This & That: Mail Merge in "The Print Shop" Part 2
by Elizabeth B. Wright July 2005
This is the second part of a series on creating
badges and addresses to be used with the Mail
Merge feature in The Print Shop,
V.20.
if you know how to open The Print Shop and choose
a project type, we will use the option to
print labels. PLEASE REMEMBER: For this lesson, when we use the term “label” it
will apply to our “badge” project.
If you are a new user, when you launch the program it
will load the “Project Picker” screen at startup. This may take a few seconds.
The program “Help” file can walk you through the basics of using the program.
From the Project Picker screen, choose “Labels” and follow the onscreen
instructions for finding the template you want to use. You must choose some kind
of template for your badges. The program uses Avery as its default paper stock.
My recommendation is one of three badge choices in the “other” category. They
are: 1. L7418 Name Badge, 2. Name Badge Inserts 3 x 2 and 3. Name Badge Inserts
3-3/4 x 2-1/2. However, any size you want to use is your option. Choose one and
proceed to the design phase. BE SURE to check the “Start from scratch” box at
the bottom of the dialog box when given that option.
NOTE: In most office supply and computer stores,
badge-specific paper stock choices are quite limited. You may not be able to
find the types listed in the program. If you need a large number of badges, you
might find what you need online at the Avery website. But if you just need a
few, it is sometimes easier to print your badges on plain lightweight card stock
and cut them apart with a paper cutter or scissors. There is an option in The
Print Shop that allows you to design your own label, but this is a very
cumbersome procedure and difficult to access after using it. I only recommend it
to people who are experienced in the program or other desktop publishing or
those who like to live on the edge.
Once you have gotten to the screen showing the label
type you have chosen, Figure 1 is my label, we will design and format it for the
merge project.
The dotted lines inside the label indicate the margins of the label. In my
example, Figure 2, I have inserted a club logo at the top of the label by:
1. Left-clicking on Insert>Import on the menu
bar, then navigating through the File Manager dialog box to find the needed
graphic.
2. Left-click on “Open” to place the graphic on
the screen where it can be sized to fit the label as needed.
3. To size the graphic, place the mouse cursor on
one of the corner “handles” (little black squares) and hold down the left mouse
button. The image can be enlarged or reduced proportionately by dragging the
“handle” outward or inward.
4. When it is the right size, move it to the
desired location on the label by placing the cursor inside the graphic box,
holding down the left mouse button and dragging the image to its place.
For this project, I placed two text boxes, Figure 2,
where “place holders” in the mail merge operation will be inserted. In Figure 2,
you will see that the smaller box for “Organization” is situated beneath the
logo and to the left side of the label. This box will actually contain the
“Anniversary Date” for the member whose name will appear in the “Name” box. The
larger box that will be used for the person’s name is beneath it and should
extend to the margins on the left and right of the label.
Text box placement is accessed from the menu on the
left of the screen under “Text Tools.” I have sized and placed one box for a
renewal date in our club and one for the member’s name. The renewal date box
needs to be long enough to accommodate the longest Month Name (September) plus a
4-digit year. The Name text box should stretch the length of the label (inside
the margin lines) and be tall enough to contain a large size text. You may need
to experiment with the height to find what looks best for your needs. Add the
two text boxes to the label. Then place them by putting the cursor inside a box,
holding down the left mouse button and dragging the box to its location inside
the margins where you want it
The next step is the reason for this whole exercise.
With the name box selected by left-clicking on it, left-click on the menu bar
Text>Apply Stretch Text. This allows the box to insert the names in your address
book by automatically adjusting the font to fit within the box, regardless of
the length of the name.
Next we will format the text boxes to receive
information from the address book.
PROCEDURE 1: Left-click the desired text box. We will format the Anniversary
Date text box first and then the Name text box. Delete any text that might be in
the box. If the text pointer is not active, be sure the text box is selected by
left-clicking on it, then double-click inside of it to activate the pointer (it
looks like an I-bar) . Delete any existing text. Then, left-click
Text>Insert>Address Merge Field on the menu bar. The Field names are default in
the program and we will use what is available.
From the resulting dialog box, left-click the Field
name “Organization” from the left side of the screen to add a placeholder to the
“Date” text box. Left-click “Add” in the space between the two columns, then
left-click “Insert” at the bottom of the dialog box.. I used the “Organization”
Field for the Anniversary Date text box because I did not need it for any other
purpose in this particular database. When adding names to the address book, I
used this Field to enter the renewal month and year for each member.
Left-click on the text box created to hold names.
REPEAT PROCEDURE 1. To select multiple fields, hold down the CTRL key and choose
all the Field names you plan to use. Using the same procedure for inserting
Field names, select the “Name” text box, only this time choose “First Name” and
“Last Name” and add them to the right side of the dialog box. If you are using
other Fields such as “Title”, “Middle Initial” (this is misspelled in the
program), etc., these must to be selected in the order needed for your badges,
e.g., “Title” “First Name” “Middle Initial” “Last Name”. When you left-click on
“Insert”, the needed fields will appear in the selected text box on the
formatting screen.
At this point you need to add a space between the field
placeholders. When the text-editing pointer is active in the box, move it to the
position after the first question mark and press the space bar. You can use the
arrow keys to move the text icon or simply left-click at a point within the box
to change its location. Add a space after question marks as needed. You may have
extra spaces in names that do not use one or more of the placeholders, but these
are not noticeable in the printed badge.
This is all of the formatting necessary for this
exercise. Next month the lesson will be on the Merge function in The Print Shop.
We will cover printing either entire address books or just individual names as
needed.
Elizabeth Wright is a member of the CCOKC and a regular writer for the eMonitor