[libreoffice-users] On the subject of mailmerge...

In another email I said that I had given up on using mailmerge, since the labels never print out as 
you want them to.  My problem is this:

I have a laser printer, Brother HL-5340D, excellent in all ways.  I print from a Mac running OSX 
10.6.6 and LibO 3.3.1.  I use A4 sized sheets with three columns and eight rows of labels.  

Avery L7159 has the same number of labels but they are slightly different.  On the Avery L7159 
format, the labels have a small vertical margin between labels.  On my sheets, there is no vertical 
margin.  This should actually be better for my problem, but doesn't help.

What I get when I print is the first column of labels begin to print at the extreme left margin so 
that a couple of letters are missing, notwithstanding that the Avery labels don't actually extend 
to the extreme left margin.  The second column starts printing in the middle of the margin between 
labels 1 and 2, so that the first letter comes at the extreme left edge of the label. The same 
thing happens with label 3, which, additionally prints all the way to the extreme right edge, 
notwithstanding that the Avery label doesn't extend all the way to the extreme right edge, so that 
letters are missing from long names or addresses which don't wrap as they should.

I have tried creating my own custom label template, but there are so many other problems with the 
mailmerge system that I've given up.  For example, what I get when I manage to get labels with the 
wizard is this:

Page 1 contains one row of the A's, three of them, of course, then 7 rows of labels with field 
names.  Page 2 starts with the fourth name in the list and continues "normally", as do subsequent 
pages.  I place "normally" in quotation marks since the normal form of the labels is, as I said 
earlier, lacking letters on each label.

If any kind soul has a custom template which they think works with labels of this type, Avery L7159 
or ones which extend to the extreme left and right edges, and is willing to share it, I'll give 
them, perhaps not gold, but undying admiration and gratitude.

But basically, I think the mailmerge system could do with a good working over.  That, or the 
instructions on how to use it, either manually or with the wizard.  Fortunately my labels are only 
around 200, for our local gardening club, so I can cope with doing it more or less manually, but it 
would be nice to be able to automatise it.

TIA

//James
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