Perl and OpenOffice for Lovely Labels

Independent Label: OpenOffice Tricks

Author(s):

OpenOffice offers a selection of preconfigured formats for users who need to print their own self-adhesive labels. Perl feeds the address data to the document.

Even though you might enjoy writing greeting cards by hand and mailing them, you might consider saving yourself the trouble of writing the addresses on the envelopes and use sticky labels instead. Practical laser printer labels on letter-sized sheets cost about half a cent apiece (15 cents a sheet). Not only do they speed up the postal shipping process, they are also useful for labeling wires of electronic gadgets. The Perl script in this issue reads comma-separated text and prints it line by line on the labels. Of course, you don’t have to restrict yourself to addresses. How do you like the idea of labeling the mess of cables beneath your desk to help the overworked home network administrator find the router’s power supply next time something goes wrong?