A workaround: stapling only on a Xerox Workcentre 5665 with Office finisher

I felt during this whole weird odyssey like I was the only sane person around.  I was asked to do something rather simple.  We wanted color copies of a PDF file stapled using our workcentre 5665 finisher.  Didn't seem to difficult.  After a couple of fruitless tries, I figured why not give Xerox a call?  they must know how to do this without my going through 10 minutes of trial and error to determine the best way.

I first tweeted @xeroxsupport, their response was " Yes if you have the finisher option installed."  Then when I spoke with tech support, before I say the tweet, they told me that it couldn't be done with the finisher I had.  This was after about a half hour on the phone trying to explain to the support person what I was trying to do.  I really didn't think it was that complicated.  

Finally I did some testing and spent that 10 minutes trying different options.  It took me less time than I thought it would.  It was a simple as 

1. putting the printed color copies in the paper feed bin
2. putting 2 (because there were 2 2 sided sheets of color paper per newsletter) pieces of blank paper in the feed tray
3. asking the Xerox to copy 2 sided to 2 sided
4. take the paper from the bin I had put the color copies in
5. staple it twice on the left side
6. Tell it to make as many copies as you put into the paper fed bin

You are ready to except one thing.  You need to determine which way the paper needs to face in order for it to come out correctly.  For me (and probably for everyone else with the same model and finisher) the bottom right corner of the back of the page had to be put in to the paper feed bin as the top left corner.  

If you have 2 two sided pages, 1/2 and 3/4, then the bottom right corner of page 2 should be the top left corner in the bin and on top of 3/4 in the same orientation (bottom right corner of page 4 should be top left corner of next page).

This may not be super simple, but if I could figure it out in less than 10 minutes why couldn't Xerox tell me how to do it????

a Non-rant post and movie review (spoilers) - Star Trek: Into Darkness

Normally when I go to movies with my wife of almost 34 years, I am resigned to the fact that my wife will pick it apart, and I will end up saying "It's a movie!" She dislikes the shootem ups and gore I tend to like.  She also does not believe in "Suspension of belief".  I do.  We are both Star Trek fans (not quite trekkies, but almost), so when this movie came out we had to see it.

I truly loved this movie.  It was complete in every way.  I figured I was in for the normal stuff about how that couldn't happen because it was in space, but I was surprised.  My wife, the wonder she always is, said she couldn't find a single thing wrong with this movie.  She especially liked that it was not the type of movie where you come out absolutely knowing there will be a next one.   She did feel that the change in the way the beaming was done was intrusive and uncalled for.  I felt it was cool.  Go figure.

This movie was everything Star Trek is good at. If you haven't seen this movie, you should.  It will make you a Star Trek fan if you aren't already (which you should be).