The first step is to accumulate your dataset in one Excel sheet and clean the data, with each entry in the correct column.

If you start with the label-making process before gathering and cleaning your data, you will end up with a disuniform format or missed packages because of wrong address labels.

When you're creating columns for address labels, here are some columns to add to your data:

• Title (Mr, Ms, Mrs, etc.)
• First name
• Last name
• Street address
• City
• State
• Zip code

For our demonstration, we have created a dataset of 9 addresses. Note that the columns are on the first row of the worksheet.

With your Worksheet saved, it's time to open Microsoft Word, where you'll select the types and sizes of your labels.

First, open a new Word document. At the top of the screen, select the “Mailings” option. From the options that appear below, select the “Start mail merge” box. From the drop-down that opens, select “Labels…”

This will open up a “Label Options” window. From here, you can pick a brand by clicking the “Label vendors” drop-down and the “Product number” below (which you can get from the label package). When you are finished, hit “OK”.

For this demonstration, we selected “Avery US Letter” as the Label vendor and “5160 Address Labels” under the product number.

First, open Word and select “File” at the top right. From the side panel that opens, select “Options.”

This will open up a new window. Select “Advanced,” then scroll to the “General” subheading on the right. Ensure the “Confirm file format conversion on open” box is ticked. Hit “OK”.

Now that the label type and size are set up, you need to connect the Word document with the data on the Excel worksheet.

Click “Mailings” at the top, then “Select Recipients”. From the drop-down, select “Use an Existing List…”

From the options, select the Excel Worksheet. Click “OK,” then pick the table with your list in. Ensure that your first row is column headers, then hit “OK” again.

Finally, go to “Mailings”. There, select “Address Block.” Find the button that says “Match Fields…” on the bottom right, ensure your headings are in the correct places, and hit “OK.”

This will create a page with placeholders for the “Next Record.” To add all address labels on one page, go to “Mailings” and find “Update Labels.”

Click “Preview Results” to adjust the spacing and ensure everything is okay.

Lastly, click “Finish & Merge” on the right of the “Mailings” options. Select “Edit Individual Documents” and select “All” to get a Word file of your labels.

Once you've finalized your labels, adding borders to them is a great way to make them look uniform. The Word mail merge labels feature adds all the information from your Excel workbook in the form of a table.

So, to add borders, go to the top right corner of your sheet to locate an icon that lets you select the table. This will add two more items to the menu on the top: “Table Design” and “Layout.”

Head to “Table Design” to add borders to this table.

On the left, locate the borders options and enable “All Borders.” This will create borders for all your labels.