How to Print Labels from Excel

Trying to print labels, envelopes, greeting cards, or anything else beyond standard letter-sized documents can be frustrating. It’s easy to make a mistake and end up with a page of labels you can’t use. If you have had this experience, you are far from alone; many people find this a difficult task. To be sure, it is one that takes a little practice and knowledge of the right process. Learn more with a course that teaches these and other basics of programs that offer help with this task, such as this course appropriate for beginning and intermediate level Excel users.

Programs like Excel and Word make the process easier by offering features that help you fill out your labels and preview them before you print. With Word, for example, you can use templates to print on a wide variety of labels and envelope sizes. You can print just one envelope or label if you want, or you can print a whole stack of envelopes or sheets of labels for mass mailings. You can choose font types and sizes, customize your layout, and even add images.

You will need to know the type of envelope or label you are using to use these features in Excel and Word. You can enter the size of label, for example, or the product number from the manufacturer of the label. This is a great feature that removes the guesswork from printing your labels and helps ensure that you can print them right the first time.

You will also need to know your printer. Should you feed the sheet of blank labels in face down or face up, and in which direction should they be rotated? Word can help you figure this out; that’s one reason to involve Word when printing labels from Excel.

Printing Labels

There basically two ways to print labels from Excel: using Word, and not using Word. The instructions for using Word to print labels with data from an Excel spreadsheet seem a little more complicated to the average new user, but the steps are simple and can be learned by anyone, especially with the assistance of a course designed to teach the basics of Excel to users of all skill levels.

Print Labels from Excel Using Word

One of the ways in which you can print labels from Excel is by using a Word mail merge. By using Word to create a mail merge, and linking this to an Excel list, you can turn data from your worksheet, namely the names and addresses of your customers, into printable labels for mailing.

To do this, begin by setting up the data in Excel that you wish to use in the mail merge. Then, save and close the workbook. Open Word, and under Tools, hover over Letters and Mailings and then click Mail Merge Wizard.  Here you can select the document type, so for mailing labels, you would want to select Labels first, and then under Label Options you can choose the kind of labels you wish to print, including their specific type and size.

Next, click Use an Existing List under Select Recipients, and click Browse. At this point you can choose the saved Excel workbook that contains the relevant data. Find and click on your list in the Select Table dialog box. Check the box that says First Row of Data Contains Column Headers. Click OK.

You will see a place in the Mail Merge Recipients Dialog Box where you can click on any column labels from your worksheet that correspond with the Word identifiers also shown. This step makes it easier to insert your data into the documents. You can also choose Edit Recipient List and select the recipients you wish to include if you are including only certain recipients in your mail merge.

The rest of the process is simple as the Wizard walks you through each step, including adding recipient information, previewing, personalizing, saving, and printing or emailing the documents. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to open the Excel workbook while it is open in Word. There is an option in the Wizard for editing the list; use this if you need to make changes.

For more information on this and Excel’s many other functions, check out a comprehensive course in Excel that covers everything you need to know about navigating the program. And Word itself has many more features than most casual users realize. To master Microsoft Word, there are excellent available courses that teach you all about the program, such as Microsoft Word 2013 Tutorial.

Print Labels from Excel without Word

It is also possible to create labels in Excel without using Word, although most users find that they prefer the Word method once they become familiar with the process. If, for some reason, you need to print labels straight from Excel without using Word, you can accomplish this by following these steps.

1. Start your spreadsheet and enable Macros.
2. Paste your data into cell 1A. This will work with single column data only.
3. Press CTRL + e to start the macro; choose “3” for the number of columns you want – this will work with the 5160 Avery labels that are so common.
4. Set your margins to “custom margins” and choose 0.5 for the top and bottom and 0.21975 for the left and right margins.
5. Finally, choose “Fit all Columns on One Page” for the scaling. This will space out your data properly so that you can print it onto the labels.

Although Word offers more features and a slightly more user-friendly experience for printing labels, there are some instances where it is necessary to be able to print the labels directly from Excel. You won’t enjoy as many customization options this way, but it will get your labels printed in a pinch, or if all you require is plain white standard labels. For more information on printing labels as well as the numerous other features of Microsoft Excel and Word, check out a course like The Ultimate Microsoft Office 2013 Training Bundle.