Serial killers write without any margins, filling all the space on a page from left to right (see: creepy opening credits of Seven). High school students frantically completing a history essay at 3 AM that they had all semester to write reformat the margins so fat that three paragraphs take up ten pages. But the vast majority of us don’t even think about the amount of white space that separates the words in our boring inter-office memos and angry letters to the editor of “InStyle” from the edge of the page.

Actress/activist Tamara Krinsky wants to bring out a little more of the killer in us, and a little less of the desperate teen. She’s organized a petition to Microsoft to request they change the default margins in Microsoft Word from 1.25” to .75”. Her logic: more words per page means less paper means more trees. Ms. Krinsky (whose film credits include playing Harold’s sister in my film Harold Buttleman, Daredevil Stuntman) hit on the idea after years of adjusting her own margins to bring down her Office Depot expenses, and her simple but revolutionary notion has already prompted an NPR spot that will air this Friday. Wonder if Bill Gates listens to NPR?

Change The Margins