OpenOffice.org pretty much
offers you everything you need in an office suite. And much more.
Recently I needed to print many addresses. Not personal addresses, but a
database of addresses. It was my first time using the database
application Base (offered as an alternative to Access), and a first time
printing labels. It was not easy, but these steps should help at least
me (if there will be a next time) to get me started immediately, instead
of spending hours frustrating myself with some of the awkward design
decisions made by the OpenOffice.org folks.
Prerequisites:
- a filled OpenOffice.org database (.odb) of data you want to be
printed on the labels.
- sheets with labels (i used no name labels, its doable to adjust the
label configuration for any specific type of label)
- OpenOffice.org 3.1 (3.1 may not be neccessary, but that's the one I
used)
So what are the required steps?
- Launch OpenOffice.org Writer
- Make sure OpenOffice.org Writer knows about this database, by
registering it: click 'View Data sources' and if it is not among the
database listed there, add it by right clicking in the left field's
white space 'Registered Databases...', press 'New' in the dialog that
appears, and browse and open the database you want to use in your
labels.
- Now create a new Labels page by selecting: New -> Labels from the
file menu
- Using this dialog you can select, using the dropdowns at the
righthand side, fields that you can add to the label. Don't worry about
design just yet, here it is just about adding fields. You may do it
later, but doing it here is the easiest method.
- Select the right format and adjust it if necessary by first
selecting the most similar branded label, and fine tuning measures in
the format tab
- Make sure synchronize contents is checked to allow for easier
formatting the labels consistently.
- Hit the 'New Document' button and a page will appear with all the
labels that will fit on the page.
- Fine tune the design, font, positioning, etc. And hit the
'synchronize contents' button that should be visible as you've checked
'synchronize contents' when making this document.
- So there is your template, now the 'blanks' should be filled in. So
you've got to print them. Nope. No way to preview... but you can print
to a file. An odt to be more specific. I'd recommend it because you may
want to fine tune some addresses just before printing. So we select 'to
file' and save all labels to an odt.
- Open the odt just created using the 'print' functionality.
OpenOffice will ask if you want to 'update all links'... don't really
know what it is about... but do hit the no button, otherwise all labels
will feature just the first address in the database.
- Nope. You can't fine tune just yet... Only the very first label (top
left is editable), so click somewhere on the text of a 'read only'
label and double click the status bar (the bottom part of the window)
that says 'Section' ( is some number). Select all 'sections that
are listed in the dialog that appears and make sure that 'Write
protection' is turned off for all sections. Press OK.
- Fine tune, where neccessary, some of the labels.
- Print. Make sure you only print the 'right pages' otherwise every
other page will be a blank one.
- Be satisfied with the end result
So there you have it. Labels in OpenOffice.org. Definitely not
straightforward. So some suggestions for the OOo team:
- Allow for adding a database when creating a new Label
- Adding fields could be made more simple in this use case. I assume
one can only turn a single 'table' into a page with labels... so why
have some many dropdowns for each field.
- Enable synchronize contents by default
- Make it easier to preview the results, and consider adding an option
export to 'static' odt where fields don't play a role
- The 'update links' question is unclear, and the result when calling
for an update is probably not what anyone wants (all labels featuring
only the first entry in the database table)
- After 'printing' (or exporting if that feature is implemented) don't
lock the other labels anymore. Make all sections writable
- Allow changing read-only to read/write from the context menu. The
status bar is primarily used to convey 'status', and is should not be
the only entrance to the dialog that allows for changing section
properties.
- Don't print 'invisible' pages.
Happy labeling! :s