How to Make Labels Using an Address Book

Use MS Word to create custom labels for your personal or business mailings.

Creating labels on your computer is a great way to add professionalism to your package or mailing envelope. Whether you are using contact information from Microsoft Outlook's Address Book or a personal address book, you can take advantage of Microsoft Word's Mail Merge Wizard to easily create and print custom mailing labels for each recipient in your address book. The wizard will walk you through the steps of importing contacts from an address book, designing the label layout and printing your custom labels.

Instructions

1. Go to "Start," click "All Programs" and open Microsoft Word.

2. Click on the "Mailings" tab, and then click on the "Start Mail Merge" toolbar button. Next, select the "Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard."

3. Check the box next to "Labels" in the "Select Document Type" pane, and then click on the "Next" link.

4. Click on the "Label options" link. The "Label Options" dialog box will appear on the screen. Select your printer and the product number that matches the labels you are using. If you do not know the product number, you can locate it on the front of your labeling package. Click on the "Next" link to proceed to the "Select Recipients" section.

5. Check the box next to the "Select from Outlook contacts" option to import contacts from Outlook's Address Book. Click on "Choose Contacts Folder," locate and select your contacts list, and click "OK."

6. Check the box next to "Type New List" option to manually import addresses from a personal address book. Enter the recipient's name and address in the available fields. Click on the "New Entry" button to continue adding contacts to the list. Click "OK" when you're finished entering all of your contacts' information. You will be asked to save the new document, which can be used in the future. Name your new contacts file, select a destination folder and click "Save."

7. Click on the "Insert Merge Field" toolbar button, and select the specific address fields you would like to display on your labels such as "First Name," "Last Name," "Address Line," "State" and "Zip Code."

8. Click on the "Arrange your labels" link and edit the layout of your labels. You can select different formatting options for the recipients' names. Click on the "Update all labels" button when you are finished editing the layout.

9. Click on the "Preview your results" link to view your new labels. If you are satisfied with your new labels, click on the "Complete the merge" link. To continue editing your labels, click on the "Previous: Arrange your labels" link.

10. Click on the "Print" link. After the "Merge to Printer" dialog box appears, select the address records you would like to merge. To merge all of your records, check the box next to "All." Click "OK" to proceed to the "Print" window.

11. Select your preferred printer from the drop-down menu, choose the number of copies you would like to print, and click "OK."

References

• Microsoft Office: About the Address Book - Outlook
• Microsoft: How to Use the Mail Merge to Create Mailing Labels in Word