Postcard Exchange Round 22 - Comments and Feedback

[sly]

Oh, now I get it. Just because I didn't participate in 21, I'm getting fobbed off with a card everyone else has seen

 

[piu58]

Just wondering, Uwe: Did you also get a good shot of the inhabitants of this "church"?

Dear Chris, the elephants were outside. There I could take them. The inside of the house was empty.

 

[Dave Martiny]

Printing address labels? That must be nice. I can't get my computer to even print the address list on ordinary paper, much less labels. I had no problem doing this in the previous round, but the "upgrades" to APUG occured since then, and now I can't print the list. I assume it's because I use the much maligned MS Internet Explorer browser, for which the APUG upgrades were not optimized. Looks like I'll be copying my addresses by hand from off the computer screen onto the cards.

Is anyone else using the same browser and having the same problem? Misery loves company!

Regards,

Dave

 

[ozphoto]

Hi Ruediger. I use the list and make into a .csv file. From there I can import into Neo-Office (previously Word) and then print my labels on that wonderful full A4 sheet. Works a treat!

 

[rst]

Dear Chris, the elephants were outside.

Ah Uwe, now you lifted the secret.

Cheers
Ruediger

 

[Roger Thoms]

I'm using 8.5x11 labels and using the copy/paste function to "import" the addresses from the PM into a Word doc. I then use the column function to create 3 columns and the play around with the font size and spacing between the label to fit then nicely onto the pages. Then slice them up on the Rotatrim and I'm ready to go. I have found that the Avery shipping label are easier to peel the backing off. I bought Staple's brand and they were a nightmare.

Roger

 

[MattKing]

I use WordPerfect and the mail merge function.

I import the semi-colon delimited address data into WordPerfect and then use search and replace to replace the semi-colons and line breaks with the appropriate merge codes. I then add a salutation field. This gives me a data file.

Next, I prepare a template formatted for the labels that includes merge codes for the salutation, my descriptive information and the merge codes for the names and addresses. The first time I did this, it required a lot of tweaking to get the labels and printer to work well together. Since then I just re-use previous templates by updating the description - works like a charm!

Finally, I merge the template with the data file, tweak it to deal with spacing issues that arise because of those amazingly long addresses from places like the UK, and then print away.

The first time I did this it took a lot of time and fiddling. Now it goes really quickly.

Here from postcard exchange 20 are some pdf representations of the files - a label template and a portion of the data template (showing addresses that are already "public").

I put these on to Avery 5160 laser labels.

 

[Tim Gray]

I use latex and the labels package. But I'm a weirdo.

 

[paul_c5x4]

I use LaTeX and the labels package. But I'm a weirdo.

Hey, I use LaTeX too, but that doesn't make me a weirdo. apt-got gLabels and discovered how easy it was to churn out bits of sticky paper - If only the printing on the other side was as easy

Having the address data (almost) ready to import as a csv file is a big help (thanks rst, much appreciated).

 

[Moopheus]

I'm outputting the addresses with an analog device.

 

[anikin]

I use latex and the labels package. But I'm a weirdo.

Well, I use a perl script that generates postscript. What am I then?

 

[Tim Gray]

Haha. We don't have names for people like you.

I'd love to see that script.

 

[anikin]

Sure, you can see it at http://www.anikin.com/documents/print_apug_postcard. It's from the last exchange...

 

[Tim Gray]

Very cool. I've never generated postscript directly.

 

[rst]

Very cool. I've never generated postscript directly.

Well interesting what you guys do with the address data. The last time I produced postscript was for my thesis where I wrote a program to draw algebraic curves. Whatever this is, one option was to generate a postscript file to output the drawing of the curve on a postscript printer. Another option was to generate metafont output so that I could easily place the curve drawings in my thesis which I wrote in LaTeX.

Cheers
Ruediger

 

[anikin]

Yeah, postscript is a powerful language. But I'm worried we are about to banned by the analog police. ;-)

 

[Tim Gray]

Haha. I use Latex a lot for work. What's sad is that I've found it's really easier to print labels with it than any gui program I've tried. I just take the address list that Ruediger sends, strip out the 'APUG name:' lines, and I'm done. The latex file itself is about 19 lines and I can reuse it each round; I just have to replace the address list file's contents.

I was using pearLabelizer for a while, but you had to drag in each address by hand (ugh). I never really looked at doing a mail merge kind of thing with Excel, etc. Heck, I don't even have Office on my computer.

 

[5stringdeath]

I give the list to my secretary who then makes labels on a typewriter while I drink Scotch and smoke a bunch of cigarettes. The Creative Department is making the postcards, and the mailroom will assemble them for distribution.

</Don Draper>

 

[anikin]

The latex file itself is about 19 lines and I can reuse it each round; I just have to replace the address list file's contents.

All right. Now I'm curious. Can you post your latex? I've done a few documents in Latex but I don't use it often enough to write some on the fly.

P.S. For the police - we only use analog computers here.

 

[Tim Gray]

Yes, my Macbook has tubes in it. I sent you PM with it.

 

[sly]

I stay away from latex - too many of my clients are allergic. It's Nitrile for me......

 

[paul_c5x4]

All right. Now I'm curious. Can you post your latex? I've done a few documents in Latex but I don't use it often enough to write some on the fly.

I'd also be interested to see this LaTeX code. Now that my cards are in the post, I don't need it straight away..

 

[Tim Gray]

Documentation for the labels package is here:
http://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/labels/labels.pdf

Source is here:
------8<-------

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[newdimens]{labels}

%\LabelGridtrue % uncomment to show label boundaries

\LabelCols=3% Number of columns of labels per page
\LabelRows=10% Number of rows of labels per page
\LeftPageMargin=.1875in%7mm% These four parameters give the
\RightPageMargin=0.15625in%7mm% page gutter sizes. The outer edges of
\TopPageMargin=.5in%15mm% the outer labels are the specified
\BottomPageMargin=.5in%15mm% distances from the edge of the paper.
\InterLabelColumn=.125in%2mm% Gap between columns of labels
\InterLabelRow=0mm% Gap between rows of labels
\LeftLabelBorder=.125in%$5mm% These four parameters give the extra
\RightLabelBorder=.125in%5mm% space used around the text on each
\TopLabelBorder=.125in%5mm% actual label.
\BottomLabelBorder=.125in%5mm%

\begin{document}
\small \sf
\labelfile{addressdat.txt}
\end{document}

------8<-------

The address file is just a plain text file with address separated by blank lines.

person 1
address 1
address 1

person 2
address2
address2

etc.

 

[Black Dog]

Just because you're paranoid

Yeah, postscript is a powerful language. But I'm worried we are about to banned by the analog police. ;-)

They are everywhere, and they are nowhere [in Lawrence Fishburn voice]

 

[Laurent]

This week I received Uwe Elephant House. These elephants are very lucky, to live in such a nice house. The perspective is great, as is the printing.