Patent ID: 7515295

Claim:
A printing method for locating tabs during a print job having multiple output sets, each said set including a plurality of sheets of tabbed ordered media having a repetitive sequence and a plurality of other sheets of media, the method comprising printing the print job, said printing including the steps of: selecting from multiple tab layout templates each having a bank of tabbed stock; loading a tab layout template to a list of tabbed ordered media having individual entries identifying each of the tabbed ordered media of said bank; generating a new tab entry in a tab creator by cycling through said entries on said list wherein each entry is designated an active tab or an inactive tab such that said active tab location has a page number and said inactive tab location does not have a page number; balancing said active tabs for referencing said tab layout template; feeding said of tabbed ordered media into a media path through the printer to an output destination at designated tab locations; determining if each of said of tabbed ordered media have been delivered to said output destination and discarding inactive tabs; setting for every entry in tab layout template to a next said entry in said sheet list responsive to each said determining that a respective one of said of tabbed ordered media has been delivered; and repeating said loading, iterating, balancing, feeding, determining, discarding and setting steps for each of said output sets in full banks such that if there are entries in a bank not assigned to the table that a blank is entered into the table for the rest of the tab entries in that bank of tabs.