Creating mailing labels

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. A courier shop must stick addresses on three hundred parcels. Writing each one by hand takes a whole day. Today we learn to print mailing labels with mail merge in a few minutes.

First, what is a mailing label? It is a small sticky slip with an address printed on it. One sheet holds many labels, arranged in rows and columns. In a mail merge, each label gets one record from the data source. Labels are used on parcels, envelopes, office files and even school books.

Keep three things ready before you start. A label sheet, with its brand and product number noted from the pack. A data source with name and address fields. And a new blank Word document.

Here are all the steps in one picture. On the Mailings tab, click Start Mail Merge and choose Labels. Set the label options, which decide the label size. Select recipients to connect the data source. Add the fields to the first label only. Click Update Labels to copy that layout to every label, and then finish the merge.

The Label Options box decides the size and layout of the labels. Choose page printers for normal sheets, and continuous feed printers for label rolls. Pick the label vendor, which is the brand printed on the pack. Pick the product number, which sets the size and the number of labels on each sheet. If your label is not listed, click New Label and type its measurements.

After you click OK, Word draws a table with one cell for each label. You type only in the first label, at the top left. After you select recipients, the other labels show a Next Record field. That field tells Word to move to the next person for that label. If you cannot see the borders, turn on View Gridlines on the table Layout tab.

Now add the fields to the first label. Address Block inserts a complete address in one step. Or use Insert Merge Field to add one field at a time. Press Enter between the lines of the address. Keep the font small, so a long address fits inside the label.

Here is one label built with separate fields. Line one holds the name field, which shows Riya Shah. Line two holds the address field, which shows her street. Line three holds the city and PIN code fields, with a space typed between them.

This one button is the most forgotten step. Click Update Labels on the Mailings tab. It copies the fields of the first label into every other label. If you skip it, the other labels stay empty when you merge.

Pause and predict. Each sheet holds twenty one labels. The data source has fifty records. How many sheets will print? Two full sheets give forty two labels, and the third sheet prints the last eight. So the answer is three sheets.

Before printing, always check your work. Preview Results shows the real names in place of the fields. Check that long addresses do not spill out of a label. Then click Finish and Merge, and choose Edit Individual Documents to get the final sheets. Print one test page on plain paper, and hold it over a label sheet to check it lines up.

Let us revise what we learned today. Labels are many address slips on one sheet. Start with Start Mail Merge, choose Labels, and set Label Options. The vendor and product number set the label size. Fill the first label, then click Update Labels. Preview, test on plain paper, and then print.