Pima County Geographic Information Systems

MapGuide Tutorial: Using Microsoft Access 2003 to Print Labels

Using Microsoft Access is a flexible way to make and print labels from addresses generated by Autodesk MapGuide in comma delimited format. These instructions are for Microsoft Access 2003. Other versions of Access may be similar.

Prior to beginning the label creation and printing instructions below you should have already generated a comma delimited formatted address list.

Loading the Comma Delimited File into Access

1. Start Microsoft Access 2003.
2. Either open an existing database .mdb file or create a new one. To create a new one:
   • Choose File, New... and see the "New File" task pane on the right.
   • Click "Blank database..." under "New" in the task pane to open the "File New Database" dialog.
   • Enter a file name, adjust the save location as desired, and click Create to create an empty .mdb Access database.
3. Choose File, Get External Data, Import... to open the "Import" dialog.
4. Adjust "Files of type" to "Text Files (*.txt;*.csv;*.tab;*.asc)
5. Navigate to the comma-delimited text file you created with MapGuide, select it, and click "Import" to start the "Import Text Wizard".
6. Observe the first portion of your comma delimited file where the first row should be a header of field names.
7. Click Next and see how Access has split the columns with the header field names at the top.
8. Before moving on, check the "First Row Contains Field Names" box and see how Access changes the header to field names over the data.
9. On the same dialog change the Text Qualifier from {none} to the double-quote (") character. You should no longer see double-quotes in the displayed data.
10. Click Next and Access asks where you would like to store your data.
11. Leave "In a New Table" selected and click Next to see a dialog where you can specify information about each field.
12. No field changes are needed, so Click Next.
13. Access asks about the "primary key". Leave "Let Access add primary key." selected and click Next.
14. If desired, change the table name under "Import to Table" and click Finish. We'll call it "Labels" in this tutorial.
15. Click OK to the "Finished importing file..." pop up dialog.
16. You can open the Labels table to check the loaded data.

Use the Label Wizard to Make a Label Report

Access supplies a Label Wizard to create labels reports. You only have to do this once for each type of labels you use.

If you have already created a label report, then simply select the report and use File, Print... or Preview to print your labels. If you haven't made a label report for your type of labels, here's the process:

1. Click on Reports on the left under Objects.
2. Click New.
3. Select Label Wizard and use the drop-down list to select the Labels table. Then click OK.
4. Select the desired Avery label type and click Next. This sets the label size and row/column configuration. You need to have labels that are big enough for the 5 or 6 lines of possible address data.
5. Adjust the font and color or simply take the defaults and click Next. Adjusting the font size may help fit everything on smaller labels.
6. Now decide whether to generate labels with the owner's mailing address or the situs address. The situs address is the actual address of the property which may not be the same as the owner's mailing address. (The owner could even be in another state.) Usually, you want to use the owner's mailing address.

   Situs addresses are generally inappropriate for mailing labels. Not all situs addresses can accept mail and they would reach the occupant, not necessarily the owner. See About situs addresses for more.

   Choose the appropriate fields (mailing or situs) for the labels using one of these two steps depending on the particular comma-delimited file you are using:

   • For owner's mailing address, design the fields you want on the label and their layout. Do this by double-clicking (or using the > arrow) for the first field, press Enter for a new line and proceed with the remaining needed fields in the same manner.

     For owner mailing address, use something like this:

     {Parcel}
     {Mail1}
     {Mail2}
     {Mail3}
     {Mail4}
     {Mail5} {Zip9}

     and click Next.

   • For situs addresses, double-click (or using the > arrow) for the first desired field, press return for a new line and proceed with the remaining needed fields. Don't press Enter after StreetNo, StreetDir, and StreetName so they will be on the same line. Put a blank between them too. Use something like this:

     {Parcel}
     {StreetNo} {StreetDir} {StreetName}
     {zipity}, AZ {zipcode}

     and click Next.

7. Double-click a field (or use the > arrow) to sort the finished labels by something such as Parcel or Mail1 and click Next.
8. Enter a name for the report. You might use the Avery label number or something that indicates the type of labels to you.
9. Choose "See the labels as they will look printed" so you can check the results. Then click Finish.
10. You should then see a preview of your finished labels. Dismiss the preview report when you are done checking.
11. If everything looked good, use File, Print... to print the labels on your printer.