3 Paper at the lowest prices on the net, come and take a peek at what we have on offer. Take a look at the chart below for a guide to ‘A’ format papers measurements.

There are many paper items around the home (and the office for that matter) which need putting somewhere safe, however filing them takes up valuable space needed for important documents and bills. Having just purchased a 15 drawer multi-drawer filing cabinet (which I love!) it turns out that if I wanted to file everything, there just wouldn’t be enough room for 1 draw per category (i.e. Bank statements = 1 draw, mobile phone bills = 1 draw etc). So items such as my children’s beautiful pictures, homemade birthday/mother’s day cards, birth certificate, NHS medical records cards, pay slips, the children’s awards and certificates and other such items need to be put somewhere else, freeing up the filing cabinet for more official filing which needs to be organised for financial reasons! Keeping plastic folders with fasteners to hand means that you can house each of your ‘other items’ with their own folder, then slot these on the book shelf in the office. So for example, my daughter has graded in karate so many times now, that she has five certificates to demonstrate each belt, these can all be kept save together in one of these plastic folders and added to when needed. Letters and cards from loved ones can be saved in another, while birth certificates, passports and NHS medical cards can be kept in another.

A fantastic example of a plastic folder with fasteners is the Rexel Active Popper Wallet featured to your right.

• Unique double-sided ID sleeves ensure files are always visible
• Comes with an A4 folded label that gives 16 printable locations
• Ideal for storage of large documents and projects
• Assorted packs contain two each of red and blue and one of green
• Landscape – Extra Capacity (150 sheets)
• Assorted
• Packed 5
• 24% Off!!

These folders have clever re-usable ID features which ensure your files and file contents are always visible. The folders also feature a rigid spine which is designed so that it can click easily in and out of a lever arch file, for quick and easy access to contents… without having to open the mechanism. For just £5.39 a pack, you can’t go wrong!

The Green Bit

Acco are committed to providing and conducting its business in an environmentally responsible manner, ensuring that their products, packaging and operations are safe for their employees, business partners, customers and ultimately, the environment. They strive to continuously improve their processes and products to ensure innovation, quality and value for money without compromising on their environmental responsibilities.

Their core objectives are to reduce the amounts of material that they use whether in their products or their packaging, identify plastics to aid separation and recovery and recover parts and establishing re-usability potential, recycle as much as possible, use significantly more recycled materials in their processes while promoting and supporting the recycling of their products by their business partners and consumers. They also aim to recover the energy produced from waste by safe, effective disposal, return materials back to nature and review what they have done to try to improve their processes even further. As a testament to their commitment to be more environmentally driven and focused, many of Acco’s products have been verified by the MBDC Consultancy and awarded the Cradle to Cradle certification. This certification provides a company with a means to tangibly, credibly measure achievement in environmentally-intelligent design and helps customers purchase and specify products that are pursuing a broader definition of quality.

Acco are also proud to have been awarded the UK’s BOSS (British Office Supplies and Services) Federation Environmental Award for the past 11 years. The BOSS Federation is the trade association which serves the UK Office Supply and services industry by providing a range of initiatives, cost saving benefits and services, to enhance the business performance of its members. This comprehensive award scheme covers a wide range of environmental issues, such as reducing energy consumption and improving our employees’ working conditions.

Many people choose box files as a sturdy, fuss free form of filing for both the office and the home. However some find that maintaining an organised file system is more difficult than they realised allowing stacks of paper to mount up, bills to get muddled and confused and invoices and utilities left unpaid as a result. It doesn’t have to be so complicated however, a simple set of box files, one for each bill, can be added to and taken away from whenever a bill comes through the door and whenever you need to retrieve a statement. These box files can then be neatly stored on a shelf in the office for easy access, or filed away in an archive box for neat storage. Filing in this way gives you more time, less stress, more living space and of course, more money due to the better organisation of the finances. This may initially take an hour or two as it is important to go through your paper work before you start up a new filing process.

So, before you begin filing, first sift through all your files, folders, drawers, heaps and mounds of paperwork and remove any documents you no longer need. You’ll be surprised at how many this actually is! When you have finished, shred the old, unwanted paperwork. While sorting through your paperwork, if you find something you’d like to keep, file it straight away.

As and when you receive bills and statements, don’t leave them in various heaps, file them straight away. If you begin a small pile ‘to be filed later’, it will only grow. I found myself leaving a couple of bills out in the office as I knew I needed to phone them. As the days turned to weeks the pile started to grow. Instead, make a list of the companies you need to phone and the bills that need to be paid and FILE IT straight away. Where possible, switch to paperless billing, it’s kinder to the environment.

Here at Office 365 we have various different box files available for you storage needs. However the home and the office demand different things. Are you filing foolscap documents or A4, or are you looking to archive old business paperwork for infrequent access? We have various different box file dimensions available here to cater to a wide range of needs. Choose from A4 box files, Foolscap box files, Archive storage boxes (measuring WxDxH: 317 x 384 x 287mm), metal suspension file boxes (measuring WxDxH: 370 x 220 x 290mm), and various plastic filing boxes in sizes including 35 litres, 24 litres and 19 litres.

We’ve all by now heard of the famous Bubble Wrap! Found in most homes, offices, shops and delivery vans across the globe. This unique and irreplaceable packaging material was discovered quite by accident and due to its flexibility, can be used to wrap all kinds of small, large and oddly shaped items for storage or transportation.

Bubble Wrap History

Bubble Wrap was invented by two men named Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes back in 1957. They were in fact trying to make plastic wallpaper, however their idea was a complete failure.  In spite of this so called catastrophe, the pair did in fact create a success which would soon become a household name known across the globe. Their disappointing wallpaper actually turned out to be a fantastic packaging aid – Bubble Wrap. Sealed Air Corp. was co-founded by Fielding in 1960, and today they are still a major Bubble Wrap manufacturer.

Featured to the right is our Flexocare Bubble Film (600mm x 5m) which is a specialty bubble film that has a anti-scratch inner and a write-on outer. This triple laminate bubble wrap is made using over 50% recycled materials and is just £6.91! Other than its obvious use for packing and mailing items, bubble wrap rolls are also a very useful tool for various other tasks:

• Stress Reliever – Many claim that popping the bubbles in bubble wrap is very therapeutic; when each bubble pops with pressure, it gives a satisfying ‘pop’. In fact, we love bubble wrap so much that it has even been given its own appreciation day, celebrated on the last Monday in January!
• Insulation – Bubble Wrap can even be used to line the glass on your windows – a proven effective method of insulation!
• Dress Making – Yes, it has been done!
• Lining Salad Crisper – By lining the salad crispers in your fridge, your fruit and vegetables will keep fresh for longer. The air pockets cushion the drawer preventing your food from becoming bruised. This method can also save on cleaning!
• Protecting Windshields From Frost – Be prepared on a wintery evening and tape bubble wrap to your windshield, this way when you wake up in the morning, you won’t have to scrape all the ice or snow off!

Brown wrapping paper (aka Kraft paper), also used in mailrooms and warehouses for packaging, is chosen for its strength and durability. This coarse paper not only boasts strength, but is commonly chosen due to its high tensile strength – perfect for packaging and for wrapping presents. In modern society the consumer tends to choose more aesthetically pleasing wrapping paper which do not live up to the standard of the old classic brown wrapping paper. Newer more modern wrapping paper is thin, has very little tensile strength and is likely to tear after minimal handling. It is only down to clever advertising and consumerism that we have transgressed from brown paper packaging (tied up with string ) to this new flimsy substitute.

Brown paper (such as the Marland Kraft Paper featured) is stronger due to the kraft process which is also known as kraft pulping. The process involves the conversion of wood into wood pulp and the result consists of almost pure cellulose fibers. The wood chips are treated with a mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, known as white liquor, which break the bonds that link lignin to the cellulose. This may all sound like a load of gobbledy gook, but it is this process combined with the materials used which makes the paper as strong as it is.

We understand how clever marketing managed to sway us; we chose pretty, yet poor quality paper over strong brown paper which can withstand heavy handling. It used to be that a brown paper package was exciting, tied up with traditional string or twine, in fact personally I still find this look far more appealing. However brown paper doesn’t have to be plain. Tie your parcels up with colourful ribbon or invest in some craft stamps and decorate the paper with all kinds of designs. I went to a children’s birthday party 2 weekends ago which was wonderful. We all felt as though we’d gone back in time; a ribbon treasure hunt in the fields, a homemade paper Mache piñata, home cooked biscuits, bread and quiche, it was fabulous and very inspiring as a parent! The icing on the cake was their party bags at the end – brown paper bags individually decorated (by the birthday boy) with a painted character! How lovely, this was then filled with a yummy slice of homemade strawberry and cream Victoria sponge!

Take advantage of our 44% saving on the Marland Kraft Paper pictured above which is also 100% recycled! Our price just £19.63!! As of 16/03/2011 - While stocks last!

Easters around the corner and it’s time to get crafty! This one’s great for at home, but also in the office to boost morale. With the forthcoming ‘bank holiday season’ just around the corner and quite a bit of time off for the kids, getting crafty is a great way of keeping them entertained that doesn’t need to break the bank. Use this time to make little Easter gifts for friends and family, the kids will love it! Times are tough in the office with very few companies offering anything in the way of pay raises and bonuses so we must make sure to keep the staff’s morale up. Taking a few hours in the afternoon aside in your office can really put the smile back on their faces, as will the fact that your getting crafty with them and doing a non work related task. Take a look at our step by step guide to making microwavable salt dough Easter nests. Basically, with salt, flour, water and some decorations you can make your own beautiful Easter baskets to give as gifts to family and friends or for your staff to use on their desks for bit’s and bobs such as paperclips. On a rainy or cold day, you will probably have these items around the house.

You will need;

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 ½ cups of hot water
• Paint to decorate

This should be enough for a team or a family to make their little egg/paper clip nests/baskets. After mixing together the above ingredients, get stuck in! It’s fascinating seeing the different nest shapes take form. Make sure that the ‘dip’ is big enough to hold miniature eggs or paperclips and for the kids, maybe encourage them to make more of a basket than a nest. This way it can be used when egg hunting!

Next using a microwavable safe plate, bake your nests/baskets in the microwave for 1 to 4 minutes, increasing the time by 1 minute increments and keeping a close eye on the microwave as they bake. Microwave power levels differ, so use high power in a less-powerful oven, but lower if your oven heats things very quickly. You don’t want to risk a fire! If you’re making these for office use, remember to take the paperclips out before your microwave! Let ornaments cool completely before decorating.

You know that feeling you get when you’ve grabbed yourself a bargain, a bit of a high, like when you’ve successfully haggled? With our current financial crisis we could all do with getting that ‘buzz’ a little more often, particularly with those items we have no choice but to buy! I was in my local Co-op this morning just to grab some margarine (the poor kids went to school today with peanut butter sandwiches as we ran out of butter!) but was very distracted at a wonderful offer on the Easter Eggs. I bought my little cherubs these big Duc D’o Easter Eggs from £10 down to £4.85 (£4 something, can’t remember to the penny)! I grabbed two with a big cheesy grin and rushed to the counter as if they were going to change their minds and wrestle them off me! I then proceeded to natter on about how amazing the offer was and that I’d have to hide them on top of my wardrobe until Easter…..meanwhile forgetting all about the butter, *sigh*. You see the effects of a good offer?! Well no doubt you’re on the internet today looking for something in particular and have stumbled across my blog distracted by its titillating title! Well yes, you did read it correctly, we are offering you a massive 85% off our fantastic 5 Star punched pockets! When you get to now Office 365 a little more, you’ll soon see that we have many tempting offers consistently available throughout the site; to find the best ones such as this, take a look on the home page.

Our 5 Star Office Punched Pockets featured to the right are made using durable polypropylene and are punched along the side to adapt to various different binder styles. These A4 top opening pockets are available in packs of 100, yes, 100 and are down from £12.22 to just £1.79!! Plastic pockets are in continuous use in our homes and offices which means they are an item which we’ll frequently need to purchase. So why not make the most of this offer, stock up and grab yourself free delivery while you’re at it. If you purchase 23 packs of these, you want have to pay a penny is courier fees! Our little way of saying thank you.

• A4 open top 50 micron polypropylene pocket
• Multi-punched reinforcing strip
• Anti-glare
• Polypropylene material will not lift ink from copy
• Quantity 100

Office 365 have a large variety of plastic pockets available all with unbeatable prices (however not as generous as this particular pocket).Choose from A5, A4 and A3 sizes and also from landscape or vertical options. Our plastic pocket brands include; Bantex, Esselte, Masters, Rexel, Elba, Leitz, Masters, Snopake, SSeco, Uno, 3L and 5 Star.

Happy shopping – and apologies for distracting you !

This week we’re drawing your attention to our special offers. Already with a reputation for affordable office and stationery supplies, Office 365 are now offering you further reductions on all your favourite items. In business for nearly a decade, we have developed a name for ourselves over the years for providing quality products at the lowest prices on the net which is all backed up with our price match policy. If you take a look through our selection of home, office and stationery goods you will recognise quality, popular brands, unbeatable choice and fair pricing. And if you look a little deeper, you will find a team who are happy in their work, friendly to their customers and always at hand to help you. We offer so many little perks and quirks for our shoppers because we highly value your custom. Our special offers have been carefully picked singling out our most popular items so that you can get more for your money; this way, we hope you’ll come back for more!

Today’s special offer are the 5 Star Plastic Wallets featured. With a huge range of uses, it’s no wonder this one’s a favourite!

• Premium quality envelope wallets made from colourful, translucent polypropylene
• Press-stud closure provides added security for contents
• Accepts 150 sheets of A4
• Size: A4
• Assorted pack contains three each of clear, red, orange, purple, smoke, green and yellow and four of blue
• Quantity 25

Personally, as soon as I purchased a pack of these (which at the time was purely for storing wage slips and medical cards), I’ve found endless uses for them! When my daughters opened their first bank accounts they needed a safe way to keep all their information together, so I gave them one each, then when we bought seeds for the garden, there were some left so I needed a way to keep them safe too. Letters from friends and relatives were getting jumbled up with everything else so I used one to keep those together and guarantees for my purchases as well as manuals and leaflets needed a home too! The list is endless for home uses and in business they are priceless storage items for filing and employee records as well as many other applications. Our offer at the moment gives you an extra 73% off making the price for this pack of 25 just £9.99! I couldn’t recommend these wallets more highly, so why not grab yourself a bargain today and explore their many uses for yourself!

Such a small and inexpensive item such as a name badge has revolutionised businesses security across the globe. Thanks to Durable, we now have a selection of name/ID badges making security simple, cheap and consistent. With crimes committed against businesses amounting to quite a cost; stolen stock, equipment, premises damage, bank details fraud and customer details fraud, plus of course the consequences to staff morale, businesses need to be far more stringent with who they allow onto the premises, recording their entrance and exit and identifying them. One of the simplest precautions every business should make is to identify their visitors with the use of ID Badges. It is fundamentally crucial to have control over the physical security of your business and this begins with controlling the access to your premises. This of course begins in reception where all your visitors need to be logged and name badges given.

Our Durable Name Badges featured to the right are used to identify a person and establish camaraderie. They work as a security device giving details of the wearer’s position, status and the areas they are allowed to access. They can also be used in conferences and other business gatherings where there are a substantial number of guests and far too many to introduce. With a name badge it is so much easier to facilitate conversation, and so much more difficult to make embarrassing mistakes!

• Can be pinned to clothing or clipped with crocodile clip
• Size: 54 x 90mm
• Quantity 50
• 62% Off!!!
• Now just £18.67

The Green Bit

Protection of the environment is one of the great challenges of our time. Virtually no modern corporate organisation acting with a sense of responsibility can afford to dispense with eco management. After all, this one planet is all we have. Eco management can only have a lasting effect if the company practising it is engaged in continuous improvement.

Eco Friendly

DURABLE products are particularly eco-friendly thanks to their durability. The plastic materials they use are robust, have excellent recycling properties and can be disposed of together with normal refuse with no problem at all.

In accordance with its guiding principles, Durable continuously aim to further optimise their ecology-oriented management. Their aim is to develop products that are largely recyclable (of course they should also be produced at low cost and yield a reasonable profit!). To meet this ideal as closely as possible, Durable continuously carry out critical analyses of the environmental impact of their products and production processes. Thus the material thicknesses of their products and above all, their packaging are constantly reviewed for possible enhancements. Through packaging modifications developed in-house, Durable have been able to achieve significant material savings and reductions in volume. Durable also demonstrate their responsibility towards the environment through their purchasing policies. Important decisions in favour of ecologically sustainable production are being made in regular project meetings between their purchasing department and suppliers. Careful selection of optimal materials is one way to protect the environment.  The right choice of suppliers is also as important to Durable. They never fail to check whether the manufacturers and their suppliers are certified, and how they are being regulated. These questions must always be answered before they decide on any purchase.