Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with label

excel gets my goat sometimes

jak68 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:50:40 -0800

excel filter: why wont it let me have header rows below row 1? I dont use excel much; but whenever I do, I'm always amazed at why its virtually impossible to label any rows or columns.

You'd think that labelling rows or columns would be one of the most basic things that one should be able to do in a spreadsheet program especially if one wants to keep one's rows and columns logical.

I know that you can label row 1 and column 1 and then exclude them when you sort. (And even that it seems to me they didnt make it automatic, you have to go into advanced sort window and click on 'i have header rows' or something.)

But what if you have 5 rows of numbers, and then you want to add more label rows?

Is there basically no way to do that? COuldnt they, for pete's sake, just give an option to make any row a "comment" row that isnt included in sorting and calculations? Like a "REM" statement in programming, to be able to right click a row and say "ignore this row in sorting and calculation"? Why hasnt MS done that yet? It seems so obvious and so useful a function.

Or is there a way to do that and I'm just dumb?

How can I launch my label correctly?

setanor — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:42:20 -0800

I'm launching a digital record label this month. I live in Canada on an unrestricted work permit. I'm still a US citizen. Can I incorporate? Should I incorporate? Where? What should I do to make this official? I've been so busy getting everything in order that I didn't realize I might have to do something with any money that comes in... What steps should I take to make sure everything is legit? Should I incorporate, or is there something else similar I should look into? We're going to be pretty low volume for a while, nothing too serious, but I want to be sure it's solid if I'm talking to artists about releasing their stuff.

weird shipping label

puckish — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:37:06 -0800

Going through old stuff, I found a box for an old Ibook that had a weird handwritten shipping label from "I.S. 339 School Of Communication Technology." Google says it's a performing arts school in the Bronx. What gives? It's possible that I had it sent in for repairs and Apple outsourced it. It's been years since I looked at the box. Any idea why my computer might have gone through these folks?

Low-cost white label video solution

ialas — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:45:14 -0800

Do you know a low-cost white label video solution with privacy settings that hide the video from the public but allow you to embed the video where you want? I'm looking for a low-cost white-label video solution for my business that will allow me to embed videos behind a log-in, for the eyes of registered users only. The registered users won't be able to share the videos (embedding disabled). Ideally, it would also:

-be easy to use (we would like to have users upload videos themselves)
-allow us to put our brand/logo on the video/video player
-not have ads

We've looked at free solutions (YouTube, Vimeo) and white-label solutions (Brightcove, Watershed, Twistage, Castfire), but the former don't fit our needs and the latter are priced too high for our needs. We'll only be uploading a dozen or so videos a month. So far the best fit looks like Viddler, but at $100 a month I'd like to see if there's anything cheaper.

Thanks in advance!

Help label me!

bunnycakes — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:11:44 -0800

CraftyFilter: Help me find a woven or pvc label maker! CraftyFilter: I would like to buy either woven (embroidered) or pvc labels -- the kind you put on clothes to denote trademark and/or care labels for clothes. Examples of what I'm talking about can be found here and here. I have found a number of sites that offer this service, but I seem to be at a loss as how to figure out which place to go with. Does anyone have experience with a provider that they were happy with? Have suggestions on how to find someone reputable?

I am not looking for a huge order, only 50 - 200 to start off with. My logo and words are black and white and the entire label would be approximately 3 inches by 2.5 inches.

Zebra label printer. Mac OS X. Solution?

reeddavid — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:19:40 -0800

Need OS X print drivers for the Zebra Z4000 thermal label printer. Does anyone have a working solution cheaper than this $225 driver from Peninsula Group in UK? CUPS does not support zebra (and besides, I need some product-specific functionality in order to configure the size, length and type of labels). This printer was discontinued in 2004 and was replaced with the Zebra Z4MPlus, which was subsequently replaced by the Zebra ZM400. I can't find Mac drivers for any of them besides the aforementioned expensive option. I think Endicia might be able to print postage labels on this printer, but I want to be able to print from other applications as well.

How do I best print artwork to blank CD?

forallmankind — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:29:56 -0800

What are my options for printing album artwork direct to CD without dropping a boatload of cash. CDs are my preferred way of listening to music, but I'm starting to drown in a sea of blank CDs with scribblings in Sharpie. I recently joined emusic and figured it'd be cool to put the album jpeg that comes with the download on the CD. Research so far has uncovered relatively limited options:

1) Lightscribe - not what I'm looking for: want color
2) Epson Stylus inkjet printers - this'd do I guess, but I'm not overjoyed at buying such a huge contraption to print such a small surface. And OMG their ink is expensive.
3) Printing CD labels and sticking them on - not thrilled about this option either as my car CD changer doesn't play well with discs of increased thickness.

So I guess I'm looking for a small printer that'll print direct to CD (I already use inkjet CDs as their surfaces are more durable than the shiny ones). I'm imagining that if this works out, I'd consider doing it on 100+ CDs, so cost and print speed are also variables to consider (I thought maybe printing a 1"x 1" image rather than the whole disc could be a solution).

I'm running dual boot Ubuntu and XP Pro on a Thinkpad X40 if it makes any difference.

This question has been asked before 2 years ago, so I'm checking in for up to date suggestions.

How do I organize certain sent mails?

zardoz — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:58:23 -0800

In Gmail, is it possible to create a label for certain emails, and then filter out only the sent mail to those addresses? For example, I receive email from an employer and I created a label and then a filter to put all those incoming mails under that label. But that only applies to incoming mail. I want a label that has all of my emails to this employer (especially emails with attachments). If there's a way to do this, I haven't found it yet. Anyone?

Starting an internship.

Dasmall07 — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:45:18 -0800

I want to get an internship with a record label. I dont have a degree or experience. What can I do???

Good label maker to buy?

izatchu — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:43:12 -0800

I'd like to organize some boxes on shelves and would like a good, basic label maker to make it neat and tidy. What's a good home label maker to buy? I've looked on Amazon and a lot of the complaints about label makers under $30 or so is that the tape has wide print margins and is wasteful and expensive, and the batteries wear out quickly, so you have to buy the A/C adapter, which is often another $20. If you have one that you love using, please let me know!

Is Vitamin Water Good For Me?

Locative — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:04:10 -0800

Is Vitamin Water actually good for me, or am I fooling myself? Beyond avoiding High Fructose Corn Syrup and anything partially hydrogenated, I don't really know how to read a nutrition label intelligently. I drink a lot of Glaceau brand Vitamin Water because I don't like drinking plain water, but I wonder if it really has any benefit for me at all.

The ingredients on the label of my "xxx" flavor Vitamin Water are the following, in order:

-vapor distilled, deionized, and/or reverse osmosis water
-cane sugar
-crystalline fructose
-citric acid
-vegetable juice (color)
-ascorbic acid (vitamin c)
-natural flavor
-berry and fruit extracts (acai, bluberry, pomegranate and apple)
-magnesium lactate (electrolyte)
-monopotassium phosphate (electrolyte)
-niacin (B3)
-pantothenic acid (B5)
-pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6)
-cyanocobalamin (B12)

I see some vitamins towards the end there. I know cane sugar is better than HFCS, and I know crystalline fructose is just another type of sugar.

So am I just drinking a fancy version of Crystal Light or Kool-Aid, or is there any benefit to drinking this stuff over plain water?

Ebooks with resale/resell rights?

acoutu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:35:25 -0800

Where can I find legitimate ebooks with resell/resale rights? I'd like to purchase some ebooks with resell/resale rights, chiefly in the areas of bookkeeping, small business management, invoices and contracts. (Not all in one ebook.) What are some legitimate sources for such materials? I am willing to pay a decent amount for these rights -- I am not looking for $1 ebooks. I'd like the materials to be of decent quality and not full of viruses and the like, since I will be associating my own products with them. Any recommendations? Thanks.

How can my friend get the rights to sell mp3s?

racecar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:41:47 -0800

Who can license music for download/sale? A friend came up with a wicked cool idea for selling music using the internet, but it can't be done through some affiliate mp3 link (like Amazon). We're just a couple of college guys, and we don't know any rockstars or label executives. Are there smaller labels out there who can sell us the rights to offer downloads of their music? Is there typically some money we have to pay up front when signing up to sell a band's music? Will I need a lawyer?

We just want to sell music in this cool, immersive context on the internet, and would be willing to give the label/artist a bigger cut than other people do, because we think we can make money on other things, and even take a loss on song sales. (That's what Apple does with iTunes right? To sell iPods?)

Do we need to sign contracts with our school friends who are pretty good musicians? Or is it just enough to have them send us their mp3s and we give them money. (tax rules?) We can't afford lawyers, and we probably wouldn't want to talk to them.

It'd be good to have hip hop, or other music that specifically teenagers would like, but it'd be even better to have a broad collection.

Googling yields ASCAP, Walmart and other companies that might not talk to little old me.

My parents say that an idea isn't enough, that we have to build the application.

We're free this summer and could probably build something for musicians and record labels to see.

Whatever we do, we want to do it legal, we don't want to be oink or allofmp3 and get shut down.

I know people can't give me official legal advice, but anything at this point is helpful. We thought about just calling the record labels main numbers, but that sounds like a waste of time.

What kind of labeler should I buy

alms — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:00:14 -0800

Should I buy a stand-alone labeler (with built-in keyboard) or a labeler that attaches to my Macintosh? Recommendations for specific models would be great. Yes, I'm reading Getting Things Done. That means I want a labeler that is very easy to use. It should have low overhead for making "just one label that I need right now" as well as for making a set of thirty labels when I reorganize my files. Maybe I'd use it for spice jars and christmas letters, too, but that's less important.

It should be plug-in, not battery-operated, and it should take up a minimal amount of desk space.

Thank you for helping me reclaim my file drawers, and along with them the rest of my life.

Ingredients and nutrition facts

Mr_Zero — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:54:46 -0800

I am working on a label for a steak seasoning container. I have an ingredients list but need to have a qualified entity analyze and finalize it. Where can I find a service that can do that and give me other stats like calories, sodium content, total fat, etc.

Please help me with a CD cover idea! I'm having trouble visualizing it.

bostonhill — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:31:34 -0800

Please help me with a CD cover idea! I'm having trouble visualizing it. Hello all,

Friends of mine are in a band and they have asked me to design them a cover in Photoshop. My skills are limited to photo manipulation so I'm kind of useless when it comes to sketching so I am hoping someone here can help me visualize their request.

This is what was sent to me:

'We were thinking for the cover...... 2 hands clasped together digging in and spreading the soil and on the fingertips a tiger's eye pot seed. You can find billions of pics on the web. And running throughout the soil there should be decaying small rodent type animals and worms. From the bottom a bunch of decrepit hands reaching up towards the top from the elbow and the like. On the inside we were looking for a burnt parchment type of border and horticultural notes made to look like they were torn out of a notebook.<< like one to 3 word snips. Use your judgment for the pictures on the inside underneath those notes.'

I am having the hardest time trying to visualize this and find examples mainly because I've never been asked to create someone elses 'thought' so to say. I've always done personal work that did not require anyone else telling me how things need to be so I am hoping someone here can give me guides to how I can accomplish this project.

I'm doing this for free so no money will be collected, its basically a favor for a friends band.

Thanks in advance!

Names as data labels or markers in Excel 2007?

muhonnin — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:03:01 -0800

Excel 2007 charting: Can you tell me how to use the name of a point as the data marker or the data label in an X-Y scatter plot? I have about 75 - 80 points that I'd like to display in an X-Y scatterplot in Excel 2007. Each point has a name consisting of a letter and a number: point A1 is (3, 3), point A2 is (4,6), point B1 is (2,1), etc. My point names are in column A, my x values are in column B, and my y values are in column C. Ideally, instead of a lot of blue diamonds scattered across the chart, I'd like to be the markers to be the point names (A1, A2, etc.). If that's not possible, I'd settle for being able to use the point names as data labels next to the blue diamonds. The only options I seems to be able to access for the data label are the X value, the Y value, or the name of the whole series.

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious--an hour of exploring the help facility and Googling have not been very illuminating. I'd be happy to implement a simple VBA script or macro if that would help.

Online distribution strategies

phaedon — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:34:18 -0800

What are some of the latest, smartest and/or cost-effective online distribution strategies a small record label should pursue? A small record label is looking to distribute their music online for the first time; the music itself consists of lesser known, but established artists from the 60's and 70's in the funk/soul genre. It's time to make a handful of albums available online, in conjunction with their release on CD and vinyl.

Are big name, one-stop aggregators like CDbaby still the way to go in terms of online distribution? Or are there better deals, or better strategies, out there? What are some tips to get the word out? For example, how hard is it to get a "free download" deal, combined with front page exposure, with iTunes? Is it worth setting up an independent e-commerce site for downloading music? I mean, do people buy that way? Along these lines, what do you think the future of online distribution will be?

Online metal label source needed

wylde21 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:18:17 -0800

Online source for SINGLE metal or foil customer specified text labels? I am looking for an online source for making single etched metal (preferred), or waterproof metal foil labels that have specified text.

I see many places I can order labels with 100 and above minimum qualtities, but I need a source that will allow for single label orders. I have several labels I need made, but they all have differing text requirements.

These wil be going on stainless steel plates and need to be waterproof and durable.

In the Shadow of Itunes

melt away — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:19:57 -0800

What is a fair amount for an independant label to pay artists? I'm in the process of starting up a small-run vinyl-only label that caters to the collectors on the fringe of musical tastes.

The label is interested in making enough money to continue putting out releases, having enough revenue to take chances on deserving unknown artists and of course fairly compensating the artists. Fair compensation (or *any* compensation) is actually rare in the small-run sphere.

Little Chinese kid running around saying, "Indie, indie!"

Mach3avelli — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:41:11 -0800

Managing a band: good sources to learn everything from scratch. One of my favorite bands asked me to move out to New York to manage them. They want me for the job alone on my enthusiasm for their music. They know I'm completely inexperienced but want me anyway. (Yay!)

I can't for the life of me find a couple bookmarks I used to have. One was some website that detailed everything about managing a band. Then there was another one about starting a label. Finally, there was some Amazon book on managing a band that was highly recommended. I've been searching earnestly but coming up empty.

If you know any of the sites/book I'm talking about, please fill me in.

Otherwise, general advice is always welcome, or other sources you feel would be beneficial to my quest.

Transfer labels

JohnGL — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:54:06 -0800

I can’t seem to find this type of label anywhere. You generally see them as text printed on some kind of wax paper. You them apply them to some surface by scratching off or pressing hard on the text. It’s for printing words on areas that can’t go into a printer. I’d love to find a way to produce these myself or purchase them someplace. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried searches using different keywords that describe these labels but no luck. Thanks for your time. Have a great one.

Children's book illustration styled movie/fable?

truenorth — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 21:52:50 -0800

I'm looking for a short online movie featuring children's book style illustration, descriptive labels floating above every labelable thing throughout (tree, rabbit, grass, knife, etc.), and a rather gruesome storyline about the wages of greed. A boy and girl are playing in a field and the boy winds up killing a rabbit with his slingshot. The rabbit turns into a jewel (or some other valuable thing) after it dies. The boy and girl then go on a killing spree, eventually killing a cow, which is depicted in great anatomical detail. They carry their riches home and somehow 'create' a troll that likes jam and turns flies into diamonds. And so on. Almost everything in the film has a label floating above it, like an old children's book.

It was done so originally that I'm kicking myself for not saving the link the first time I saw it. Did anyone else see this? If so, the link would be much appreciated!

CD Labels Front and Center!

Satapher — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 01:10:42 -0800

Which CD labeling applicator is the best? Or, which device will get the white sticker centered on top of the CDr without worry? There are a few out there such as the CD Stomper. I have another kind but the quality of the placement is pretty lame... sometimes it looks great, other times its way off the mark. Any ideas?

Also (and I know this is bad) do barcodes have to be on a white background in order to scan?

"City of God" clothing label

tnai — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:13:00 -0800

Please help me find the name of a clothing label that is prominent in the film "City of God" Does anyone know the name of the clothing label for the tshirts that crop up a lot in the film "City of God" worn by a lot of the main characters? The logo is, what looks like, two footprints, one next to the other. Thanks!