23 October 2012

Free For All Tuesday No. 90

Tuesdays are your chance to ask any Filofax related questions you might have.

So fire away and we will collectively try to answer your questions or offer opinions.

58 comments:

  1. Compact v personal..my latest debate for the 2013 planner as I fancy a new Osterley but cannot decide which to buy. ( Both?!) . I want to carry a monthly tabbed, a years week on one page with notes, about six sheets of paper for finances and at least a week's worth of the day on two pages. Can I do that in a compact? I know that if I measure what I want to put in in theory it needs to be less that 1.5 cm. but I also have a pocket with 15mm rings I use as a purse and when I measure the contents of that it comes to 2cm! Can a compact owner please put as much paper as comfortably turns in theirs and let me know what that measures? Thanks.

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    1. Hi Helen! Did you get your new blog up and running? How is the quilting going?

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    2. I am struggling with this as well. Today I was able to compare in person the compact and personal Osterleys. I don't think you can keep a years worth of stuff in it. Maybe half a year. As of now, I am using a Personal Holborn. Only carrying 3 months of inserts, and its already pretty stuffed up. I use it as a wallet as well. I think it's bc I carry lots of cards. Credit cards, licenses, insurance cards fr my family.

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    3. I am struggling with this as well. Today I was able to compare in person the compact and personal Osterleys. I don't think you can keep a years worth of stuff in it. Maybe half a year. As of now, I am using a Personal Holborn. Only carrying 3 months of inserts, and its already pretty stuffed up. I use it as a wallet as well. I think it's bc I carry lots of cards. Credit cards, licenses, insurance cards fr my family.

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    4. You can fit your sheets, as needed, in a compact. I've been doing that myself with my regency compact as well. I use; day on 2 pages (only 3-4 weeks), week on 2 pages (3 months) tabbed month on 2 pages (6 months) and month on 2 pages overview (6 months). Also finance sheets, notes and lists. However, I do archive a lot and I am now at the point of struggle I would actually like to carry more with me in my compact, but it doensn't fit.. So, I am thinking of getting a Personal Regency, since I love Reggie so much.. :0 ..

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    5. Thanks Lady-Filo. It occurred to me after I posted that I could also ask the good people at City Organiser who confirmed also I could fit my desired stuff in a compact 'comfortably'. In the world of self deception this is pleasing as it means I am not buying MORE organisers ( I already use personal Astons and a vast nmumber of A5s)I am buying DIFFERENT which is much more acceptable:) So next issue: which colour Osterley to choose?!
      although, now you mention Regency...!

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    7. Helen-I have the Osterley in grey in A5, Personal, and compact. I just got the Osterley in pocket in plum yesterday. They are all so beautiful. The grey (to me) has blues and purples in it while the plum is such a deep reddish purple. Sorry that doesn't help :) They are all so beautiful.

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    8. Orange! Then take lots of photos for me to drool over. :-D

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    9. I'm a little late to the game here, but I hope this helps. Since switching to the compact, I have not gone back to the personal for carrying items with me. I do keep a personal at home that contains all of the information I want in one place but that I don't need with me when I walk out the door (address book, home projects, financial information, etc.). That leaves me with only what I do need while out and about. In my compact I have: 6 subject tabs with 2-4 sheets behind each, a years worth of monthly pages, 3 months worth of daily pages. It helps to rotate weeks out, so when a new month arrives, I remove the month that just passed and add whatever month makes up the 3 months worth of inserts.

      As for binder: I own the regency in black and brown and I love them dearly. However, once I got the osterley in plum, I never moved out. Something about that binder I just absolutely *love*. I did switch to the brown regency for the fall, was in it for only a couple of days before I was back into the osterley. I had been eyeing for many weeks before purchasing it, but I didn't think I love it as much as I do. I still love the regency as well and maybe I'll move back into at some point. But for now, osterley is where it's at. I only have the plum, so I can't speak for the other colors, but I adore the color. I don't like bright or flashy colors for my planners, but this is just enough color without it being too much for me. The purple is so deep and rich, it's one of the reasons I like the binder so much!

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  2. Staples UK have some discounts on binders online - also when I went to my local Staples they had some pocket and mini binders half price that are not reduced online. (For example Aston!). I didn't buy anything as I don't really need anything - especially that size - but might be worth popping in if you are passing.

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  3. I have been designing my own FF pages, but I struggle a bit with getting things centred because of the ring gutter.
    Does anyone know what the margins should be for A5 inserts?
    I know that I could work this out myself... but I could waste an awful lot of paper trying to get it right!

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    1. I use 0.6 cm for all margins except 1.2 cm for the ring edge. I tend to use text boxes a lot and find that if I am printing on A4 and then cutting down it helps to set the page up as landscape with two columns with a line between them. Then size the view on screen to the actual size of an A4 paper ( by the technical method of holding it up to see!). that way you can check before printing if everything fits.

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    2. Thank you. I have one design which I use every day and it's a folded one so I trim a bit off the unpunched side and then fold so that there is a margin (not) over the holes. If I just fold it in half it would be wider than the standard pages.
      I want to print some ordinary A5 ones so they will be mirrored and I just need to work out how to print upside down to get something on both sides now.

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  4. To answer Alison's question above about my new blog... she refers to a comment I made about starting one in response to your kind comments on my Guest posts here when people said they would like more of my writing.
    The answer is YES ( almost)!
    The new site is called Plan • Create • Succeed and it will launch on 1st November. Steve has kindly agreed to host me as guest again on that day so I can show you how indispensible my purple Malden was in helping me set it all up.
    the new site will have regular features on organisation and planning, self development, creating art and food, journalling and other such goodies. Also a forum place for you to come and talk about it all much like this one. I am excited about it so I hope you will all come and visit and hang out!

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  5. I'm hitting planner fail AGAIN!! For the past few weeks I've been using a Wo1P plus notes, with DPP in between. I only had a week's worth of DPP in, and instead used the WO1P for future planning. I hit planner fail because I don't need a whole DPP at the moment- I don't need to plan that much, I don't have many appointments, and instead of forward planning for the day, I just find myself filling in what I have already done into the time slots. I need time slots because my brain thinks very linearly- it doesn't work when the page is a mess and disorganised! So I tried different personal sized formats last night- WO2P columns with appointments times that I made myself, Day Timer WO2P... but none of them worked. Ideally, I want appointment slots with half hour intervals, and space for to-dos, or at the very least, just space to separate appointments and to-dos and othee stuff. Any ideas? Thanks!

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    1. I found the French site has different diary inserts and the day on two pages has all that stuff but of course might be too much space for your needs. Have a look there and also on the swedish site which has different ones too and see if anything helps. Personally I need a magically expanding and contracting insert as no day seems to require the same thing!

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  6. Would it be possible to make the list of Filofax bloggers work in "real time" please?

    It's a huge list there is a widget in Blogger "Layout" which creates a list and order them according to when they were updated, in chronological order.

    So, for example it will say

    Steve's FF blog, updated 38 minutes ago
    The super duper FF blog, updated 9 hours ago
    Fred's FF blog, updated 11 moths ago

    It would make it really easy to see all the recent posts and help me to keep track of what I have read already. If I visited on Saturday I know that since today os Tuesday, I on;y need to look at the top x posts which have been written in the last four days.

    Thank you.

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    1. *headdesk*

      How many typos did I have in that comment?

      Normal service will be resumed after a nice cup of tea.

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    2. Hi Natalie
      Nice idea... but.. the list of blogs that are monitored for Web Finds which comes out on Tueday and Saturday is now over a 100 different blogs, and not all of the blog post are about Filofax. Some are only occasional Filofax bloggers.

      Webfinds I think will fit your need better. The other problem with the widget you mention is that it will only show the most recent post. Some bloggers might publish 2 or 3 posts in a 3-4 day period so there would be the possibility of missing posts.

      Webfinds are arranged in chronological order, I add to the list as the posts appear on my monitoring system.

      Regards
      Steve

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    3. Natalie, have you ever used Google Reader? It will automatically show all of the "new" posts since last time you logged in, so you know exactly who has posted and can go directly to them. Of course, this only works for blogs you have subscribed to...

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    4. I use Google Reader, too, and it works great!

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    5. I also use Google Reader.....it's perfect for my needs, and sounds as if it would meet yours too.

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    6. Google Reader - It's the bomb!

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    7. me too! I follow this with google reader.

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  7. Hi there, everyone! This is my first post, as I'm a recent convert to Filofax (less than two weeks). I've got a black-and-orange Personal Apex, which I love.

    I have a question: Does anyone know of a retailer that offers reasonably-priced postage to New Zealand? I'm trying to get a Personal-sized calculator and Rapseco Diary Punch 66P, but the shipping costs on Amazon.co.uk seemed quite high. Can anyone recommend a way to buy my Filo goodies without breaking the bank?

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    1. HI Cruz and welcome! I often have this issue when I see things in the US as the postage to the UK is prohibitive. Perhaps you need to come over for a holiday with an empty suitcase or arrange a holiday swap with someone from the UK (only joking!). I suppose this is an issue with the internet as it allows us to see things globally which we ordinarily would not think of.

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    2. Hey Cruz. Fellow Kiwi here. I find that you really can't go past Pens and Leather for buying your Filofax goodies. But I also check out Fishpond.co.nz, amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, here at Philophaxy and even Ebay. Sometimes people also put their items up for sale on the Filofax for Philofaxy Fans on Facebook.

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  8. Last week I sent off my faulty Finchley to Filofax, I put a note in it to say I wanted to exchange it for a Holborn personal in Wine, and today I got a letter saying they will send me a Wine Holborn, and it should be with me within 5 to 7 days!!! :D :D So happy!!!

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    1. and you will be when you get it too. I have just received the A5 wine Holborn and it feels gorgeous. Incidentally Pen and Paper in Cardiff on their online shop had a very good price.

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    2. The Holborn is the best Filofax ever! You will not be disappointed! (at least I'm not). Beautiful leather, beautiful pockets :)

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  9. Hi, question - who has used a Dodpad insert? Particularly personal sized? How did you find it?
    I would especially like to hear from anyone who has used one as their *main* diary.

    2013 is fast approaching and I have yet to decide on a diary layout!

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    1. Hi
      There are a couple of videos on You Tube worth looking at:

      http://youtu.be/CCis59zkFJc

      and

      http://youtu.be/tMf11pYPbqs

      Both feature the 2013 format.

      Steve

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    2. Cheers Steve, food for thought, saw a few other Dodopad reviews too. Very interesting.

      Still can't decide for sure. :-D

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    3. I've been using Dodopad-and it works well for me! When I first began using it in my Personal Finchley, in early 2012, I used it as a 'side' diary to a week on 2 Pages. After buying the 2013 from the site in the UK--I have decided to use it all year 'round in my compact Luxe. It is a great fit, and it allows me to plan, in advance, as well as schedule for the week ahead.
      It was worth the postage from the UK, to here in the states--I paid more for shipping than for the pad itself!

      Try it-especially in a compact organizer.

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  10. Has anyone used the week on one page in cotton cream?
    I'd really like the week on one page with notes, but they don't do it in this colour. I thought I would get the week on one page and insert cream note pages in between.
    I'm concerned that the 5 language option will leave little room for writing - has anyone got any experience of this?

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    1. That was one of the reasons why Ray and I designed our own version of the week per page with just a single language. I'm going to print this version on Filofax Personal Size blank cotton cream paper for next year.

      Steve

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    2. I know Steve - but I got in such a mess when I tried to print it out using the A4 version. Did you get the FF blank cotton cream paper on the FF site? I haven't seen it before. That might work better.

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  11. Is here anybody from UK who could help me to buy my first malden filofax and inserts from UK ebay? They ship only to UK, anf I'm not there? Please, answer me to mysummertouch at hotmail dot com or here
    thank you

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    1. Tried emailing that address, but your mail bounced. Email me davidpopely (at) googlemail (dot) com

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  12. Does anyone have those Filofax stickers they would like to 'Donate' to me? I want to try them out.. but so many aren't big fans of them that I don't really want to take the risk. If you are not using yours but you have them laying around somewhere, I'd be happy to take them off your hands :) email me at alondrasilva10 [at] yahoo [dot] com.

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    1. I have some I could send to you, as I haven't used them in over a year. I will email you later today if that's okay...

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  13. I'm getting ready to buy a new personal FF. I have a blue Finsbury in my cart but I'm torn. What's your favorite personal and why?

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    1. Holborn - pockets and the leather is amazing.

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    2. I've been looking at that one but I wish it came in brighter colors.

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    3. I have the blue Finsbury and I was pretty happy with it. Then I saw the Kingfisher blue Metropol. Total love at first sight. I think it is the texture more than the color, although the Metropol is a brighter blue.

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  14. Has anyone ever purchased the storage binder? http://www.filofaxusa.com/store/paperessentialsdetails.asp?productId=513

    It doesn't look like it holds very many pages. I'm using the day on two pages so I have quite a few pages to put in there. Also wondered if it's a 3-ring or some other type of binding.

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    1. It holds very little. Mine quickly went away. If I remember correctly, it holds about half of what my actual Filo held.

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    2. That's what I wanted to know. I didn't think it looked like it was worth buying. Thanks for responding.

      Patty

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  15. I apologize in advance if this has been asked recently, but can anyone recommend personal size commercially available inserts? I have used Filofax and Franklin Covey and while I really like the layout (and feels very familiar to me) of the FC, I don't like how the pages stick out and cutting and repunching seems almost wasteful. I haven't tried Dayrunner or Daytimer. I'm looking for a monthly on 2 page (with tab) as well as a day per page (or day per two pages). Has anyone used a brand that they like? I am in the US, so international shipping can be an issue.

    Thanks for any replies.

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    1. Dayrunner and Daytimer are both good. Daytimer is probably better, though, and there's more variety. Have you looked on their website? A lot of their stuff is also available at most office supply stores.

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    2. I have looked at Daytimer. Some items are available in our local office supply store, but the selection is quite small for the personal sized planners. Any other suppliers like Paper Chase in the UK? I feel somewhat limited in that it seems like the US focuses on digital planning more than other parts of the world.

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    3. I hadn't thought about it, Laura, but you might be right about the US focusing more on digital planning. Even Franklin Covey has really cut back on their paper planning inventory in favor of totes, other organizing supplies and training programs.

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    4. The best alternatives aren't always available online. One way to find them is a look through a pen store's inventory -- older ones are more likely to be found there

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  16. Yesterday I received my 2013 WOAP with Notes, decided I didn't like it so it's going back. The sections for the days of the week are just too small for the purpose I am intending it for. I know this has been said before but I just don't get why they can't do the A5 planners on cotton cream. You can totally see the other side of the diary through the thin sheets of white paper and its driving me crazy. Too distracting. Think I'm going back to WO2P though. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. So I got free shipping for nothing but in the long run the other diary should suit me better.

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  17. Does anyone use their scanner to make stuff for their Filofax?I have just used it to scan a pretty design of notepaper, so that I can print it off to exactly A5 size for my jottings section... and was just curious if other folks do similar stuff.

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    1. I have used my scanner for items I want to keep in my planner. For example, I'm currently going to physical therapy for an issue with my knees. I have at-home exercises I must do, and what I was given is on (US) standard letter size paper. I scanned that to my computer as an image and cropped it into sections, then added it to my personal template I have for just such an occasion. Once it's in the template, I print it out, punch it, and add it to whatever binder it falls under (in this case, my happiness binder, which includes an exercise section).

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