The Fine Print(er)
It’s A Love It Or Hate It Thing
As it turns out, I love it.
With the expenditure of significant effort in medical school, my once serviceable handwriting transformed into the requisite cryptic scrawl that even today identifies me as a professional healer of the state-certified, Blue Cross eligible variety but also renders inscribing a legible address on an envelope by hand a sad show indeed. Running envelopes through a printer in hopes of my computer doing the dirty work has always been time a gamble at best; for every correctly addressed envelope, I would produce three with addresses printed on the wrong side, two with only half the address visible, and four showing nothing but smudges. And on the next try, the printer would jam. Still worse was trying to print labels by running a page of them though the printer to produce the three names and addresses needed – if the process worked.
Then, perhaps ten years ago, I saw an ad for something called the CoStar (the predecessor of the Dymo LabelWriter), which promised that this dedicated thermal printer would produce single labels at the rate of one per second. And all for less than $100 (this was in long before the current era when inkjet printers are all but given away, bundled as an extra in a computer purchase). I immediately bought one for myself and one for my wife.
Perhaps I should have been more careful. After only eight years of constant use and no maintenance other than the occasional software update, one of those printers quit working. And just recently, I had to clean the printing head of the other.
For my purposes, printing the occasional single address, these things are ideal. The software not only operates independently to run the printer but also integrates with many applications, including QuickBooks, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word and Outlook. One can, for example, call up an address from Outlook Contacts and print one or one hundred labels with that address. I have also printed addresses from a mailing list, one label for every address. The software automatically adds the bar code.
Although I typically stick with transparent address variety, the labels come in numerous sizes and colors. It is also easy to print labels for folders and reports, address labels for parcels, and name tags. If one is feeling especially efficient, it is possible to print postage, one stamp or one roll at a time by pre-paying on the net and using a special label set-up.
And it does work with Macs as well as PCs.
Caveats
Not everyone loves the LabelWriter. While I’ve had no significant problems, other folks complain of problems formatting different sized labels and power unit failures. I’m also told it does not work with Vista, the new Windows operating system. (In the past, software patches for new systems have typically been available within a month or so.)
Availability & Price
This product is carried in many stores. When I checked Amazon today, the cost was $91.98 with free shipping.
I could want this. Kinda cute. Definitely useful. But one has to stay focused, and I’m sticking with iPod envy.
“And it does work with Macs as well as PCs.”
Aw, now you’re just trying to torture me ;-).
Comment by MindSpin — November 20, 2006 @ 5:28 pm