How to Design Your Own Address Labels

Purchasing custom-designed address labels can be very costly. While Microsoft Word allows one to print labels, it does not provide many options when it comes to design. On the other hand, Microsoft Publisher 2007 provides many options for designing your own address labels. You can add graphics, color, borders and other stylistic elements when designing your address labels. And, as with Word, you can save and print out the labels.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Choose Labels in the Getting Started with Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 box. Several label templates will pop up. Publisher provides templates for several types of address labels, so it is a good idea to consult this list before buying address labels.

2. Browse the templates and find one that matches up with the product number of the address labels that you have purchased. When you find one that you like, double click on it. You can choose blank labels to design from scratch, but templates offer a great starting point for designing your own label.

3. Click on the text in the template to select it. Then, begin entering your name and address. Don't forget to include the city, state and ZIP code. Be sure to use the postal state abbreviations, which are two capital letters. Most address label templates will let you enter up to four lines of text.

4. Change the font of the text if you do not like the font style that goes with the template. Click on Font Schemes in the Format Publications box on the left. Change the font by clicking on different font schemes and the font on the address label will change. Stop when you find one that you like.

5. Change the color of the label template. Click on Color Schemes in the Format Publications box. Like with the font schemes, simply click on different color schemes and the colors will change. Stop when you find one that you like.

6. Add monograms, pictures or other graphics. Go to Insert, Picture and select Clip Art. A search box will appear on the left. Enter the type of graphic that you are looking for and click Go. To find monograms, search by the letter. Browse through the results; when you find what you are looking for, double click on it and it will be added to the template. To re-size the graphic, click on it so that it is outlined in a dashed line and white circles appear in the corners. Place the mouse pointer over one of the circles until it resembles a diagonal line with arrows on each end. Click and drag the graphic to the desired size.

7. Add a border to the template if it does not already have one. Go to Insert and Design Gallery Object. Choose Borders. Click on a border and click Insert Object. The border may need to be re-sized.

8. Insert blank labels into the printer once you have custom designed the address label.

9. Go to File and Print. Adjust the information in the Print box as needed and click Print.

Tips & Warnings

• To add photographs to the label, go to Insert, Picture and choose From File. Locate the photo on your computer and click Insert. Re-size the photo as needed.

Resources

• USPS Abbreviations