Address Labels & Envelopes: How To

You’ve noticed the stores’ decor, your kids’ wish lists, and even your calendar. Yes, the December holidays are on the way! Surprise, surprise!Mac is ready to help. It’s easy, it’s logical, and it’s even fun! Let’s take a look at how to address all those cards you want to send to family and friends. Perhaps you have business connections and will send out some official Holiday Greetings to these people. Here’s a Few Articles & Videos Here’s an article with comments following. Here's several videos about printing labels and envelopes from Address Book. Look here for Avery addressing labels. You’ll note an extensive product list: sizes, colors, labels for various uses and for various types of printers. Also, note that Avery offers a free newsletter and free templates for work, home, school, and play. Take a look at this I found Easter Bunny & Father’s Day templates, among others! Set Up A Group in Address Book Your Address Book is your helpful assistant. Click on it to open. You probably already have a nice list of friends and relatives. Click on the + under Group and make a new Group, “Christmas.” Go to one of your groups you’ve already set up and click on someone’s name and drag their V-card to the new group. They can be in different groups at the same time. You most likely already know to click on the + at the bottom of the Name list so you can add a new name to that group. Let’s experiment. Click on the name of the Group to highlight it. Go to the top menu on your screen and get File > Print. On the page that comes up you choose the printer you’ll be using, copies, labels. You can also print out the list on a regular sheet of paper. Under Mailing Labels you can choose to print directly to the envelope, labels, lists, and pocket address book. Under Layout > Page choose Avery or one of the other products there. Choose the Avery label number; for me it’s the 5160. That prints out a page of 30 address labels. You’ll see the measurements of the margins, number of rows and columns on the page, and the gutters. Note: do not run a page of mailing labels through the printer for the second time. Keep that printer happy! At the menu at the top go to Preferences and click General. Choose a font size from the Pop up menu. Do you want these printed out in alphabetical order or by zip codes? Specify. If you want to print the addresses on the envelopes instead of making labels then you can choose a font. By default it’s Lucida Grande -1. Click on Set and up comes your entire font listing, so you can make a choice there. Layout is where you choose the envelope size. Orientation lets you choose which way you’re going to feed the envelopes in to the printer. You’ll set it up for your own printer’s set up. Experiment and have fun.

Here’s an app to Print Envelopes

Here’s a handy-dandy app from Ambrosia called Easy Envelopes. ($9.99) Take a look here.

Want Someone to Do it For You? You can order personalized stamped envelopes from the USPS Postal Store:  Print your own postage stamps on demand. Look here. They give you a postal scale; it calculates and prints the correct postage amount. You can get a 4-week trial offer. If you have an Intel-based Mac and use Windows installed or a PC emulator you can get even more features. It’s a FREE download. Here  you can print postage stamps with your picture on it. Recently, my niece, Alisha, did this for her thank you notes, choosing a photo of her and her hubby, Joe. DYMO printable postage, no monthly fee, no commitment; it’s for PC and Mac. PRACTICAL.  INTERESTING.  MACINTOSH! This was today's handout at the November PMUG meeting.  For handouts from earlier months look down the Labels list to Handout at PMUG.  Click to bring up 22 short, fun handouts. If you have the new Lion OS there may be some variations to these directions.  Try it out and let us know. # # #