h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is another mystery surrounding staplers. What is the point of being able to rotate the metal plate that bends the staple prongs back on themselves through 180 degrees, giving you a choice of prongs 'in' or prongs 'out'?

Ah, I'm glad you asked me that. The 'out' option is an under-publicised, but very useful option.

Try this: Staple a cheque to a compliments slip, post it to yourself, then try to remove the cheque from the staple so you can pay it into your bank. Oops! you've torn the cheque, and you've probably hurt your fingers too.

Now, rotate the matal plate through 180 degrees and try it again. This time you can just slide the staple out of the paper. The cheque remains undamaged, your fingers remain unhurt and you become the envy of all your friends. Pretty nifty, no?

I used to have a job that involved a lot of removing cheques from compliment slips, and I wished more people knew about this feature.

Thanks, several minutes of experimentation (and two pierced fingertips) later and I see what you mean. So now the question becomes - if so many staplers can do prongs 'out' stapling, why do we need staple removers?

Wow! I thought people who used the "prong-out" option were just being stuck up! I didn't know there was a use for it!

Wow, put me on the office worker reject list. I never knew you could turn the plate and make the staples go the other way. I walsys just thought they put funny little grooves on the back of the plate to be more interesting! Thanks for the info, there sure is no limit to what can be learned in here.

O. Marie