Address labels are needed for personal use as well as small business use. There are many companies that sell address labels that you design and customize on their website. But having them made by a professional printing company can be quite costly. You will pay twenty five dollars or more for an order of five hundred standard size labels. For those who use address labels often this is not a cost effective means for acquiring this product. The solution to this problem is to print your own labels using a home computer with a printer connected.

Store bought labels are much less expensive than their professional made counterpart. These labels come in a variety of colors and sizes to choose from. For example, Avery sells three thousand standard size, white labels in a package for forty dollars. That means for just twenty dollars extra you will have five times more labels when you print them yourself. And the best part is that you do not have to buy an expensive computer application to make your own labels. There are many websites, such a the Avery company, that allow you to create address labels online and print them using a home computer. http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/

Navigate to the Avery website, Avery.com. On the left hand side of the page you will find a box that is titled “quick links”. In this box click on the link that says, “Design and print online”. Once you have clicked on this link you will be redirected to Avery's design center. You will now be given the choice to search for a design or search for a product to start you out. If this is your first time using their website you will need to enter some information on a pop up screen. This information includes your name, email address and country of origin. This information will be kept private. Once you have entered this information you can select the method by which you want to start designing your labels.

If you choose to search by product you will b redirected to a page that asks for the product information. On the left hand side there will be a box with the title “select category”. Click on the category of address labels in this box. When you click on address labels a new box will appear with the various product numbers of the labels sold. Click on the product number that corresponds to the information printed on the front of the package of labels. If you did not purchase an Avery product you can still use their software. A picture of what the labels look like is shown on the far right. Click through the choices until you find a template that matches the sheets of blank labels that your purchased.

Once you have found the correct product, click on the blue button that says “next” below the selection boxes. This will redirect you to w new page that contains all of the designs that the Avery company offers. Avery has made finding a design easy by sorting them into various different categories. These categories range from food to religion and everything in between. To see the different designs, click on a category on the left hand side. This will show you all the designs in that category in the box on the right hand side. You can then scroll through and find the design that fits your personal taste.

Once you have found a design click on it and you will be redirected to a new page. On this page you will need to choose from one of three ways to edit your labels. You can choose the “quick and simple” option which is to fill in you personal information and print the label. The second option is the “enhanced editing” option. With this choice you will have complete control over the design of the label. The last option is the “mail merge” where you will import your own graphics and data.

Once you have chosen the editing option that best fits your needs, click on the blue “next” below the two boxes. You will be redirected to a new page that allows you to edit your label. On the left hand side you will need to edit each label that will be printed. This includes choosing the graphic and adding your name and address in each box. You do not need to enter the information into every text box on the screen. When you enter your name and address in the first text box, all the labels will be populated with your personal details.

Once you have entered your name and address click on the blue “next” button at the bottom of the screen. The next page will allow you change the font that appears on your address label. This page allows you to choose the font color, the size and the position. When you are finished changing the font information click on the blue next button below the editing boxes. This will redirect you to a page that allows you to review the labels you have created. At this point you can edit the information or move forward if you are happy with the way they appear. If everything looks fine, click on the blue button that reads “next”. The last page will allow you to print your labels or save the project and print later.