Cardbox > Support > Knowledge Base ...

How to print mailing labels

If you want to print names and addresses on a sheet of mailing labels, this is what you should do:

1. Select the records you want to print.
2. Switch to the format that you will use for printing (View > Format).
3. Print the labels (View > Print).

Setting up the format

The first time you print labels with particular contents and in a particular layout, you will need to design a Cardbox format for them so that Cardbox knows what to do:

1. Create a new format (Edit > Format > New).
2. Tell Cardbox the size and layout of the labels you will be printing on.
3. Tell Cardbox what to put on the labels.
4. Save the new format (File > Save).

Label size and layout

As far as Cardbox's printing mechanisms are concerned, a mailing label is just a very small piece of paper. So the first thing you should do, when designing a new label format, is to tell Cardbox which labels you are using.

Go to File > Printer Settings > Printer and Paper and open the Paper Sizes list. Any label sizes that Cardbox has already used will appear in this list, underneath the paper size that corresponds to the size of the sheet of labels. So if the overall size of the label sheets you are using is A4, look just under "A4" in the list of sizes.

If you can see your label type in the list, select it. If you can't, then you need to tell Cardbox the details of your label type. Press the Manage Label Types button to create a new label type or select one from the list that we have built in to Cardbox: see pages 119 to 121 of The Cardbox Book for instructions, or press F1 for the online help.

In File > Printer Settings > Margins, set the margin between the edge of each label and your printed text. Typically one or two millimetres will be enough, to guard against slight misalignments during printing.

Contents of the labels

Create a merge block: draw it so that it fits within the dotted lines that indicate the printable area. Insert the field names that you need, on separate lines if you want them on separate lines. Turn on the "Automatic Height" and "Automatic Width" attributes - you will probably want to turn on "Omit spaces after an empty field" as well. Merge blocks are described in detail on pages 195 to 198 of The Cardbox Book, or you can press F1 to use the online help.

In File > Printer Settings > Records, turn on "One record per label" so that each record starts on a new label. "Truncate record at end of label" and "Print records across the page, then down" are also relevant: see page 117 of The Cardbox Book, or the online help.