Custom Labels

[DigitalNYC]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

I'm trying to create a custom label. There is an option to specify a custom sheet size if the standard choices don't work. However, the size fields are grayed out and you can't enter anything. I tried it both before and after I created the label. Any ideas what's going on?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

To create a custom label, I would use Tools | Labels, click on Options,
click Customize and go from there.

What does sheet size have to do with anything? I think you clicked a
misleading Customize button, the wrong one. If that's not the issue,
you'll need to explain more carefully what you did, what you wanted to
have happened, and what happened instead.

 

[DigitalNYC]

If you were to go to the Tools Menu and select "Labels", you will then see a dialog for selecting or defining labels. At the bottom of this box, there is a section entitled "Printing Options". It has some text which starts "If your label style uses a non-standard paper size....". To the right is a button "Customize". Press that button and you will be at the place that I refer to in my post.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yes. To set up a custom label, that is not where you want to be. You
want to click Options, and then Customize.

Now, if you need to print your label onto a custom paper size, that's a
different issue. But you said your question was about custom labels, not
custom paper size. Which is it?

Why don't you describe the end result that you want your printer to spit
out, and then I'll try to help you get there?

 

[DigitalNYC]

Please see my last post. I am not in the wrong place. I describe every step including clicking options. Understand, if I didn't want to change the paper size from standard letter, all would be fine. It is afterward, label definition is complete (by clicking options), and you are returned to that first dialog (detailed and described above). This step is not required for producing a label and is a separate option. If you walk through it yourself, you will be able to see the problem.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Oh, I saw the problem you are talking about. You just didn't make your
question clear whether you actually needed to change the paper size,
which is not required to do custom labels.

In the dialog where you customize the label, you can also change the
paper size. Changing it there changes it in the Printing Options dialog.
Does that get you what you need?

If you are only printing one label per non-standard piece of paper,
there is no point in using the Labels dialog at all.

 

[DigitalNYC]

My sheet of labels is a non-standard size so I cannot use the ones listed. As specified on the first dialog, you should use that option if that's the case. It is that option which is the problem. The actual label definition is not the problem.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yes, you made the issue clear in your third post. The non-reacting
custom paper size looks like a bug, you should report it to MS via Help
| Send Feedback in Word. You might create a new user account in OS X
and see if it works there--but I doubt you and I have the same flaw in
our user accounts to cause this bug, and it's grayed out on my machine too.

Try creating and saving a custom paper size in a regular document (File
| Page Setup), then see if maybe it gets listed in the custom label
paper size options.

If you aren't merging to these labels, then you might be able to force
the page size after generating the page of labels. Alternatively, a
label is nothing more than a table with very precise sizing for columns
and rows. In a regular document, you can set the custom page size, then
Insert | Table and set the table up carefully to match your labels (that
won't be merge-friendly either, exactly).

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas.

I'm curious--where did you even find labels that use a non-standard
paper size? And what *is* the paper size?

 

[CyberTaz]

<snip>
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DamagedPrefs.html
<snip>

Or it could be that the printer won't allow custom size sheets. Many
printers will handle only certain specified paper sizes and even though the
available range may be broad it won't allow anything other than what it was
designed to accept.

That's particularly deceptive because Word will allow you to create a custom
*page* size of whatever dimensions you wish (up to 22"x22") but it
recognizes the distinction between page size & *paper* size.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Eh....I know my printer will accept custom paper sizes, and I can't use
the dialog either, not in 2004 or 2008. Does it work for you? Tools |
Labels, under Printing Options click on Customize and try to set a
custom paper size. For me, the arrows are grayed out and I can't type in
the box.

I wonder if temporarily setting a placeholder Normal to a wacky paper
size would work.

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, I don't know if the Normal idea will work or not.

I have the same situation as you... the spinner arrows are dead and the
value boxes *look* editable but aren't. I did notice that even if I define
a custom paper size (through Page Setup) it *doesn't* show up when I go to
Tools> Labels> Options> New Label & pop open the Page Size list. Even though
my printer allows virtually any custom paper size for most other purposes -
I wonder if it's a different story for labels... Only pre-defined standard
sizes appear in the list when you define a custom label.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[DigitalNYC]

Thanks, I'm going to try the table idea. My printer, too, will handle any size paper and page setup didn't work for me either. I'll report back on how things go.

 

[DigitalNYC]

I managed to produce the labels, but only because of a printer feature. It will print borderless 4x6 prints and has a separate paper slot for the paper. By choosing that format as a paper type and using that slot, I got the right result.