By Martin Jansen, Owner of Jansen-PCINFO
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I used Google Docs and Sheets to create our Christmas Letter this year. I also used LibreOffice to create our Christmas themed mailing labels. Actually these same concepts can be applied to any mass mailing project. The software cost is pretty much free. Anyone with a gmail account can have access to the suite of Google Workspace apps and LibreOffice can be downloaded and installed on Windows, MacOS and Linux. Many distributions of Linux include LibreOffice as part of the standard installed software.
My wife and I keep our list of family and friends in a Google Sheets that is shared. If we notice any change of addresses during the year, we both can make changes to the spreadsheet. Some research allowed me to combine City State and Zip Code information in a single cell using this formula: =CONCATENATE(G2&” “,H2&” “, I2). With the changes updated, I can download the sheet as an .ODS file.I place the file in a new Christmas folder which will contain all the parts of the mailing project.
Next, I start the process of creating the Christmas letter in Google Docs. I want Drop Caps that spell out MERRY CHRISTMAS at the beginning of each paragraph. Unfortunately, Google Docs doesn’t directly support Drop Caps. It does, however, allow for the insert of a drawing that is a Word Art letter. For instance, to create the Word Art letter M in Google Docs:
- Click on Insert in the menu and select Drawing, New.
- In the window, select Actions and select Word Art.
- Type the letter M and the Enter key.
- Format the letter M. I chose the Corsiva font and filled in with a bright red color.
- Now click on Save and Close.
My wife and I collaborated to edit the document, highlighting the events of the year. Again we shared the letter allowing us to proofread and correct each other’s work. Finally the work was done and I was able to download the letter as a PDF file.
Now it was time to create the labels in LibreOffice. First I register the Family and Friends spreadsheet as a database in LibreOffice Base. Open Base and Connect to an existing database. Select Spreadsheet and click on the Next button. Navigate to the folder containing the .ODS, select the file and click on the Next button. Accept the Yes, register the database for me and Open database for editing and click on the Finish button. I saved the new database as FF2024 in the Christmas folder.
With the new database registered I can create my labels with just three fields: Salutation, Address and Combined. As previously mentioned, the Combined field contains the text of City, State and Zip Code:
- Open LibreOffice Writer
- Click on File, New and select Labels
- Clear any exist Label Text
- Select the FF2024 database and Insert the fields in the Label text
- Select the Label type, mine were Avery 5160
- VERY IMPORTANT!: Under the Options tab, select Entire Page and Synchronize contents (you can thank me later)
- Click on the New Document button
Here’s an image of my Labels Window:
The resulting document is ready to merge with the mailing address data. I like to add an image to my labels which I insert before the fields. I chose a Dicken’s Christmas Carol image. You will notice a Synchronize Labels floating window: any changes made to the first label (like changing fonts and adding images) will be changed throughout the rest of the labels when you click on the button. That’s pretty cool.
Here’s an image of the first label:
Finally, I tried to create my own Christmas Card, but the images were a little too fuzzy. Here’s a link to my failed card. Instead, my wife was able to create her own card on Walgreen’s website. They offered a huge discount code (making the cards cost less than the postage) and the cards were ready the same day. The definite highlight of the year was my daughter’s wedding in April which took top billing on our card and letter.
Thanks for reading until the end. Here is a link to our card and letter. You may want to bookmark this article for next year in case you want to create your own card and letter.