More options and custom labels

Address labels are the most popular kind of label,

but you can also find special printer paper for making things like business cards.

On the Mailings tab, click Start Mail Merge, and Labels.

You can look through the list of vendors and product numbers and find templates for all kinds of labels.

Let's see what we can do with this self-adhesive name badge template.

To supply the names for the badge, we'll use the recipient list we created in movie 2.

Click Use an Existing List, and select the list.

The recipient list is just a database of contact information,

so there's no reason why it can't be used for name badges or any other mail merge item.

Next we need to lay out the content of the badges.

The address block works for address labels and envelopes,

but for a name badge we need to insert mail merge fields manually.

First go to the Home tab and click Show/Hide Paragraph Marks to make it easier to select text.

Click the second line in the first cell, press Enter, and type Hello, I'm.

Then, move down a few more lines, and click Insert Merge Field

Click First_Name, add a space, and click Last_Name.

Then, click Update Labels. And click Preview Results.

When we print the badges,

Word will insert the first and last names of each record in the recipient list and place them on each badge.

Next, change the font sizes and center the text horizontally.

Finally, let's add a background image.

Click at the beginning of the first line of text.

Then, go to the Insert tab, click Pictures and select an image.

In Layout Options, select Behind Text.

Now we need to do something to the background so it doesn’t fight with the foreground text.

On the Picture Tools Format tab, click Corrections and choose a bright option.

Then, in Color, choose a faded tone. Finally, stretch and center the picture to fill the cell.

Then, on the Mailings tab, click Update Labels.

Click File and Print and take a look at the Print Preview.

Now all we have to do is add our name badge sheet to the printer and click Print.

So now you have a pretty good overview of printing labels in Word.

But there's one more thing you may be interested in doing, and that's creating a custom label template.

Let's say you want to use a label product that isn't listed in Label Options. Here's what you can do.

First, find a product that's similar.

If your label is used for mailing, you can check out other mailing label products.

Check label information to get a rough idea of the label and paper size.

When you find something that's close, click New Label.

This dialog box contains all the measurements required to correctly print the labels.

The preview shows you what each value means.

For example, vertical pitch is measured from the top of a label to the top of the label below it.

You can change the values to get a better idea of what a particular option means.

After you carefully measure your label, change the values.

Then, enter a new name for your label and click OK. Then, you're ready to add your content and print.

In this course, you learned all about creating labels.

It's not much different from printing envelopes or creating forms with mail merge.

For more information about these and other related topics, check out the links in the course summary.