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ne of the most common req uestsPC Magazine gets is tips on thebest method to pr in t s ing lelabels. In the p ast we have sug-

gested using any inexpensive printerwith a tractor feed, along with tractorfeed labels in a one-across format.

Of course, this approach is only oneof many possibilities. In fact, there areseveral drawbacks to using label sheetsfor single labels. First, if you ru n a labe lsheet through a laser printer multipletimes, you run the risk of a label com-

ing off inside the p rinter and gummingup something that will be expensive toreplace. Second, if youre on a ne twork,t h e res a fair chan ce some on e else willsend a prin t job to the p rinterand printon the label sheetbetween the timeyou pu t the labels in the printer and th etime you get back to your desk to printthe label. Finally, its simply easier toprint when you dont have to changepape r stock before p rinting or d eterm i n ewhich label to print on next or make

86 February 2001 www.DITnet .co.ae s www.PCmag-mideast.com

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Everyone does it, a lot of people quite often. What is it? Printing labels of course. PC Mag-

azine often receives requests for aid on the best method of printing single labels, and here

weve compiled our advice on all of the methods there are. If you know of any other way s

to print labels, dont hesitate and send them to the solutions team today.

LABELSO

Figure 1: Word can often find t he address in your lett er and insert i t in t he Address box automatically.

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s u re that the text you enter w ill print onthe correct label.

In addition, using a dedicated printero ffers a great ad vantage: be cause thisa p p roach doesnt de pen d on a particu-

lar feature of a given p rogram, you canprint single labels with almost any soft-w a re. You may even have an appro p r i-ate tractor feed printer a lready, gather-ing dust in a closet.

USING A LABEL SHEETDespite the advantages of a dedicatedlabel printer, you can, of course, p rint sin-gle labels from a label sheet. In fact, anynumber of approaches have shownup o n our p ages as Solutions tipsover the years. Given both thelevel of response to the mostrecent t ip and the wide-s p read nee d to print sin-

gle labels, however, wethought it useful to gath-er an assortment o f solu-tions for the task in oneplace.

One class of solutionsis to take advantage off e a t u res bu ilt into spe-cific program s. By far,the most common sug-gestion from o ur re a d-ers was to use Micro-so ft Wo rds single labe lfeat u re, which has beenavailable since at leastWo rd 7. To p rint a sin-

gle label thro ugh Wo rd ,c h o o s e T o o l s |Envelopes and Labels,then the Labels tab. Wo rdcan often find an addre s sin a letter to insert in thetext box automatically (seeF i g u re 1). Failing that, if youselect the text in your docu-ment before giving the com-mand , Wo rd w ill insert the select-ed text. Or you can type the labeltext directly into the Envelopes andLabels dialog box.

The Envelopes a nd Labe ls dialog will

show you the label format its set to u se.If you need to change the format, chooseOptions, the n p ick a stand ard label fro mthe list or choose the Details button anddefine the label format youre using.Once you ha ve the proper labels defined,you can choose the Single label radiobutton in the Envelopes and Labels dia-log, enter the row and column of thelabel you want to print on, and print.

One variation is to create a documen tas a label template an d fill in the text on

one or more labels, as nee ded. Wo rd slabel feature offers an e asy way to cre-ate a template. Simply follow the samep ro c e d u re already mentioned, but dontenter any text for the label. Choose the

Full page of the same label radio buttoninstead of Single label, and the n choo sethe New Document button to create anew document.

Wo rd w ill create a ne w b lank docu -ment with a table that defines the labelf o rmat, u sing a table c ell for e ach label.You can then save the document either

as a standard file or as a template, and

then call on it as n eede d for labels. Sim-ply insert the text in the ap propriate cellor cells in the table and yo u can p rint sin-gle labelsor two or three at a timewithout problems.

You can use this basic technique evenwith a word pro cessor that lacks a labelf e a t u reas long as it has tables. Thiswill take a little more work, however,because youll have to create the tableto match the layout of the labels youwant to u se. Be sure to set any bord e r

f e a t u re to no ne, so the individual cellsdont print with an outline. Youll alsoneed to set the program to show gridlines, so you can easily see the individ-ual cells while youre wo rking in the doc-

ument.Note that you can use this same basictechnique with a spreadshee t program aswell. Simply use the spreadsheet cellsto define the label positions, then savea blank, formatted spreadsh eet as a tem-plate for printing labels.

STA N DA LONE PRO G R A M SAnother class of solutions involves get-ting a standalone label program. There

a re s everal su ch pro grams a vail-able, many of which have been

reviewed in PC Magazine.These programs tend to beinexpensive, and in some

cases free. Specific pro g r am srecommended by our re a d-ers include Avery Label Pro(www.avery.com), DesignE x p r e s s Lab e l s ( ww w. k e y s c r e e n . c o m /K e y S c re e n % 2 8 s % 2 9 6 /designexp.h tm) , Pr in t -Master (www.printmas-t e r.comnote that eventhe free SE e dition off e r slabel printing), and Ulti-mate Label Maker (http://p a r s o n s t e c h . c o m / s o f t-w a re / u l a b e l m k r.html).

LABEL PRINTERSLabel printers are designedspec ifically for printing on elabel at a time. Heavy dutyv e r s io n s a r e co mmo n inshipping departments, butt h e re are also at least two

companies that make lighterd u t y ( a n d m o r e s t y l i s h l y

designe d) versions for office use:Dymo-CoStar (www.d ymo-costar

. c om / lab elwriter, $190 direct) an d SeikoInstruments (www.seikosmart.com)

These printers ha ve notably small foot-p r i n t s rough ly 4 inche s by 9 inche s

so they wont take up too much of yourdeskto p spac e. They typically come withlabel printing software. The p rinters canbe shared over a network, so everyonein the office can print labe ls easily. Theya re a lot quieter than dot matrix printersand generally o ffer better printing re s u l t sthan do t matrix printers do. If you do alot of single label printing and dont havean old do t matrix printer sitting aro u n d ,it may make sense to buy a new labelp r i n t e r.

www.DITnet .co.ae s www.PCmag-mideast.com February 2001 87