With students in the throes of exams, I thought it would be timely to do a quick post on how to print double-sided. At the moment the library is going through at least three reams of paper every day – equal to a whole tree worth of paper every three weeks (not to mention the 214 litres of water per day that it takes to make that much paper). Our aim is to cut this number in half.

2-sided printing – here is how it is done:

1. Open the document.

2. In Word, select File and Print (if you click the printer icon, it will automatically print 1-sided). In Adobe PDF Viewer, click the printer icon (pictured). This will open the Print dialogue window.

3. In the Print dialogue window, click Properties (pictured).

4. In the Paper/Output Tab (the one that comes up automatically), click the arrow below the heading 2-Sided Print (pictured). This will reveal a drop down menu where you can select 1-Sided Print, 2-Sided Print or 2-Sided Print, Flip on Short Edge (for printing landscape documents 2-sided). Select 2 Sided Print then click OK, OK.

5. Collect your printing and imagine David Suzuki feeling quietly proud of you.

Finally, if you are wondering how I put together such an amazing little how-to guide, I used the Snipping Tool to take the pictures and a drawing tablet to draw the nifty arrows and circles.