What to do about an Avery template that doesn't work?

[magnoliasouth]

Hi all!

I am gearing up for my favorite holiday and am making all my gifts by hand. For this reason, I want to design my own gift tags and print them. I take a medication that makes my hands shaky, so cutting them out by hand is not an option. For this reason I need one that I can just tear off. I want to use the attached template that should look like this: https://www.avery.com/templates/22802 It comes in two editable versions but neither work for me.

Now, I have had some problems with OO, which I posted here: https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=90983 and perhaps that's a related issue? Not sure.

If any of you can get this to work, can you please explain to me how I can do it? I need to ensure it prints exactly right.

TIA for any help at all!

[acknak]

Sorry, it doesn't work for me either. It looks reasonable (I tried the .doc file) but I can't see any reasonable way to add text. The problem seems to be the deeply nested layout (text frames inside tables inside frames, with graphic shapes, ...) Writer seems to get lost as far as showing text inside the right container.

It should be easy enough to re-work this; are you able to manage some trial and error to get it to work?

[John_Ha]

Before we try to get the template to work, would you be able to do what you want by creating a table where each cell was the size of the label? If so, that will be the quickest solution.

There is something horribly corrupted about the template ...

[magnoliasouth]

Before we try to get the template to work, would you be able to do what you want by creating a table where each cell was the size of the label?

Doubtful. The main problem is that the sheets themselves are perforated and that takes a lot of precise measurements.

There is something horribly corrupted about the template ...

I agree. I've emailed them before asking them to provide .odt but they pretty much said "NO way". A pdf is useless since I'm customizing each. I am really angry with them.

Thanks though to you both on this. I don't know what to do about it.

[acknak]

You might also try the template on Google Docs. I tried the .docx with LibreOffice and got even worse results, but Google Docs is pretty good at handling MS Word files.

Getting the table layout isn't hard but it does involve some measuring and trial and error. I don't see the label dimensions on the Avery site; without that, you'd have to measure against the label sheet. I usually just print trial runs on normal paper and lay that over the labels to check alignment.

[John_Ha]

See Chapter 5 and Chapter 11 in Writer Manual. You can define your own label template to match the dimensions of the Avery labels.

Incidentally be careful if you go looking for another template - I tried and I landed at Great Downolader (sic!) and the Avery template download sent my Anti Virus software into overdrive ...

Edit: robleyd and keme have convinced me I have been wrong to worry about .php - see below.

Another site offered a template file ... but the download file web address ended with .php which is always a caution.

[John_Ha]

Try this.

I used the following:
Left margin 12.7mm (0.5")
Horiz pitch 101.6 mm (4")
Top margin 19.05mm (3/4")
Width 88.9mm (3.5")
Height 50.8mm (2")
Vertical pitch 63.5mm (2.5")
Columns 2
Rows 4

I could not see how to set the page to Letter size which is what your template file was set to.

[robleyd]

Off topic:

the download file web address ended with .php which is always a caution

I disagree strongly with this comment and as a former php developer would be interested to hear your reasons for so saying.

[Zizi64]

but Google Docs is pretty good at handling MS Word files.

I just tried to open and edit the .docx version with the google docs. Is it "pretty good"?

[John_Ha]

Off topic:

the download file web address ended with .php which is always a caution

I disagree strongly with this comment and as a former php developer would be interested to hear your reasons for so saying.

I thought .php meant that the web page could run a program which could be a security threat to your PC. AM I wrong?

[keme]

Off topic:

the download file web address ended with .php which is always a caution

I disagree strongly with this comment and as a former php developer would be interested to hear your reasons for so saying.

I thought .php meant that the web page could run a program which could be a security threat to your PC. AM I wrong?

In theory that is correct, but no problem unless your computer has a php interpreter installed.

Php is a programming language. Programs usually run on web servers, and the result of the run is what you receive as a web page. Sometimes a website is miscunfigured, there is a glitch in server software/communication, or directives inside the php file are not properly set up. Then you may get the php file itself (which is program source code, often mixed with html), some command/fragment of the programming or perhaps the actual content you tried to download, but labeled as "php". Actual php programming is rarely, if ever, used to code malware for personal computers. (The php label may be a cloak, though. See below...)

Windows does not contain a php interpreter, so you would have to install one to run php code locally. AFAIK, most linux and BSD distributions (including Apple OS-X) have php installed by default.

When you click on links to malicious content, you may get a file with a php "dummy extension". The actual filename will then be something like "somethinguseful.php.exe". The actual extension (exe in this case) is by default hidden in modern versions of desktop operating systems, so you only see "somethinguseful.php". This "cloaking by default" may lead to problems when users aren't aware.

[Villeroy]

Create your own template. The attached template has the page layout (letter size and borders) with the shapes copied from the original, grouped as one shape and protected.
Now create one rectangular frame within the first label, set up the paragraph properties and copy frame to the other 7 positions within the shapes.

Finally, insert your database fields (Insert>Fields>Others>Database) into the first frame plus one [Next Record] field. Select the frame content and paste into the 7 other frames.

At this point I would remove the group of shapes or set its line color to white. Otherwise its grey lines would be printed.

Edit: See below posting of 1st November for the ready made template.

[John_Ha]

keme

Thanks. I don't have a php interpreter so I can be safe downloading a .php page. I wasn't exactly sure about .php hence my careful wording "... web address ended with .php which is always a caution".

... The actual filename will then be something like "somethinguseful.php.exe". The actual extension (exe in this case) is by default hidden in modern versions of desktop operating systems, so you only see "somethinguseful.php". This "cloaking by default" may lead to problems when users aren't aware.[/i]

I have railed against hiding the extension for files which I think is one of the most stupid things Micro$oft has ever done and I undo it on any PC I work on. I have seen .exe files clothed with a PDF icon - I spot it immediately - how does someonen with qualifiers turned off spot it?

I have sent you a pm with the Great Downolader (sic!) web site - the download resolves to a Russian site.

[robleyd]

I wasn't exactly sure about .php hence my careful wording "... web address ended with .php which is always a caution".

Perhaps you haven't looked at, for instance, the URL of this page

And yes, the web address does end with php - the rest is variables/values being passed to the php script.

[John_Ha]

Perhaps you haven't looked at, for instance, the URL of this page

Ah! That explains it - I always thought this was a slightly dodgy forum

[Villeroy]

The .ott file is a usable template for your labels, completely white with no printable content.

To see the 8 blank text paragraphs, turn on View>Non-Printable Characters (Ctrl+F10). They are based on paragraph style "Frame Content".
To see the 8 text areas (frames), turn on View>Text Boundaries. To select a particular frame, click its paragraph and then hit Esc.
To see the label shapes, select a frame and then hit the tab key until you have selected one large object near the page border. The shapes are grouped into one large group object. Apply a visible line style to this object (right-click>Line...). Line style "None" hides these shapes.

I add one document containing a serial label print based on the "Bibliography" database.
Another document shows the output of that serial print on my computer (German LibreOffice 5.4). Ooops, I forgot to hide the shapes.