This is for my Linux-using chums out there, and a tiny piece for church administration — provided you use the Gnome desktop, like Ubuntu Linux.
gLabels — “a program for creating labels and business cards for the GNOME desktop environment” — is the easiest way I’ve ever found to create and print labels, and can merge information from a CSV (comma-seperated values) spreadsheet onto little bits of paper, sticky or otherwise. It can even add barcodes. In the next few weeks, I’ll show how to make tickets, flashcards, name tags and membership cards using nothing more than ordinary office paper and index cards. Call it a hobby of mine.
The program has hundred of standard label templates, including one for the Avery 5202 and identically-sized file labels. These are the handy sheets — 4″x6″ — with seven labels for manila file folders. Between work (yes, I use Ubuntu Linux at work) and home, I use hundreds of labels each year, and I prefer them to be nicely printed.
But I think I have a problem with my printer. Though it can hold the 4″x6″ label sheets, it interprets the medium as being letter-sized and so almost completely misses printing on the labels. I suppose I should have fixed that problem, but seems like over-engineering, seeing as all I wanted was tidy file folders.
My solution: to create a template that thinks the 4″x6″ sheet is part of a letter piece of paper. Top and center. That one works like a charm, and since I’ve already made it, I want to share it.
Download here. Right-click to save the file, or click to review it; it’s simple XML.
Place it in ~/.glabels — in my case, that’s the directory (folder) /home/wells/.glabels (If you use the default Nautilus file manager, be sure to View > Show Hidden Files.)
Improvements and variations are welcome.
Disclaimer: Avery is a trademark and I don’t own it. Also, I don’t make any warranty for the template.