Christmas card address labels

Type over the example rows, one row per card. Each year after that, open the same file: delete the people you no longer send to, correct anyone who has moved, and add a row for each new name. Rows you might want again can go on a second worksheet rather than being deleted; the tool reads the first worksheet unless you pick another.

Extra columns are fine. A column of notes, or of the year you last sent a card, does not print, because the address layout is built from the name and address columns alone. Avoid calling a column Copies or Count: the tool reads that as the number of labels to print for each row.

The ZIP column is formatted as Text, the whole column and not just the example cells. Excel removes leading zeros from numbers, so in an ordinary column 02108 turns into 2108. In this one, a ZIP code typed into a new row next year keeps its zero as well.

The CSV version is plain text and holds 02108 as written, but Excel converts it to 2108 when it opens a CSV. If you edit in Excel, use the .xlsx. Print Labels From Excel reads a CSV as text, so a CSV loaded straight into the tool keeps every zero. And if a zero has gone missing anyway, a three- or four-digit value in a column named ZIP is padded back to five digits (in a postal code column, only on rows with a US state), and the summary in step 4 says how many were changed.

On the same computer and browser, the tool also remembers your text size, alignment and bold setting and, for a list with the same column names, the layout you last used. It never stores the names or addresses themselves.

One Name column suits a card list better than separate first and last names, because a household line does not split into a first name and a last name. If your list does have First Name and Last Name columns, the tool puts them together on the first line of the label.

To write household names on a list like that, add a column headed Name and fill it in for every row. When a Name column is present the layout uses it instead of the first and last names, so a row left empty there prints no name at all. In Excel, =A2&" "&B2 joins a first name in column A to a last name in column B; fill it down, then type over the households.

For a whole family, the surname takes a plural with no apostrophe: add -s, or -es after a name ending in s or z, so the Parks and the Joneses. An apostrophe makes it possessive instead, as Merriam-Webster’s guide to plural names sets out. The tool prints whatever the cell says, apostrophes included, so this is worth a look down the column before a big run.

A long name line is shrunk to fit the label. If it still does not fit, it is cut short with an ellipsis and the tool warns you before you print; the enlarged first label in the preview shows the result. If many of your names are long, a wider label such as Avery 5161 gives them more room.

At 30 a sheet, 100 cards take four sheets of 5160: three full ones and ten labels on the fourth. You do not need to work that out; the summary in step 4 counts the labels and sheets before you download, and the preview pages through every sheet.

Only the 5160 layout, which 8160 and 5260 share, has been measured against real label stock. The others are sourced and checked arithmetically, and each of their pages carries a note saying so. Whichever you choose, print one page on plain paper and hold it against a real sheet before the full run.

The same USPS holiday shipping page lists the dates for Alaska, Hawaii and international mail. Those dates are recommendations, and USPS notes that actual delivery depends on where a card is mailed from and to.

Test the printer before the busy week, not during it. Download the blank template for your sheet from step 3, print it on plain paper at actual size, and hold it against a real label sheet up to a window. Most templates carry a 1.000 inch reference line, so a ruler tells you whether anything was scaled.

Then print the whole list in one go. A single PDF holds up to 10,000 labels. In the print dialog choose Actual size or 100%, never Fit to page: the PDF asks your viewer for actual size, but not every viewer honors it. If the test page is off, labels not lining up finds the cause.

If a card arrives from someone who is not on your list after you have printed, add them to the spreadsheet so they are there next year. Then copy the header row and just the new rows, paste them into the tool, and open “Printing on a partly used sheet?” in step 3 to start on the first label left over from last time.

Pressing Ctrl+V (⌘+V on a Mac) anywhere on this page pastes the cells too. There is no add-on to install and nothing to give access to your Drive; labels from Google Sheets has the details.

Google Contacts exports to a file: select the contacts, then More actions, Export, and Google CSV, as Google’s export steps describe. Add that CSV to the tool directly rather than opening it in Excel first, which would strip the leading zeros from ZIP codes. Google’s column names may not be the ones the tool looks for, so if it does not lay out the address by itself, clear the layout in step 2 and click the column names you need.

iPhone and iCloud contacts export from iCloud.com as a vCard file (Apple’s instructions), which Print Labels From Excel does not read. Copy the addresses you need into the list template instead. On a Mac, the Contacts app can print mailing labels by itself: File, Print, then Mailing Labels in the Style menu, as Apple describes.

A list kept in Numbers works directly, because the tool reads .numbers files as well as Excel and CSV. Labels on a Mac covers Excel for Mac, Numbers and Pages.