Printing Return Address Labels
Not long ago, I fell for one of those ads selling return address labels, 500 for four bucks. Of course, after I sent out my order, my wife printed up a sheet of return address labels for herself, reminding me that I already had the Avery labels here to do that. She had printed hers in Microsoft Word 2004, which, like most versions of Word, has label printing capability within it. But she was unhappy about the actual spacing of the print on the label. The first line of the address was too close to the top so it was slightly clipped. This is one of the things I don’t like about using word processors for that kind of thing, which raised the question about what software is out there for desktop publishing these things. And what did I already have?
On Windows…
My first thought on my Windows XP computer was Microsoft Publisher. I have Publisher 2000 which is too old to have the Avery 8167 return address label template I needed. However, it did have the Avery 5267 template, essentially the same thing. I did have to move the address block downward as far as it could go on the screen’s template to actually get the spacing on the actual printed sheet more centered on the labels themselves.
While looking around for CD labeling software a few nights before, I had downloaded the free Avery Design Pro Limited software. It had even better controls for making up a label, easily including pictures or clip art. But to get a full sheet of labels, appeared to require performing a merger with a database file, presumably one listing my name and address 80 times. While it has some limited database file management tools in it, I moved on after not being able to easily get it to work. Maybe later I’ll open Access and output an 80 item database file and see if I can get it to work.
I checked Adobe’s PageMaker 7.0 to see if it might have some kind of plug in, but it didn’t. (I’ll talk later about how I can build a template without too much sweat in one of these high-powered page layout programs when I address it via In Design in the Mac discussion next).
As I mentioned earlier, I could also use Microsoft Word. I’m running the 2002 version of the program on my PC.
Open Office 1.1 also is set up to allow you to build labels as well. To get there, select File/New/Labels. Near the bottom right hand side of the window, select “Avery Letter Size” under brand and the Type slot will fill with all the current Avery label types and select the one you want. Type your address in the “Label Text” window and then click on the “New Document” button. Voila! You will have a full page full of return address labels using the Times New Roman 12 point font (default). That makes the address lines too large for the labels. The only way I could see to change the font or adjust its size was to do it one address label at a time. It would take a while to do all 80 of them.
On The Mac…..
…you can print Avery labels directly from Address Book. It’s all hidden under the Print function. Select File/Print and the select “Mailing Labels” in the “Style” drop down menu that appears in the Print window. However, the hard part is getting it to repeat your address 80 times. It only wants to do it once. Some folks have used a FileMaker database file, with the address fields filled in 80 times with their own address, to get this to work using Address Book. (You could use the same technique with Avery Design Label Pro on the Windows platform.)
Surprisingly, if you are running a Palm PDA (on Windows or a Mac), you can use Palm’s Desktop. Launch the Palm Desktop and select File/Print. From the “Print As” drop down menu, select “Return Address Labels”. On the “Return Address” drop down, click on “Add a New Return Address”. Type a name for the sheet you’re about to print in the “Return Address” dropdown and type the information in the “Return Address Text” window. Click on the “Save” button and then go back to the Print dialog and select the return address you just made in the “Return Address” dropdown. Select the Avery label format in the “Label Layout” window. (Palm Desktop 4.0 doesn’t have the Avery 8167 format but does have the 5267 format. Select that.) Insert your return label sheet and click on “Print”, and you’re done.
PrintShop for OS X has nice label printing formatting tools, but I can’t tell you how well they work since the application would choke on my HP Laserjet 2100. I’d get a printer error every time, and the MacKiev website had no information to help me troubleshoot it. Unfortunately, my HP 1100D Business Inkjet printer had picked that afternoon to spit up the black printhead (which hasn’t been used all that much, HP!), so I couldn’t switch out to my inkjet and trying it there. (I’ll have to give that a go the next time I need some address labels. I’m stocked up for now.)
On either platform…
If you own Adobe Illustrator or In Design or some other program that will import .pdf files and you want to use one of those programs to build your labels, then go to Worldlabels.com. They have .pdf file templates for just about every Avery label you’d want to use. In Illustrator or the like that will actually open a .pdf file, you can open the file and make changes directly and save them out. For other packages like In Design that will import the templates but not open them, simply open a new page (8.5 x 11 inches), import the template, place it on top of the page, and then use the template as a guide to drag guides and create a page layout. Once done, remove the .pdf file from the page and save the work as a template.
But that’s a lot of work, more than most of us bill paying folks want to go to. The easiest and slickest way to print out the return labels you need (or any other Avery label you need) is to go to the Avery website (http://www.avery.com). Click on the “Avery Print” tab and then follow the web-based wizards through the label creating process. Print when you’re done.
Isn’t that cool?
I’m sure there are lots of other ways to get labels printed, but these are the ones I’ve found so far. As you can see, if you’ve got a PC or a Mac and a printer, there’s not a lot of reason to order address labels in the mail. You can make your own a lot faster and cheaper.
On Windows…
My first thought on my Windows XP computer was Microsoft Publisher. I have Publisher 2000 which is too old to have the Avery 8167 return address label template I needed. However, it did have the Avery 5267 template, essentially the same thing. I did have to move the address block downward as far as it could go on the screen’s template to actually get the spacing on the actual printed sheet more centered on the labels themselves.
While looking around for CD labeling software a few nights before, I had downloaded the free Avery Design Pro Limited software. It had even better controls for making up a label, easily including pictures or clip art. But to get a full sheet of labels, appeared to require performing a merger with a database file, presumably one listing my name and address 80 times. While it has some limited database file management tools in it, I moved on after not being able to easily get it to work. Maybe later I’ll open Access and output an 80 item database file and see if I can get it to work.
I checked Adobe’s PageMaker 7.0 to see if it might have some kind of plug in, but it didn’t. (I’ll talk later about how I can build a template without too much sweat in one of these high-powered page layout programs when I address it via In Design in the Mac discussion next).
As I mentioned earlier, I could also use Microsoft Word. I’m running the 2002 version of the program on my PC.
Open Office 1.1 also is set up to allow you to build labels as well. To get there, select File/New/Labels. Near the bottom right hand side of the window, select “Avery Letter Size” under brand and the Type slot will fill with all the current Avery label types and select the one you want. Type your address in the “Label Text” window and then click on the “New Document” button. Voila! You will have a full page full of return address labels using the Times New Roman 12 point font (default). That makes the address lines too large for the labels. The only way I could see to change the font or adjust its size was to do it one address label at a time. It would take a while to do all 80 of them.
On The Mac…..
…you can print Avery labels directly from Address Book. It’s all hidden under the Print function. Select File/Print and the select “Mailing Labels” in the “Style” drop down menu that appears in the Print window. However, the hard part is getting it to repeat your address 80 times. It only wants to do it once. Some folks have used a FileMaker database file, with the address fields filled in 80 times with their own address, to get this to work using Address Book. (You could use the same technique with Avery Design Label Pro on the Windows platform.)
Surprisingly, if you are running a Palm PDA (on Windows or a Mac), you can use Palm’s Desktop. Launch the Palm Desktop and select File/Print. From the “Print As” drop down menu, select “Return Address Labels”. On the “Return Address” drop down, click on “Add a New Return Address”. Type a name for the sheet you’re about to print in the “Return Address” dropdown and type the information in the “Return Address Text” window. Click on the “Save” button and then go back to the Print dialog and select the return address you just made in the “Return Address” dropdown. Select the Avery label format in the “Label Layout” window. (Palm Desktop 4.0 doesn’t have the Avery 8167 format but does have the 5267 format. Select that.) Insert your return label sheet and click on “Print”, and you’re done.
PrintShop for OS X has nice label printing formatting tools, but I can’t tell you how well they work since the application would choke on my HP Laserjet 2100. I’d get a printer error every time, and the MacKiev website had no information to help me troubleshoot it. Unfortunately, my HP 1100D Business Inkjet printer had picked that afternoon to spit up the black printhead (which hasn’t been used all that much, HP!), so I couldn’t switch out to my inkjet and trying it there. (I’ll have to give that a go the next time I need some address labels. I’m stocked up for now.)
On either platform…
If you own Adobe Illustrator or In Design or some other program that will import .pdf files and you want to use one of those programs to build your labels, then go to Worldlabels.com. They have .pdf file templates for just about every Avery label you’d want to use. In Illustrator or the like that will actually open a .pdf file, you can open the file and make changes directly and save them out. For other packages like In Design that will import the templates but not open them, simply open a new page (8.5 x 11 inches), import the template, place it on top of the page, and then use the template as a guide to drag guides and create a page layout. Once done, remove the .pdf file from the page and save the work as a template.
But that’s a lot of work, more than most of us bill paying folks want to go to. The easiest and slickest way to print out the return labels you need (or any other Avery label you need) is to go to the Avery website (http://www.avery.com). Click on the “Avery Print” tab and then follow the web-based wizards through the label creating process. Print when you’re done.
Isn’t that cool?
I’m sure there are lots of other ways to get labels printed, but these are the ones I’ve found so far. As you can see, if you’ve got a PC or a Mac and a printer, there’s not a lot of reason to order address labels in the mail. You can make your own a lot faster and cheaper.
posted by Andy Foster at
3:11 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for your help! I've tried many different ways to print return labels from my mac address book, without success. The Avery website was easy to use, and beautiful results.
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Anonymous, at 11:38 AM
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