How to Print Index Cards

Why handwrite your apologetics cards when you can just type and print them? Here’s how. 

Pictures were taken with Windows' snipping tool and a Nikon Coolpix S6000 and show Microsoft Office Word 2010, 3x5 cards (no longer permitted for NCFCA competition), and a Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901.

1. Format Your Document. Open Microsoft Word and click on the “Page Layout” tab. Set your paper size to 4x6. Adjust the margins if necessary. If you like, you can also change the orientation from portrait to landscape, turning it sideways. When you’re ready, type the content of your card.

2. Prepare Your Printer. Open your printer’s paper tray and remove any letter-size paper. Place two or three index cards in it, with the narrow ends facing the printer’s paper feed. Look for the adjustable arm in the paper tray and slide it towards the cards until it is just touching them. How this looks will vary among printers; this Lexmark is symmetrical, but other printers may have one arm that slides the cards to one side.

3. Verify Print Settings. When you’re ready to print, make sure that the printer is on the settings you want and that the print preview looks correct. You also might want to print a practice card first; that way you can make sure the alignment is correct and you’re printing on the blank side of the cards instead of the lined side.

4. Print and Enjoy! I assume you aren’t doing this as your parents throw your suitcase in the family homeschool bus and drag you out the door (because none of us have ever waited until minutes before we left for a tournament to print scripts, submission forms, cases and briefs, or anything like that, right?). If that’s the case, this would be a great time to practice the speech(es) you just prepared. Why wait? Grab a Bible and timepiece, and have fun persuading imaginary judges and kicking imaginary competitors’ butts… in a loving, Christian way, of course.  

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