How to Print Labels From Excel (Step-by-Step)

Mail Merge is one awesome feature that will help you create mass letters and email messages. But you can also use it to create and print mailing labels for your mailing list 😀

All you need to do is to prepare your label data in Microsoft Excel, use the mail merge feature, and print them in Microsoft Word 🖨️

In this article, we’ll provide you with an easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorial on how to print labels from Excel. We got you covered from creating and formatting to printing mailing labels from Excel to Word 😊

Download this free practice workbook for you to work on and let’s get started!

Prepare label data for printing

First things first: Prepare your label data file properly.

Though you already have the made-up data file in your practice workbook, it’s important to know how to correctly prepare your data when working on your own Excel spreadsheet.

For this tutorial, we’ll create and print Address Labels from Excel.

Here’s how to properly prepare your address list in Excel ✍

1. Make sure to write the column headers (First name, Last name, etc…) on the first row of your Excel spreadsheet to avoid any problems. The practice workbook already contains the following information:

• • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Street Address
  • City
  • State
  • Zip Code

2. Each row should only have one recipient information.

3. Make sure the data follows the proper format. Specifically, the Zip Code should be in the Number format.

To do that, click on the Zip Code column header (F) and format it to Number format.

Before you proceed, check the information again 👀 Do not leave any blank cells or empty rows as this might mislead Microsoft Word later when doing the mail merge.

Once it’s ready, save your Excel file 💾

How to print labels from Excel

Once your Excel workbook file is ready, it’s now time to use the Mail Merge feature in Microsoft Word. It’s also in MS Word where you will print your labels from Excel.

It may sound a little challenging but we will be with you every step of the way. Let’s take things one at a time 😊

Start Mail Merge

To create labels, you first have to merge the data from Excel to Word.

1. Open Microsoft Word, and create a blank Word document.

2. Click the Mailings Tab in the ribbon.
3. Select Start Mail Merge.
4. Select Labels.

The Label Options dialog box will appear.

5. Select the Page Printers option for the Printer information. This is by default.
6. For the Label vendors, select Avery US Letters.
7. For the Product number, browse through the options and select 5160 Address Labels.
8. Click OK.

We are not yet done. Let’s continue 💪

9. Click Select Recipients.
10. Select Use an Existing List.

11. Select the Excel source file you saved earlier. Then, click Open.

12. In the Select Table window, select the Excel worksheet that contains your data. For our example, click the Mail List.
13. Finally, click OK.

Now, your document will look like this👀

This means you’ve successfully done the mail merge 🥳

Phew! Wasn’t that quite a process? 😌 Now that was done, let’s proceed to the next.

Add Address Block

Since we are going to create address labels, let’s insert an Address Block merge field.

Make sure your cursor is on this area of the document.

1. Click the Address Block button in the Write and Insert Fields Group of the Mailings Tab.

2. In the Insert Address Block dialog box, click the Match Fields button.

3. Check if the fields match together, and click OK if it’s good to go 👍

4. You will be directed to the Insert Address Block window again. Now, click OK.

This is what your Word document should look like now 😊

5. Click the Update Labels button. This updates all the labels in the document to use the information from the recipient list.

Now that you’ve updated the labels, this is what it would look now 😀

Finish & Merge

It’s time to Finish and Merge! Two more clicks and we are almost done.

1. Click the Finish & Merge button.
2. Select the Edit Individual Documents option.

It will ask you to Merge to New Document. Select “All” to merge all records. Then click OK.

And there you have it. You’ve created Address labels 👏

You can go ahead and print address labels like this👀

Or you can scroll a bit more and we’ll help you print address labels better 😉

Add all borders

It will be hard to cut the mailing labels when you print them without borders, don’t you think? 😅

As a bonus, we’ll show you how to add the borders quickly so your printed labels will be easier to cut and prettier when pasted.

All you have to do is click the plus (+) icon on the upper-left side of the table. This will select the whole table where all the address labels are.

Now that the whole table is selected, click the Border icon on the floating menu and click All Borders from the options.

And now it’s ready. Your mailing labels are ready to print 🖨️

With the borders in place, you will find it easy to cut the printed labels 😀

That’s it – Now what?

Printing labels have never been this easy! Using the combined features of Excel and Word, you can now create, format, and print labels faster. You may need to put in some work in the beginning but you’ll certainly save a lot of time and work in the future 😉

That’s what Excel is for–to help you complete work while helping you save time doing the work. But this feature isn’t the full potential of Excel.

Excel can help you automate your workflow using Excel Macros. With macros, you can do tons of work with just a single click 🤯

Join my free online course to learn the basics of Mighty Macros where I teach you how to record and edit a macro, how to write your first macro from scratch, and the basics of the VBA editor.

Get started with Macros–it’s free and beginner-friendly! After learning about Macros, you’ll see Excel at a whole mighty level 🚀

Other resources

Want to avoid printing mishaps in Excel? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to print spreadsheets efficiently.

Want to create mass letters and emails? Learn how to Mail Merge from Excel to Word in this step-by-step guide.