Printing Labels, Mailing List & Envelopes in Mac OSX with Address Book

Have you ever wondered how hard it might be to print a mailing list, in paper form, on envelopes or as mailing labels? Well, actually it isn’t that hard, and in fact Apple’s Address Book software takes a lot of the pain out of the process, and makes it possible to sideline Microsoft Word’s Mail Merge process at the same time. In this article we find out how to:

• Print a single & multiple addressed envelopes.
• Print Avery mailing labels with a company logo.
• Print a well formed mailing list in paper form.

Getting Started With Your Addresses

In starting any of these processes we are going to assume that you already have multiple mailing addresses and contacts in your Address Book in Mac OSX, not only that, but you have set up your own contact profile in address book with an address and atleast a country associated with the address. That being said, let’s get started.

Taking The Pain Out Of Printing Envelopes in OSX

The beginning of any printing process in Address book, is to actually select a single or multiple contacts, or to in fact just select a pre-defined group of contacts, or search result set. Once this is done you are ready for the printing process.

As with any program, simply select “Print …” from the “File” drop menu at the top of your screen. This will bring the print dialog to the fore.

The print dialog window should display by default in envelope printing mode, which makes for fewer steps to completing the process, but if it does not, then from the “Style” drop menu to the top right hand side of the dialog window, select “Envelopes”. This will then force all the envelope printing options to load into the dialog window.

The process of actually printing the envelope can then become as complicated or as simple as you like. Start by selecting the correct envelope size from the “Layout” drop menu under the “Layout ” tab. Under

the “Label” tab you can specify the font and color for the address and other details, you can also specify whether to print your own address, and which of those (home, work, other), whether to print the country with the address and whther or not Address Book should avoid printing the country for addresses that are in the country specified under your own address. On top of thise you can also ask Address Book to print either in alphabetical order or to use the postal code for ordering. Last but not least you can specify the orientation of the envelope, as it enters your printer. Needless to say, each printer varies and no doubt you will have to experiment with getting it right, and then remember for each subsequent time you wish to print an envelope.

At the same time, the great thing about the simple print dialogue interface is that you also get to see a great preview example of the envelope, the shape, size and where the software expects to print what on the front of the envelope, making.

Printing Mailing Labels from Mac OSX in Address Book

Printing labels in Address Book is a step up from printing envelopes, but again is super simple, and the process of getting from A to B is also very fast:

As before start the process of printing labels by simply selecting a pre-defined group, or by selecting multiple contacts in any list. Once ready, select “Print …” from the “File” drop menu. After the print dialog window has come to the fore, select “Mailing Labels” from the “Style” drop menu in the top right hand corner of the dialog window.

This will force the Mailing Labels settings to load below in the right hand-side of the dialog. The settings consist of two tabs: Layout and Label.

The layout allows you to define the format of your labels. Needless to say using the standard AVERY or DYMO sizes allows you to cut to the chase and setup the print sheep in a click or two. However, if you do not have either type or an equivalent AVERY code for the non-standard sheets you have, then you can easily define a custom mailing label sheet size, with label sizes and gutter sizes.

Having selected the correct label and sheet size under “Layout” you can then head to the “Label” tab. Under the “label” tab you can pre-define a range of options, from the type of address to print, to ALL of them; whether or not to print the country, to specify the color, size and typeface of the print; as well as a logo. When adding a logo you do not need to ensure that it falls within the width restrictions of the logo, as the picture will actually be resized by Address Book. The logo will be placed to the left of the address on the label.

When you are ready to go, select the number of copies you wish to print and then just click the “Print” button, as highlighted in blue.

Printing a Paper Mailing List from Address Book

You may want to print a mailing list on paper for a number of reasons, whether you wish to make a paper backup of your address book, print off the details of a previously compiled group, or to print out a subset of some search result set you have just created. Anyhow, the process of printing a paper copy of your mailing list, is, as just described for envelopes and labels, exceedingly easy.

Select the desired contacts and open up the “Print …” dialog from the “File” drop menu. When the the dialog has come to the fore, select “Lists” from the “Style” drop menu. You are then ready to rock and roll!

Loaded in the settings panel below you can define the paper size, the orientation of the paper int he printer, the attributes from each of the contacts that you wish to include int he list and the font size of the text. Attributes that you can print include, but are not limited to: name; phone; e-mail address; postal address; instant messenger; dept; company; and so on and so forth.

When ready to print, simply select the number of copies to print and then click “Print”.

It’s a Wrap!

And so there you have it, proof that printing envelopes, mailing labels and mailing lists couldn’t be easier from apple’s Address Book application. No longer do you necessarily need Microsoft Word in Mac OSX to be able to do some form of Mail Merge for printing lists, labels and envelopes.

Read our review of Ambrosia Software’s Easy Envelopes for a quick and easy way to print envelopes from the Mac OSX dashboard.