> Of Bill Potts >>With A4 being the most common paper size world-wide, one wonders what >>the makers of filing cabinets don't make them a little wider to >>accommodate A4 paper. > >They do, John. Most file cabinets are designed to handle legal size, which >is longer than A4. Both of mine, which I bought at OfficeMax, are legal >size. I don't remember seeing any other kind there (which, I admit, could >be because I wasn't particularly looking for them).
A similar situation applies in the UK even though it has been fully (?) converted to ISO 216 paper for many years. The tradition was to size 'containers' (e.g. filing cabinets, hanging files, bookshelves) for 'foolscap' which is larger than A4. 'Foolscap' was not the most common size as is the situation with 'legal' in the US. Incidentally the old UK paper sizes did use a halving system and words like 'folio', 'quarto', 'octavo' were used to indicate the folds. Foolscap filing cabinets were, and still are, the default in corporate offices. New purchases often repeat the legacy sizing. There is no problem of using A4 in foolscap filing systems. Most users do not know that there is a design mismatch (I didn't know about this myself until a few years ago). It is simply a generous amount of room that people don't notice. Suppliers of office furniture are increasingly likely to have A4 sizing. This is filtering through into the office environment, particularly in trendy offices or places where they worry about space. One of the features of A4 desk drawers appears to be that for a narrower drawer, hanging files can be oriented across the width rather than along the axis. There is a virtuous circle of purchase decisions and supply decisions (the inverse of 'there is no call for it, Sir'). -- Terry Simpson Human Factors Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.connected-systems.com Phone: +44 7850 511794
