Copyright © 1997-2008 Elizabeth Boston, The Computer Lady

Dear Computer Lady,

 

I would like to know how to take a labels document on (Microsoft Office XP) that has been added to frequently and alphabetize it without have to retype all of the addresses or do a lot of copy and paste.  Can you help me?

 

Thanks, Rita

Dear Rita,

 

This depends on how you have your labels set up on the computer right now.

 

If you have been typing the labels directly into a Word document that is formatted for labels, then there is no easy way to put them in order.

 

The best way to do something like this is to create a spreadsheet in Excel with your names and addresses.

When you want to print the labels, you would run a mail merge in Word and use your excel document as your source for the mail merge.

 

Step by Step directions for this would be too long to include in this e-mail, but if you go to www.google.com and search for "Mail Merge Tutorial" you will find several online tutorials.

 

Another way, would be to use the free software from Avery (the makers of Avery Labels) They make a great program called Avery Design Pro. You can download it at: http://www.avery.com/us/software/index.jsp

 

Design Pro has the capabilities of creating a database of addresses and then merging them into labels.

 

Elizabeth