mailing labels

[candy]

I have Windows XP Professional and Office XP. I have a
growing business and am looking for the best solution for
making mailing labels for a variety of lists, i.e., Jane
Doe and her contacts would be one list and John Doe and
his contacts would be another list, etc. What is the
best software solution for creating these lists, managing
them, printing labels and mailings for them, and also to
be able to print labels from all the lists (either all
the contacts or certain contacts)? I looked at the Excel
method of "forcing" them to Word to make the labels.
Looked like toooooo much trouble. Outlook? HELP!!

Candy

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Candy,

Access would be the best tool but that does require some learning.

You could start creating your list in Excel and import into an Access
database once you learn more.

I'm not sure what you mean about 'forcing them to Excel' but using
Excel as a data source for a Word merge document is relatively easy.

You just need to follow the guidelines for creating an Excel list and
Word can help you with the rest. For more information on guidelines
for an Excel list see:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MailMerge/CreateADataSource.htm

Additionally, I would recommend keeping everything in one list with
some type of identifier for each Contact. That way you can use the
Data/Filter/AutoFilter options to filter your Excel list for various
mailing labels. There is a little trick to this on the Word end but
it's also covered in the article.

If you encounter problems using mail merge then the best newsgroup to
post to would be the word.mailmerge.fields newsgroup.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Larry]

Candy,
This is very high-level, but should get you started
1. Create you mailing lists in either Excel or Access
(I prefer access).
2. Open Microsoft Word
3. On the TOOLS dropdown, choose MAIL MERGE
4. Choose CREATE
a. Mailing Labels
b. Active window or Mew Main Document
c. Get data
d. Open Data Source
e. Choose Data Source (Excel or Access)
f. Choose Label Size
g. Insert Mail Fields (until completed.)
h. Choose Merge
i. Choose Options
j. Name the file
Larry

 

[candy]

THX...My older version of Office included Access.....but
never used it. I have used Excel for various projects.
I copied info from FAQs #'s 318117; 294688; and 294693
and will also check out your recommendation. It was in
one of these articles or one I read during the search
that mentioned steps in doing it from Excel and you would
have to "force" the info into mail merge.

 

[candy]

THX.........

-----Original Message-----
Candy,
This is very high-level, but should get you started
1. Create you mailing lists in either Excel or Access
(I prefer access).
2. Open Microsoft Word
3. On the TOOLS dropdown, choose MAIL MERGE
4. Choose CREATE
a. Mailing Labels
b. Active window or Mew Main Document
c. Get data
d. Open Data Source
e. Choose Data Source (Excel or Access)
f. Choose Label Size
g. Insert Mail Fields (until completed.)
h. Choose Merge
i. Choose Options
j. Name the file
Larry
.

 

[John Ski]

THX.........

Candy,
Have you checked out the Avery Website? There's a new version of The Avery
Wizard that integrates into Word XP as well as a standalone,
AveryDesignPro(there's both a free and a retail version), that I personally
like very much for versatility, features and ease of use.

HTH,
John
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
***Arthur C. Clarke***

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Candy,

Perhpas it was formatting the merge fields in Word? Sometimes that can
appear a little involved. If you are just using names and addresses
then that isn't something you will encounter.

If you are using numeric data that you wish to format you can format
it in Excel. However on the Word end you need to use a different
method to connect your data source and the formats will carry over. If
you encounter this problem then let us know and we can help you out.

Good Luck!

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/