Staple right, staple left or staple middle?

Dear Administrative Professional Today:

“Say that within a three-page document, the first and third pages are vertical, and the middle page is horizontal. How do you arrange them for stapling? Do you turn the middle sheet to the left so the staple is in the upper right-hand corner of the middle sheet, or to the right so the staple is in the lower left-hand corner?”  — Anonymous reader

Style guides differ on the topic, so to answer the question, we talked to Alice Barnes, a consultant with 20 years’ experience working with Fortune 500 companies, to find out how other admins in corporate America handle this.

Here’s what she pointed out: If you created the “mixed” document in Microsoft Office 2007,  it will rotate the landscape pages counterclockwise when you print them. So if you stapled the document directly after printing, it would look like your first scenario above.

Barnes says she sees it done this way most frequently, and it’s how she personally prefers it. “It’s just easier to read the entire document that way,” she says. Otherwise, your staple hides too much, and it’s awkward to hold in your hand.”