I have often found the need to create labels, such as for pasting my contact address in a legible manner on my belongings, and of course while burning a blank CD or DVD, in which case I use the CD labels. Thanks to open source and more specifically OpenOffice.org, it is possible to create any number of labels of standard sizes and shapes. To create labels in OpenOffice.org, do the following :
- Open OpenOffice.org word processor.
- Click File > New > Labels
... and choose from the plethora of options in the dialog box. Lastly, Click on the "New Document" button to create the set of labels.
But why go through all the hassle of designing your own when you have ready made templates of labels available as a free download ? That is right, WorldLabel.com a manufacturer of
labels has been in the forefront in creating free templates of labels of various sizes and shapes conforming to industry standards.
They recently published an exhibition of
CD labels and
Address labels in Open Document Template (ODT) format. The labels were designed using the CC licenced color palletes from ColorLovers.com which makes them all the more desirable.
Fig: Address Label templates from WorldLabel.com
Fig: CD Label Templates from WorldLabel.com
The address labels are compatible with
Avery 5160 size and the CD labels with
Avery 5931 size.
How easy is it to use WorldLabel.com free label templates ?
It is as easy as choosing your favourite design from the wide selection of label templates. Once you have choosen the right design, download the respective ODT document and open it in OpenOffice.org to enter the personalized information you wish to include.
Incidentally, since the templates are released in the ODT format, these can be opened in other office suites such as KOffice, StarOffice, IBM Lotus Symphony, or any other office suite which supports the Open Document format, apart from OpenOffice.org. If by any chance you are using MSOffice (perhaps using Wine in Linux), then you will need to download the Sun ODF plugin for MSOffice to read Open Document files.
The templates released by WorldLabel.com can be extensively modified by changing the font size, font style and color. You can even add another textbox for entering more information. More importantly, they are free to use. If you are a designer and wish to convert your design into a free label template, then you can submit your graphics to worldlabel[AT]gmail[DOT]com.
Update [Jan 17, 2009]: Worldlabel recently
launched a blog which covers all open source topics. On the blog, I came across Solveig Haugland's in-depth article which explains
Mail Merge in OpenOffice.org from start to finish which is quite informative. Also check out their Ebook which is available as a free download.
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