Numbered labels in Word?

January 9, 2007 12:59 PM

I'm having some trouble creating labels in Word for Macintosh 2004. I'm working on a project now that requires that I print a number of labels (8 1/2 by 11 sheets of these guys, Avery labels, printed out on your standard inkjet printer), numbered one-by-one in sequential order, 1, 2, 3, and so on (about a thousand or so of these, each number contained in one label).

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to put this numbering system into a preset Word label table. There are previous questions that ask basically the same thing about mail-merges, but how do I get a 1 in one field, a 2 in the next, and so on without making myself crazy typing these numbers in one by one?

I know how to create separate sequential fields in Excel, with that pull-down cross-hairs, but I cannot seem to do the same in Word.

And if anyone has any idea about how to create labels from Excel, I would equally love to hear about that!

Sorry for such a mundane query, but I am just going batty trying to figure this out..

posted by ethel to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Well, this is probably a long way to go about it, but have you tried merging an Excel file into the Word file? You would need to:

1. Create an Excel file with one column labeled "numbers" or something, and have that column just be the sequential list (which you said you know how to do).

2. Create a Word mail merge label file with whatever the standard Avery size label you're using.

3. Make sure each label block has the < next record>> designation followed by the "numbers" merge field.

4. Merge, and print.

Does that makes sense? Like I said, convoluted, but maybe it's something to do until someone comes up with a better solution.
posted by bibbit at 2:17 PM on January 9, 2007

Yes, mail merge is what you want. I do this all the time for printing sequential labels.
posted by rhapsodie at 7:38 PM on January 9, 2007