All you need to know about document holders

What to look for when selecting your ideal document holder

You might think that one document stand is as good as another, but that’s certainly not the case. A good document stand needs to meet a number of simple but critical standards:

• Is it tough and hard-wearing?
  Like any equipment that will be at the heart of your working life hour after hour, day after day, you need to ensure it has been well-designed and well-made from high quality materials. So that it can take the wear-and-tear of normal office life.

• Is it strong enough for your needs?
  What documents will your document holder be supporting? Many people only need to put a few sheets at most on their document holder, but you may occasionally well want to place a heavy book or ledger on it. If so, ensure your document stand is designed to take heavier loads. One made of metal, for example, is ideal in this respect.

• Does it hold larger documents?
  The vast majority of documents that people work with in an office setting are either A4 or A3. Even if you normally only work with A4 documents, a job may come in tomorrow that changes that. Any document holder that can’t support documents larger than A4 is probably a bad investment.

• How adjustable does it need to be?
  Your ideal document holder needs to fit your purposes, but also your budget. Here are some of the main options. Consider what features are essential, nice-to-have and not so necessary for the work your document stand will have to do:

  • Fixed-height document holder:
    This should fit between screen and keyboard. The height should mean that your document, keyboard and monitor screen are all equidistant from your eyes.

  • Space saving:
    When the document holder isn’t in use, can you slide your keyboard underneath it to make space, create a restful visual impression and reduce desktop clutter?

  • Height-adjustable document holder:
    The next option up is a copy holder where you can adjust the height. The distance between the height step options should be small, as the differences in document height requirement between different users is also small.

  • Fully adjustable document holder:
    You can also go for a document stand where you can adjust the height, depth and angle of the document. So you can align the document and the monitor screen exactly, to reduce the chances of eye fatigue, neck and spine problems, etc. This document stand can stand between keyboard and screen or alongside the screen if that makes sense for the work you’re doing.