2009 Christmas Card List-Tally Up!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I can't get my labels to print right. Half of them cut off onto two different labels.

Please help. I can't get them to scale right for the label paper and I don't want to have to address all my cards by hand.

[Pedersen]

Okay, I've just spent the past two hours getting my Windows virtual machine up to date so I could give a step by step for this. I really hate starting up Windows, too. Every time I do, I wind up losing the night just to fighting with Windows.

1. Open the AddressList.pdf in Adobe Acrobat 9.2 (just installed it, have no older version to try, so unable to confirm if these steps will work properly on older versions or not).
2. Click File->Print. This will bring up a dialog box with a lot of options.
3. Look for the section named "Page Handling".
4. In that section, set "Page Scaling" to "None"
5. Also in that section, turn off "Auto-Rotate and Center"
6. Check my print dialog screen shot (attached below), and see if any other settings might matter for you.

I'm not going to post the picture of the printout itself, as that would allow everybody here to see the list. Not a good idea. But it did print out cleanly and correctly using those instructions.

[Bandit]

Turning off the scaling worked for me.

Wasted two sheets the first try, and just one piece of paper the second. Third time was a charm.

Also downloaded the Avery templates for the return address labels as, like Pedersen, the postal carriers would make sure my body was well buried if they had to read my handwriting to make out the address.

B

[Boozy]

Okay, I've just spent the past two hours getting my Windows virtual machine up to date so I could give a step by step for this.

Wow. Above and beyond.

Could I just say that we all owe Pedersen a huge debt of gratitude for all he's done? This is just one example.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I ended up cutting and pasting all the addresses onto my labels. That made everything fit, but I had to fight my printer because it kept insisting on being special.

[technical.angel]

I ended up cutting and pasting all the addresses onto my labels. That made everything fit, but I had to fight my printer because it kept insisting on being special.

I had problems too. I ended copying everything into a excel doc and reformatting them for the labels.

[Sarlon]

Just got my first card today ^^

MY cards will be in the mail today, namely because I do not celebrate christmas really anymore, thanksgiving in my family has become more like it then anything else.

[Pedersen]

And a search on internet and I can't find anything close to that size and configuration available from Avery or anyone else in the UK.

I've figured out the failure there, cinemaguy, and it's entirely my fault. I apologize.

You're in the UK, and the UK uses A4 paper size by default, while here in the US we use Letter size. I failed to take that into account. The sizes are close, but definitely not interchangeable.

Next year, I'll include a paper size in the sign up process, so that you'll get the template that you need.

Again, I'm sorry. I just completely forgot about the differing paper sizes around the world.

[Kiwi]

I brought my stamps today, Holy $70 dollar charge batman!

Ah well you guys are worth it

[BookstoreEscapee]

Again, I'm sorry. I just completely forgot about the differing paper sizes around the world.

There's a world beyond New Jersey? Huh.

[DesignFox]

I'm not at the label printing stage, yet, but I think it's fair to say THANKS PEDERSEN! :-) Despite any glitches, I think it is so cool you did this for everyone!

I have to get cards and start filling them out while work is still abysmally slow. I have no complaints about receiving cards early, but my preference is to send mine to you guys after Thanksgiving.

I'll start hanging them at work once I receive a few more. I love this time of year!

[Bella_Vixen]

Are we going to announce which cards arrived here or is another thread being started? (This is me being too lazy to check at the moment. )

[Becks]

There's a world beyond New Jersey? Huh.

Actually, as best as I could ever tell, there isn't much of a world beyond New York. I noticed that before I moved to NJ, and it was pretty much pounded into my head during my five year stay. /muttering against NY-centric media

[cinema guy]

I've figured out the failure there, cinemaguy, and it's entirely my fault. I apologize.

Don't worry about it. It didn't take too long to cut and paste. Even allowing for the cheap-ass labels I bought last year that don't seem to fit any standard format.

There are only 3 or 4 of us outside the US.

Most of the labels that I looked through seem to be 21 to a page and entirely different sizes to the US ones, even allowing for conversion from imperial to metric.

[Pedersen]

Are we going to announce which cards arrived here or is another thread being started? (This is me being too lazy to check at the moment. )

Well, the times that I've seen, the "got this person's card" has always been part of the same thread. I'd also suggest using the tally up link (which is really easy. Check off the names you've received from, and hit "Post Tallies". It even remembers who you've received from so far!), since that's the more or less official way to track who sent and who didn't.

Don't worry about it. It didn't take too long to cut and paste. Even allowing for the cheap-ass labels I bought last year that don't seem to fit any standard format.

Actually, that makes for a fair question. I selected the Avery 8160 based on the fact, here in the US, pretty well everybody who sells such labels carries Avery. What do you non-USians see when you go look? What type of labels should I be buying, so as to make sure that next year it goes even more smoothly?

There are only 3 or 4 of us outside the US.

Just counted: 7 this year.

Most of the labels that I looked through seem to be 21 to a page and entirely different sizes to the US ones, even allowing for conversion from imperial to metric.

Next year, I'll get it. It's pretty easy. The hard part is making sure to get the right labels.