ACC: Printing on Avery 5267 Labels

• Microsoft Access versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 7.0, 97

SYMPTOMS

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

When you print Avery 5267 labels, the text may appear to creep down the page.

CAUSE

Avery 5267 labels are not cut in precise .5-inch increments on the page. Because the labels are slightly larger than .5 inch, if you print in .5- inch increments, the text appears to creep down the page.

RESOLUTION

When you place the controls in a report, allow room for the label discrepancy. The following steps print three lines of text on Avery 5267 labels. This example uses a function that concatenates the fields for optimal use of space on each label.

1. Create a new report using the Label Wizard (or Mailing Label Wizard in version 2.0)

2. Add only one field to your label.

3. Open the label in design view.

4. In Microsoft Access 7.0 and 97:

   On the File menu click Page Setup, set the top and bottom margins to .5 inch and set the left and right margins to .25 inch. Click the Layout tab and set Items Across to 4, Row Spacing to 0, and Column Spacing to 0.3 inches. Under Item Size, select the Same As Detail option.

   In Microsoft Access 1.x and 2.0:

   On the File menu click Print Setup, set the top and bottom margins to .5 inch and set the left and right margins to .25 inch. Click More and set Items Across to 4, Row Spacing to 0, and Column Spacing to 0.3 inches. Under Item Size, select the Same As Detail option.

5. Make the width of the report 1.75 inches.

6. Set the Height property for the Detail section to .5 inch and set the CanGrow and CanShrink properties to No.

7. Locate the text box control and manually set the properties as follows:

         Control: Text Box
            Top: .01
            Height: .48
            CanGrow: Yes
            CanShrink: Yes
            Font: Arial
            FontSize: 8
            ControlSource:
             =AddressBlock([First],[Last],[Address],[City],[State],[Zip])
   
      NOTE: In the ControlSource property use your field names, not [first],
      [last], and so on. Also the number of arguments used in the
      ControlSource property must match the number of arguments in
      the AddressBlock function.
   
   

8. Create a new module, and type the following code:

   NOTE: In the following sample code, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this code in Access Basic.

         Option Explicit
   

         Function AddressBlock$ (First, Last, Address, City, State, Zip)
            Dim A1$, A2$, A3$, CR$
   
            CR$ = Chr(13) & Chr(10)  'Carriage return and line feed
            A1$ = IIf(ISB(First),"",First & " " & IIf(ISB(Last),"" ,Last _
            & CR$))
            A2$ = IIf(ISB(Address),"",Address & CR$)
            A3$ = City & ", " & State & " " & Zip
            AddressBlock = A1$ & A2$ & A3$    'Concatenate the strings.
         End Function
   
         Function ISB (V) As Integer
            If IsNull(V) or V = "" Then ISB = True Else ISB = False
         End Function