How to Create & Print Return Address Labels

Creating your own return address labels is fast, easy, and a lot cheaper than paying a company to do it for you.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Printer
• Address Labels

Instructions

1. Most people receive the offer in the mail for address labels custom printed with their information. You simply contact the company, tell them what you want on the label, and they print them for you. This is all done for a price of course. What a lot of people don't realize is that you can do it yourself for a lot cheaper, and have as many return address labels as you need whenever you want them.

2. 

   First you will need to find the return address labels that you want to use. Of course you can find these at Staples, Office Depot, etc. However, as with most things you can usually find a better deal online. A couple of great sites that I have found (I will have links at the end of this article), are Label Universe, 123print.com, and Superior Labels. At Label Universe and Superior Labels you can find blank return address labels. Superior Labels is a little cheaper. You can get 300 labels for $10.45. You get 100 sheets of 30. This is roughly $.03-$.04 per label. Get that deal through the mail order companies! If you so desire you can order up to 10,000 sheets online. If you prefer return address labels with a little more style visit 123print.com. They have over 5,000 different designs to choose from. Everything from a picture relating to your profession, to a monogram, or something patriotic. Simply find what fits your needs and place your order.

3. Now that you have your labels, the process of customizing them is made extremely easy thanks to a program that is most likely pre-installed on your computer if it is running XP or Vista. It is the Microsoft Works Task Launcher. To find it simply click Start, All Programs, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Works Task Launcher. Once you have the program open you will notice icons at the top of the screen. Click on templates. On the page that comes up you will see a list on the left side of the page. Click on Letters & Labels. Now click Return Address Labels. A new window will pop up. In the pop-up box click on Return Address Labels, and then click OK. Now the Label Settings box will pop up. It has a list of a lot of the label manufacturers. When you ordered your labels you most likely noticed that it had a "compare to" section. Simply find the matching company, for example Avery. Now scroll down the list for the product number that matches the labels that you ordered. A common size is the Avery 8930 address label. Click to highlight your matching product number, and click New Document.

4. You will see that you are brought to a page with a template for address labels. Now you can choose your desired font, and font size. The default should be Times New Roman, size 10. To start type in your information in the box. These labels can hold up to 4 lines of text depending on your font size. After you have your text added to the box hold CTRL (Control) and push "A". This will highlight everything. Now start experimenting with the fonts and font sizes. Since the text is highlighted every time you change fonts and sizes it will automatically change the text. You won't have to retype it every time to see a different style. You can also center, or align the text to the left or right, make some or all of the text bold, or change the text color.

5. Now click on print preview. This is the icon to the right of the printer in the toolbar at the top of the page. It looks like a piece of paper with a magnifying glass. Now you will see that the text that you typed in the first label has automatically been transferred to all of the labels. If you are satisfied with everything, simply click print and specify how many pages that you want. That's it. It's that easy. Don't over pay for return address labels anymore. You can do it yourself in less than five minutes, and a lot cheaper than paying for someone else to do it for you.

Tips & Warnings

• Experiment with different font styles.

• Save money on shipping. Stock up on your labels. Shipping costs will be cheaper if you buy in bulk and ship in one larger box, versus paying shipping for a small box every couple of months.

• This could be a great side income for you. Simply tell your friends and family that you can make custom return address labels for them. At $.03-$.04 per label you can charge a couple of dollars for 100 labels and come out great, and your friends will be getting a great deal too!

Resources

• 123Print.com
• Label Universe
• Superior Labels
• Return Address Labels