Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Saving Money on Printing Labels.
If you have purchased labels for your laser printer, you already know that they can be a bit expensive. It can be frustrating to print your labels and not have them lined up just right. Each bad sheet you print is effectively money down the drain.
To overcome this problem, make sure you print a test sheet before you actually print on the labels themselves. Simply put a blank sheet of paper in the manual feed of your laser printer, instead of your label sheet. When the information is printed on the blank sheet, place that sheet behind a blank sheet of labels and hold it up to the light. The print on the paper will show through the label sheet, and you can see how the text lines up with the labels.
The benefit of this is that you save money—the blank paper is much cheaper than the label sheets. Continue printing your test sheets, adjusting the print parameters as necessary in Word. When you are satisfied with how your test sheet prints, go ahead and print on the labels themselves.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1290) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Saving Money on Printing Labels.
The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!
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2019-05-13 11:36:28
Roy
For the most part, just turn the borders on for cells. This quickly tells you if you are going to overrun an edge.
If you use five columns on three column label stock (and "add columns similarly for other column stock, between the label columns), you can be sure you have the columns ending in the right place.
If you enter a space in the cells between columns (copy and paste!), you make sure nothing runs off a label to the right.
Pretty much no labels nowadays have stock between rows, but if yours does, do the same as between columns. Some do to bleed to the edges of the labels.
Turn the borders off after you verify you've got the "cells" on the labels accurately. I always use Excel, not Word, so they really are cells, but you get the idea.
Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: 
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