Save on paper and ink PLUS a free printables blog hop

by Robyn Wright on September 24, 2012

in Living,Tech

MC900433874[1]While I am no longer a homeschooling parent, I still have lots of friends who do homeschool. I think my brain may appear to be stuck in homeschool mode, but it is really because I just think everyone should always learn everyday. I just happened across this free printables blog hop that started today, September 24, and will run for two weeks. They are having different topics each day. If you need content for homeschool this is going to be a fun place to look and if you have made your own free printables to share you can link up for the blog hop also. Even if you do not homeschool you might find useful printables especially on September 24, September 28, October 2, and October 5. A reminder that while I am not religious, there are many homeschoolers who are so I’m sure there will be a mix of secular and non-secular printables each day.

pdf fileNow, on to saving on printing. If you are like I used to be, you print out everything cool you see for homeschooling. You do not need to do that! Instead of printing everything you find immediately with the chance you might misplace it or not ever end up using it. Save your paper and ink by saving the printables to your computer instead of printing. By saving the item you can name it whatever you like and  make your own organizational folders on your computer to keep them all together in a way that suits you. Then when, and if, you need it you can then easily print it out.

Many of you may already have this function installed on your computer. The easy way to find out is right now hit print and then look at the printer that your item is being sent to. There should be a menu to pick another printer. Look in that menu for something with PDF in the name. If you have it, select it and hit print. A box will pop up asking you where to save your PDF file to. Super easy! If you do not already have a PDF printer function installed you can easily install one. CutePDF is probably the most popular utility.

By the way I use this for online shipping receipts and all sorts of things that I want a copy of, but that I don’t’ necessarily want to use paper on.

Do you already save paper and ink by saving things as a PDF rather than printing?

© 2012, Robyn Wright. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: education, free, geek, homeschool, printer, saving money, tips, tutorial

  • tannawings

    Hey mine does have that option- didnt even know it was there!!!! I could hug you sometimes I swear. Now to remember this is there- this is going to come in handy for gardening stuff!

  • http://twitter.com/rkosully Robin

    Yes, I really try to minimize the number of things I print. I have enough piles of papers around the house anyway, so I only print what is essential!

  • Tiffany Winner

    i usually bookmark stuff but should save so it doesnt disappear thismomwins@gmail.com

  • Ravzie

    I am super stingy with the printer ink! I may be silly, but I can’t believe how many people print coupons for a few cents off an item. Figuring in the paper and ink, it is not cost effective IMHO. I save screen shots often. That way if I actually need the whatever, I can print it. I also go into the printer menu and change from “normal” or “best” to “fast” or “draft”.

    • http://www.RobynsOnlineWorld.com/ Robyn’s Online World

      I am the same way – those printable coupons for low values drive me crazy. AND the ones that have full color ads below the coupons just make me totally out of my mind LOL.

      My default printing is “draft” mode :-)

  • http://blog.nerdfamily.com/ Jacqueline Cromwell

    I do some printing to pdf to save them. I also do it to share documents that I need printed by other people;). Then compatibility isn’t an issue! Thanks for the heads up! I will be participating in the hop!

    • http://www.RobynsOnlineWorld.com/ Robyn’s Online World

      I figured you might have your own printables that you share with others :)

  • Shannon Whitfield

    I end up bookmarking a thousand things, but I’m going to start doing it this way instead.. with the folders and such, so much more organized, and you can find things easily when you want them, I like that. Many thanks for the homeschooling printables link!! What a treasure trove of great lesson ideas and visual aids! They’ll be of great use to us!

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