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Whether you’re shipping items, sending mail to friends and family, or running a business, sooner or later you’ll probably need to create mailing labels. For some people, that means buying labels from a vendor, while others need to make their own using tools like Apple Pages. Regardless of how you’re making your labels, there are a few things that you should know.
Use a Template to Create Mailing Labels
One of the downsides to Apple’s Pages word processor is that it offers very little in the way of label templates. This can be frustrating for users who want to save time and effort when creating custom labels.
However, a number of companies are now providing official templates for pages that can be used to create labels in the program. This can be a great way to get professional-looking labels without having to buy expensive labels or use another program to create them.
The best place to look for label templates is the Avery website. This site has a huge selection of templates that are formatted for Pages documents, so you’ll want to check it out before trying to create your own labels in Pages.
Display a Table and Set the Margins
When you’re setting up your template for labeling, you’ll need to set the margins so that the labels are uniform across the page. To do this, go to the Document Inspector and enter your measurements in the Document Margins section.
Once you’ve entered your measurements, print out a test copy of your template so that you can see how it compares to the real thing. Once you’re satisfied with your work, save it as a Pages template so that you can use it again in the future (File > Save as Template).
Merge Labels
The first step in combining labels is to merge the data in each template into a single document. This can be done using a variety of methods, but the easiest is to use a mail merge feature. A mail merge is a feature that was previously part of the iWork suite, but it’s been added back to Pages after a significant redesign.
You can create a mail merge by importing a template file from another program, such as Microsoft Word or Avery’s Label Manager. You can also use a spreadsheet or other type of tabular data format for the mail merge, as long as the data is compatible with Pages’ Mail Merge feature.
A Quick Tip
If you’re using Google Sheets, you can easily create mailing labels from the Google Docs app. The Google Docs app is a free, downloadable application that allows you to view and edit spreadsheets. The only downside is that it’s not as sophisticated or flexible as some other apps, but it can still be useful for many small-business purposes.
Moreover, if you’re looking for a way to merge data from several sources into a single document, then you can do this in Google Sheets by creating an Excel spreadsheet with the appropriate fields filled in.
