Monday, December 05, 2005

GRRR! Labels!

Wow! What was supposed to be a modern technological convienence to aid my now very poor hand writing as turned into a big pain in my RUMP! Seemed simple enough to just create an address list and to print off all my Christmas card address labels on one nice clean sheet.

In the past (a few years ago....well I guess at the for our wedding invitations I made 5 years ago) I had used Microsoft publisher. Unfortunately to my dismay I do not have that program on the computer I have now. Hmmn. I questioned whether I should forgoe the label operation but being the matching sort the labels matched my newsletter paper and cards. It would seem out of place to have the labels and not use them when I was going to use the paper. Then there is the fact that I must write rather slowly in order for things to turn out neat and legible. Even then my handwriting in an address could be easily misconstrued and the card undelivered.

I contemplated the outcome and thought of how long it would take me to handwrite all the addresses on the front of the cards. Yet here it is over 2 hours later and I am still fudging with the dang thing! Ok I finally figured out in WORD how to get the labels on the sheet the correct size and to make the proper number I want and create an address list to mail merge. HOWEVER..........I cannot get the dang mail merge to work and the addresses to show up in the label boxes! FRUSTRATING!

I have tried my darndest to be patient and to walk through the help programs /tutorials to figure it out on my own in a different program that I had previously been accustomed. I have spent so much time just on trying to learn how to set it up that I have not even written the darn newsletter first! Oh well! I guess my cards are not going into the mail tomorrow as it is way late and time for bed. I have an early appointment to get the dogs their vaccincations and for the first time ever I am taking them to Petco to be bathed and get their teeth brushed as it is much too cold for the dogs and I to perform the washing outside in the snow.

Just in case you were wondering, I get completely drenched during the washing process and we do not have proper washing accomodations for them in our upstairs shower. Last time I took them to the upstairs bathroom I had to basically shower with them and they are so big now that I got my legs and feet are bruised up trying to move them around (only the shower head works so I have to make them stand up and help support them on two feet). This is definitely not an enjoyable experience with my imbalance. LOL After the last shower stint and having them shake water all over the bathroom I said that is enough of the indoor bathing.

Can anybody help me with creating these dang labels?????? Sorry but I have a fixation on using them now and I have done most of the work already. All I need to do is to figure out how to properly merge my addresses into each label so I can print off the one sheet. When I do a print preview all that shows up in each label box is "Address Block" which is the stinking thing I am supposed to select to choose exactly which options in the address block I wish to print. I have gone through choosing and selecting but the darn address does not show up! I need to just walk away from it and get a good night's sleep. I guess I will try to make Tuesday my goal for mailing. Originally I was hoping to accomplish the mailing by Thanksgiving but it did not happen with their whirlwind of changing offices and reorganization here at the house.

Thanks and if you can help please post your comment here or email me. Have a good week!

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

UPDATE: Okay I have got the dang addresses entered but now for some (XJJJHILUY) reason the stupid program insists upon putting the last name before the first names. I keep selecting the first name to be listed first in the label and no matter what it keeps showing up as last name first (example: the envelop would read Dufek Rebecca). Well that does not work because some butt munch at the post office is going to look for someone who has a last name of "Rebecca". GRRR! I want these dang labels done already or my brain is going to hemorage!

Rebecca said...

AH HA! FINALLY (AFTER 3 AM) I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT! I never did solve why it kept putting the last name before the first. The only thing I figure is that it did that when I originally created the address list and arranged it alphabetically by last name. I was too tired to monkey with it so I just changed each label individually and also did the same to make the address fit into the white portion of each label. Talk about a long and arduous task just to make some dang address labels! I of course saved this in a WORD file for next year so I do not have to go through the hassle again. Now I just need to figure out how to set up an address book for printing addresses on envelopes in the future. Alright. The newsletter will have to wait until tomorrow as I really do need to get to bed now.

I really commend all of you who are so savy to complete these cards, print labels, get photos taken, get nice pictures of kids taken, mail out the cards by the beginning of the month or by the holiday AND who work on top of it! I have no idea how you accomplish this feat but I DO thoroughly enjoy recieving your correspondance each year and YES I keep ALL the cards, newsletters, and photos! I was just thinking this past week of how I need to create a photo album of your families while they grow and to put your nice newsletters into a nice booklet. You will hear from me soon. I am determined to get these cards out this week! I am almost completed with shopping and I am at the wrapping, shipping, and delivery phase. (Before any of you tweak out, I have to admit that I started christmas shopping months ago and I get my cards, paper, wrapping, and tags the year prior. I am still working on wrapping them months in advance. I thought I was ahead of the game but the holiday snuck up rather fast!

Rebecca said...

hehe. I got it figured out finally and sent off all the Christmas cards. To avoid future frustration, I saved the addresses in label format in a word document so that all I have to do next year is open the file a print it off. Yippee!!!!