How to Make Sticky Labels

Make your own labels to help keep your space organized.

Sticky labels can give your letters a more professional touch, or help you finally organize that unruly front hall closet. You can use them to keep ingredients in order in the kitchen, or to help your child keep his toy bins sorted and organized. Luckily, you can make colorful labels at home on your own, without any fancy software applications. All you need to get started is a word processor, label-making paper from your local office supply store and any standard printer. Note that these directions assume use of Microsoft Word, but that other word processing applications have similar label-making functionality. See your software's online help for more information.

Things You'll Need

• Word processing software
• Label paper
• Printer

Instructions

1. Launch Microsoft Word and create a new blank document. If you're running Word 2007 or later, click the Mailings tab. Then, choose Start Mail Merge > Labels. If you're running an earlier version of Microsoft Word, choose Tools > Letters and Mailings > Envelopes and Labels. Then, click Labels > Options.

2. Select your label paper vendor in the Label Vendors drop-down if using Word 2007. Next, look for your product number and select it. If you find your label vendor and number without any trouble, click OK. If you can't find what you're looking for, create a custom label category by clicking New Label and filling in your labels' size parameters.

   In older versions of Microsoft Word, choose the label type you want in the Product Number box. If you don't see what you want, select a printer type and click New Label. Select the dimensions that correspond to your labels and click OK.

3. Design your labels, typing text as needed. In Word 2007 and later, click Picture on the Insert tab to include pictures stored on your hard drive. Incorporate clip art pictures by choosing Insert > Clip Art. In earlier versions of Word, you can find the same commands on the Insert drop-down menu. You'll notice that Word has divided the page for you so that line breaks occur naturally where label edges end.

4. Click the Home button in the top left corner, then click Print > Print Preview if working in Word 2007 or later. In earlier versions, choose File > Print Preview. Once you've verified that your labels look the way you want them to, click Print on the preview screen to create your labels.

Tips & Warnings

• To avoid wasting label paper, print one copy of your label sheet on a regular piece of paper first. Hold your paper copy up next to your labels to verify that label edges are falling where they should. If they're not, first check your label settings in Microsoft Word, then verify your printer settings.

References

• Microsoft Office: Create Custom-Sized Labels