Snail Mail Lives: Use Your Mac To Print Labels

Sure, the world economy is going to hell in a hand basket but I know that all is not lost. Today I received 13 pieces of junk mail; letters, flyers, catalogs, offers.

Someone somewhere is spending money to get me to spend my money. All that mail has one thing in common. Labels. And my address.

Despite living in the 21st century labels and addresses are important to Mac users, and it is easier than ever to use a Mac to create your own mailing lists (not email; the real kind, you know, the kind delivered by snails) and print labels and addresses.

One thing I like about progress in the 21st century is our ability to take the obvious, use it every day, then discard it, and bring in something new only to find out what’s new is pretty much like what’s old.

My favorite envelope, address, and shipping label software has been BeLight’s Mail Factory. This handy little utility made it easy for Mac users to create, select, and print mailing labels using Address Book.

That was then and this is now. Out with the old, in with the new. Mail Factory is just oh so 2004. Enter Labels and Addresses from BeLight. It’s still the home and office tool to print labels and envelopes.

Think of it as Mail Factory with a new label, and all shined up, polished for the new year—2009, but a few weeks early.

I know what you’re thinking. You expected Apple’s Steve Jobs to mention Labels and Addresses in his Macworld 2009 Keynote Presentation, right?

Uh, the good news is that Labels and Addresses is here already. The bad news is that Steve won’t be giving the keynote presentation at Macworld. Oh, and one more thing. It’s the last Macworld for Apple.

What all this means is, well, one thing—change. Mail Factory still does envelopes, labels, and batch printing using Address Book, Microsoft Entourage or Excel or a bunch of other apps that can spell l-a-b-e-l.

Labels and Addresses comes with 50 Bitstream fonts, over 24,000 clip art images and a nifty utility that lets you roll your own designs, so to speak. Print price tags, labels, industry standard codes and barcodes, sufficient to do a whole inventory.

Barcode options include USPS POSTNET, Canada Post, and Royal Mail, and does formats for over 50 different countries. Create labels from templates or create your own.

How about all those labels you can buy at Staples or Office Depot or OfficeMax or wherever you buy such things? Labels and Addresses prints on those, too; whether US, European or Asian (I have a call in to my friends in South America).

The funny thing about snail mail is that it’s still alive and well all over the world. This holiday season my family has received a bunch of mail—holiday greeting cards, bills, sales flyers, catalogs, pure junk mail, deceptive junk mail.

All used labels. Some even used labels with tricky fonts to make the label look like real handwriting. I smile and throw those away without opening them first.

Simply put, if you’re a Mac user and you want to do real addresses on real labels you have plenty of options. Plenty. Address Book will print labels and addresses. Microsoft Word will print labels and addresses.

But, if you’re a feature-holic and crave the ability to do far more than mere mortal man can by hand, for a mere $50 you can use Labels and Addresses to print labels and addresses. Or postcards. Or CD/DVD art. Or invitations.

Mail Factory was one of my favorite Mac utilities. Just as Macworld was one of my favorite fodder boxes for news and rumors and hope. Both are gone forever. All that’s left is Labels and Addresses and memories of Steve Jobs’ and One More Thing™.

By the way, Mac360 gives daily Mac updates on Twitter. If you Twitter, give Mac360 a tweet. One more thing. Only the best Mac software gets reviewed on Ron's NoodleMac site. Check it out.

Off Topic Note: Guess what? Former Mac360 writer Kate Mac is back online after dumping Windows and re-embracing the Mac. Again.