Microsoft KB Archive/145185

How to Do Three-Column Mailing Labels: LaserWriter/ImageWriter

PSS ID Number: Q145185 Article last modified on 03-07-1997

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When you use Microsoft Word to print mailing labels to a LaserWriter or to an ImageWriter LQ printer, you may not receive the results you expect: the LaserWriter and ImageWriter LQ printers cannot accept a custom page size.

If you want to print labels to a LaswerWriter or to an ImageWriter LQ printer, you must use the instructions in the “More Information” section of this article. The steps in this article describe how you can set up an entire page, rather than create a single label (as you do with other printers).

= MORE INFORMATION =

In the label example, you will use the following fields:

name, company, address, city, state, zip

When you create a main document for printing three-column mailing labels, your main document will look similar to the following example:

<>< ><> < ><> < < >, < > < > <><> <> <>< ><> < ><> < < >, < > < > <><> <> <>< ><> < ><> < < >, < > < > <><<ELSE>> <<ENDIF>> Each set of information is equivalent to one label. Enter enough sets of information to equal the number of labels on the label sheet.

The main document uses the Word print merge instruction “IF” in a unique way. This instruction is necessary because the LaserWriter and ImageWriter LQ will not print the labels properly unless each label is made up of exactly six lines, in order to fill the one-inch height of each label. If there is not a field for a particular record, the first IF statement will eliminate the blank company line (in which case the second IF statement will pad the label with an extra blank line to make each label a consistent length).

The two major types of three-column mailing labels are “33 label” and “30 label” sheets. The instructions of both types of labels are nearly identical, but the differences are noted below.

There are also “27 label” sheets available; if you use these, follow the instructions for the “33 label” setup.

Standard Mailing Label Technique (Word 3.0 or Word 4.0)
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;"> <li> On the Edit menu, click Show. </li> <li> Type the first label as follows: <<DATA addressees>>< ><<IF company>> < ><<ENDIF>> < "< >, < > < > <<IF company>><<ELSE>> <<ENDIF>>" When Show is active, Word automatically displays the marks in the document each time you press RETURN. You should not type the signs; just press RETURN each time one appears in the examples. </li> <li> Type the second label as follows: <<NEXT>>< ><<IF company>> < ><<ENDIF>> < "< >, < > < > <<IF company>><<ELSE>> <<ENDIF>>" NOTE: <<NEXT>> is used in place of the <<DATA file name>> command. This command tells Word to get the information from the next record in the data record. </li> <li> Repeat step two to complete an entire page of mailing labels. You can also copy the second label and paste it repeatedly down the page. For a 33 label sheet, repeat step two 25 times to make a total of 27 sets. The LaserWriter and ImageWriter LQ can only use 27 of the 33 labels on a 33-label sheet because of margin limitations that do not allow the top or bottom row of labels to be printed. For a 30 label sheet, repeat step two 28 times to make a total of 30 sets. </li> <li> On the Format menu, click Document (in Word 3.0x, click Page Setup on the File menu), and make the following modifications: For a 33 label sheet: Top margin: 1 Bottom margin: 1 Left margin: 0.5 (Left and right margins may be increased according to personal taste) Right margin: 0.5 For a 30 label sheet: Top margin: 0.5 Bottom margin: 0.5 Left margin: 0.5 (Left and right margins may be increased according to personal taste) Right margin: 0.5 </li> <li> Press COMMAND+OPTION+M to select the entire document. </li> <li> On the Format menu, click Section. In the Number box under Columns, type 3. In the Spacing box, type 0. Click OK. </li> <li> With the entire document still highlighted, click Paragraph on the Format menu, and change the line spacing to 12. </li></ol>

These steps will create a main document that will format your three-column mailing labels properly. The next step in this process is to create a data document that includes the fields used in the example.

For more information on creating a data document, consult pages 174-175 in “Reference to Microsoft Word,” version 4.0, or page 68 in the “Reference to Microsoft Word” version 3.x.

Using the Table Feature for Mailing Labels (Word 4.0)
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;"> <li> On the Edit menu, click Show. </li> <li> On the Format menu, click Document, and make the following modifications: For a 33 or 27 label sheet: Top margin: 1 Bottom margin: 1 Left margin: 0.5 (Left and right margins may be increased according to personal taste) Right margin: 0.5 For a 30 label sheet: Top margin: 0.5 Bottom margin: 0.5 Left margin: 0.5 (Left and right margins may be increased according to personal taste) Right margin: 0.5 </li> <li> On the Document menu, click Insert Table. In the Columns Number box, type “3” (without the quotation marks). For 33 or 27 labels, type “9” (without the quotation marks), under Number of Rows. For 30 labels, type “10” (without the quotation marks), under Number of Rows. Click OK. </li> <li> Type the first label as follows: <<DATA filename>>< ><<IF company>> < ><<ENDIF>> < "< >, < > < >"</li> <li> Press TAB to move to the next cell, and type the following: <<NEXT>>< ><<IF company>> < ><<ENDIF>> < "< >, < > < >"</li> <li> Repeat step two to fill the entire table with labels. You can also Copy the second label and Paste it repeatedly into the subsequent cells. </li> <li> Press OPTION and double-click one of the cells to select the entire table. </li> <li> On the Format menu, click Cells. In the Minimum Row Height box, type &quot; 1&quot; (without the quotation marks). Click OK. NOTE: This step sets the height of each cell to absolutely one inch. In other words, the height of each cell will be one inch, no more, no less. If you were to leave out the negative sign, the cell could be increased to more than one inch, but it would never be less. </li> <li> With the table still highlighted, click Paragraph on the Format menu and change the line spacing to 12. </li></ol>

These steps will create a main document formatted for three-column mailing labels. The next step is to create a data document that includes the fields used in this example.

For more information on creating a data document, consult pages 174-175 in “Reference to Microsoft Word,” version 4.0, or page 68 in the “Reference to Microsoft Word” version 3.x manual.

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Additional reference words: mw0171 kbappnote application note 3.00 3.01 3.02 4.00 ====================================================================== Version : 3.00 3.01 3.02 4.00 ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1997.