Creating Patron Mailing Labels

With the Polaris Mailing Label Manager you can print patron mailing labels on Avery® 5161, Avery 5163, or Avery 5262 sheet labels, or export the addresses to another application, such as a word-processing application with mail merge or a shipping label application. The Mailing Label Manager collects the addresses as a set that you can save and export as a .csv file, the comma-delimited format accepted by most mail-merge and label programs.

The Mailing Label Manager uses dynamic font sizing to print Avery sheet labels. By default, labels are printed in 14 point Arial. If a label contains a line with more than 28 characters, the font size is automatically changed to 10 points, which allows approximately 40 characters per line.

When the 10-point font is used and a line still exceeds about 40 characters, the following rules are applied:

• The city/state/Zip code line is never truncated.
• Avery 5161 (4” x 1”) - Street 1 may use two lines. Other lines may be truncated.
• Avery 5262 (4” x 1.33”) - Street 1 and Name may use two lines. Other lines may be truncated.
• Avery 5163 (4” x 2”) - All fields may use 2 lines.

To create a set of patron addresses, then print or export the set for mailing labels:

1. Add patron addresses to the address set using one of these methods:
   • On the Patron Registration workform - Addresses View, select the address and click Mailing Label(or right-click the address and select Mailing Label from the context menu).
   • On the Patron Status workform, select Tools, Add to Mailing Labels.
   • In a Find Tool results list of patron records, right-click the patron line item and select Add to Mailing Labels from the context menu.
   • In the Patron Record Set workform, right-click the patron line item and select Add to Mailing Labels from the context menu. To add all the patrons in the record set, select Edit, Select All or press CTRL+A. Then right-click in the list of patron records and select Add to Mailing Labels from the context menu. For more information about record sets, see Creating and Using Record Sets.

   If a patron record contains multiple addresses, the Patron Addresses dialog box appears. Select the address in the list and click OK.

   Note:
   You can also add addresses to the set from the Mailing Label Manager workform. See step 3.

   If the patron and address are already entered in the Mailing Label Manager, a message asks if you would like to produce more than one label for this patron and address. If you click Yes, the Change Mailing Label Count dialog box opens and you can set the number of labels to produce.

   The status bar displays the message Patron address added to mailing label manager.

2. On the Polaris Shortcut bar, select Utilities, Mailing Label Manager.

   The Mailing Label Manager workform opens. Existing entries are sorted by last name. New entries are placed at the bottom of the list, but the list is resorted when you close and re-open the workform.

3. To add an address to the address set, follow these steps:
   1. Click on the toolbar, and use the Find Tool to search for the patron record.
   2. Right-click the record in the results list, and choose Select from the context menu.

If the record contains only one address, the address is added to the set. If the record contains multiple addresses, the Patron Addresses dialog box appears. Select the address in the list and click OK.

If the patron and address are already entered in the Mailing Label Manager, a message asks if you would like to produce more than one label for this patron and address. If you click Yes, the Change Mailing Label Count dialog box opens and you can set the number of labels to produce.

3. To remove an address from the address set, select the address in the list and click on the toolbar.
4. To change the number of labels to produce for a patron and address, follow these steps:
   1. Right-click the patron address and select Change number of labels.

   The Change Mailing Label Count dialog box opens.

   2. Set the number of labels and click OK. The No. of Labels column is updated, and the indicated number of labels will be produced for this patron and address after you save your changes.
5. To print the address set on labels, follow these steps:

   Important:
   If you updated the number of labels to produce for a patron, you must click the Save icon before printing the labels.

   1. Load the appropriate label stock in your default workstation printer.
   2. Select File > Print from the Mailing Label Manager menu bar, or click the print icon on the toolbar. The Print Mailing Labels dialog box opens.
   3. Select the label type in the Mailing Label Template box:
      • Avery 5161 labels are 4 inches x 1 inch.
      • Avery 5262 labels are 4 inches x 1.33 inches.
      • Avery 5163 labels are 4 inches x 2 inches.
   4. If necessary, type or select the number of labels to skip. (Use this option to print on a partially used sheet of labels.)
   5. Click OK. The labels are displayed as an Adobe .pdf file.
   6. Click the Adobe print icon. The Print dialog box opens.
   7. Set Page Scaling to None and select Auto-Rotate and Center.
   8. Click OK. The labels are printed.
6. To export the address set for use by another application, follow these steps:
   1. Click on the toolbar. The Export Mailing Labels dialog box appears.
   2. Browse to the location where you want to save the exported file. Choose a location that is available to your mailing label program.
   3. Type a filename for the file, leaving the Save as type box set to CSV files.
   4. Click Save. The file is saved, and the Export Mailing Labels dialog box closes.
7. If you want to save the set in the Mailing Label Manager so that it is displayed the next time you open the workform, click the Save icon on the toolbar.