Tab Dividers: The Different Types and How They’re Made

Did you know the Library of Congress has an entire process for maintaining and preserving their most precious paper documents? It shouldn’t be a surprise that the world’s most prestigious documentarian must keep their documents in order.

Hoping to organize your documents as well? In this article, we’ll cover an essential piece of the organizational puzzle: tab dividers. Custom tab dividers will enhance your organizational experience and make finding documents easy.

Read on as we cover the many types and how they’re made below.

What Are Tab Dividers?

Tab dividers are sheets, slides, or other materials used to separate different spaces in binders, filing cabinets, and other organizational systems. If you had a big binder in middle school, you likely had dividers separating your coursework.

Basic Tab Dividers

Traditional tab dividers are basic and rather self-explanatory, a large differently colored sheet with a word or logo separating it from the other content. Even simpler are blank mylar tabs you fill with slips of paper.

Even in the basic category, there are lots of color options available. You can organize your earth sciences class with green and your health class with a sterile white divider.

Separating CDs or records? Color coordinate based on the genre of music. You can get ultra-specific with hundreds of minute color differences to further optimize your organization.

Just make sure to keep a legend around so you don’t forget. 

Professional Custom Tab Dividers

Tab dividers deserve to be more than a sheet that fits beneath your content. It should enhance your searching and organizational systems, from papers to pictures and anything in between.

These can be images or logos on file tab dividers, to easily allow you or others who use different languages to find info quickly.

For example, if you live with a relative who doesn’t share the same language(s) as you, you can label sheets with an image of a house, or a pet, to distinguish and help them find paperwork quickly.

Check out Tabshop.com to create your own custom tab dividers. They have a variety of options available to mix and match and make something that’s perfect for you and your projects.

Making Your Own Custom Tab Dividers

The first is choosing whether you want your labels to be on the top/bottom or side of your divider. A photo album benefits from labels on the side, while a file cabinet benefits from top/bottom labels.

Once you’ve chosen the correct orientation, you’ll need to decide the size of the labels. Traditional sizes are letter paper (8.5×11) and legal paper (8.5×14).

After this, choose how many tabs you need and what color(s) you’d like them to be. Don’t forget about tab coatings: these can be plain or colored mylar to help with organization.

Finally, choose your ink and hole-punch preferences. If you’re using a binder, confirm if it’s 2 or 3-ring. If you’re filing these in a cabinet, you likely won’t need holes punched.

Organize With Tab Dividers

Tab dividers are essential. They keep your papers, files, and more where they need to be so that when you need them, they’re easy to find.

If you have a big project coming up, look into custom tab dividers. They’re great to use and will save you a headache in the long run.

If you like this content and want more on lifestyle and organization tips, check out the related blog posts.