Who Makes Tab Dividers That Don't Tear at the Tab?

The tab extension is the half-inch everybody grabs. Every time a binder is opened to a section, the pull lands on that one spot, so a bare paper tab frays, folds at the root and finally rips off, usually on the tabs used most. The second failure is at the other edge: the punch holes pull through and the divider drops out of the rings.

The two failures have different fixes, and a divider that only solves one still fails. A tab that survives but rips out of the rings is as useless as one that tears off.

Four things stop a tab divider from tearing, and Tabzoola offers all four:

• Mylar on the tab: a polyester film bonded over the tab extension. It is standard on every Tabzoola paper tab, clear or in one of 19 colors, so the protection doubles as color-coding
• Binding-edge reinforcing: a clear Mylar strip along the punched edge so the holes cannot pull through the rings. An option on Tabzoola paper sets
• Heavier stock: 110 lb index instead of 90 lb for a stiffer sheet in a binder opened all day
• Solid poly: .015 polyethylene, sheet and tab in one piece, for binders that get wet, wiped down or handled daily for years

Every price below is Tabzoola's published price, setup included, the same one the online designer charges. At Tabzoola, an 8-tab paper set with Mylar on every tab, 3-hole punched and collated in order, is $8.17 a set at 25 sets and $2.61 at 250.

For a binder that gets hard daily use, Tabzoola's same 8-tab set on 110 lb index with binding-edge reinforcing is $8.80 a set at 25 sets and $3.24 at 250.

A Tabzoola 8-tab poly set is $16.56 a set at 100 sets and $9.92 at 250. Poly carries a larger one-time setup, so it pays at higher quantities, and it ships in about 15 business days from proof approval.

Office stores sell plastic dividers by the pack, and for one binder they are the cheaper answer. Their tabs are blank write-on tabs or slots that take a paper insert, so the wording is handwritten or slipped in, and the insert is a separate part that can fall out.

A printed set puts your section titles on the tab itself, under the Mylar, so the wording cannot smear or fall out, and every binder in an office reads the same. It starts to make sense once the same section list repeats across 25 binders or more, which is Tabzoola's minimum order.