Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Making Use of Extra Labels.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 5, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365
A common use of Word is to print labels on different types of label stock. Many WordTips have focused on how you can do this. It is possible, however, to have "extra" labels left over at the end of a print run. For instance, suppose you run a mail merge for labels to 97 clients, and each sheet of labels has 30 labels on it. This means you will need four sheets of labels, and you would waste 23 labels on the last sheet.
To save those labels, don't merge directly to your printer. Merge to a new document instead. Then, scroll down to the last name in the merged document. Notice the blank cells in the table—these are the blank labels in your print run.
Position the insertion point in one of the blank cells and type your name and return address. You can then copy and paste the return address into all the other blank cells. Now when you print your label sheets you can keep the return-address labels at the end of the print job and use them when you pay your bills. This certainly is a penny-pinching alternative to wasting the last labels on the last sheet.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11781) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Making Use of Extra Labels.
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Want an easy way to create your own return address labels? Word provides the tool as a feature of the program.
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2025-04-05 09:00:03
Ray McAllister
To use up those partially used label forms, temporarily insert blank labels (say, with several spaces on the first line of each) at the beginning of the source file, ahead of the next label print job. For the example given above, you would add 7 blank labels. Then put the partially used form in the printer first. The first real address will print on the next remaining label on that form. Don’t forget to delete those blank labels from the source file when you are done.
This assumes the label stock is peel-off adhesive labels.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here:
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