Y'all are gonna get tired of me:)

[tawcat]

Switching from PC to Mac I thought for sure the files for programs I used would be compatible

I use the Avery Label program for all my address label databases, well, surprise, surprise, the Avery program for Mac does not recognize the Avery for PC files

Is there a database program that I can use for this purpose? Silly me, not ever giving it a second thought, figured for sure as long as I used the same program, the files would be recognized. And that was the only file I had of my addresses. Stupid me didn't print a hard copy, so basically all my addresses are lost

Thanks.

[Housekat]

Well, worst comes to worst, use bootcamp and install windows, than install your program and copy the file with the addresses, than make hard copies and find a solution to the mac side

[Slydude]

Does your Avery program for the PC support exporting in other formats? If so the Mac version, or some other program, may read the exported files.

[harryb2448]

Have a look at Avery's DesignPro for Mac:-


Quicksearch | Avery

[toMACsh]

A word to the wise; give your threads a title that relates directly to the topic you're writing about. That's a big help for people perusing the list with the intent of helping out on topics they know something about.

[tawcat]

toMACsh: Sorry, I will do better.

harryb: I d/l the Avery Design Pro for Mac, however, it does not recognize the file ext???? So I ended up running my mini-netbook, d/l DP and printed the label info. I'll have to manually enter it into a new program. Maybe I just haven't figured it out yet, but it appears that I cannot create a label base that exceeds a single page of labels.

So for one of my short db's which includes like 50 labels I had to create two files to store the them. Looks like I'll be on the market for a good address label db program.

[Slydude]

Are the addresses/contacts that you need to print in the built in Address Book program on your Mac? If so it can print the address information to fit any one of several Avery label templates.

[tawcat]

Sly: That would be no. I maintain several mailing lists, i.e. family, Christmas, hobby, etc. Seems if I use the Mac address book and create multiple groups, I end up with addresses that I don't need to be showing up in the email list. Does that make sense?

I'm gonna play around with "address book" and see what I come up with.

[Slydude]

Makes perfect sense. It can be a little tricky getting groups the way that you need them. Were these "regular" groups or were you using the Smart Groups feature?

[tawcat]

Well I tried with regular groups, but then attempted (quickly) a smart group. So I really haven't played enough yet, so I'm gonna fool with it.

Hate to buy a third party db program for this purpose.

[Slydude]

If the members of the various groups follow some type of pattern Smart Groups may well do the trick. I was looking at your previous post and I might have a solution that just occurred to me as I was typing this post. I'll post back with results in a bit.

[tawcat]

Thanks so much.

[Slydude]

I was going to add this to the other post but it seems like it will take a few more lines to explain. I tested this with my contact list (not that large) and it seems to work assuming the labels you want to use are supported.

1. In the Mac Address Book make sure it is set to show you the "Notes" field on each card.

2. In the Notes field for a contact enter a word that describes which group they should belong to Christmas, Hobby, etc., You can have more than one word here but I think they need to be separated by commas.

3. Now you should be able to build different smart groups based upon these criteria. It's possible, for example to find only people who belong to both the Christmas and hobby groups.

If you haven't used Smart Groups much this article might help ATPM 16.03 - How To: Making Your Mac as Smart as Its Owner.

[tawcat]

Sly, thanks so much that info. I'll give it a shot and will post back. A couple of days I'm sure.

[tawcat]

Sly: Well by gosh, by golly, by gee, it worked!!!!

And yes, if I had two tag words in notes, it added the contact to each group. Which is fine, a little redundancy, but I can surely live with it. At least now I'll be able to recognize and print only what I need and not pull hair out trying to decifer stuff.

Now on to learning how to print the labels!!!!!

Thanks so much.