I think most people will agree that a folder or a tab looks better with a neatly printed label however sometimes making them is a chore. Grab a label sheet, find the matching template in Word, fill it in and then print. Not too bad if you are doing many at once but you probably won’t do it for one.
Another option is a Brother or Dymo labeller with a keyboard. These are great but can you be more efficient? I find that I’m often retyping something that is already on my computer screen.
I stumbled across this Brother labeler on sale at Staples and bought it because it said that it didn’t need any software installed on the computer to use. Sure enough it didn’t. When you plug the unit into your USB port you see a new removable drive that has a program you can run and quickly type labels. This makes it handy device to have with me when I’m at different client sites.
While this is great, after a little investigation I realized that the real magic occurs when you go to the Brother website and download their P-Touch software and install that. After all if you are using your main computer why not have all the best features available.
The software adds itself to MS Word, Excel and Outlook. You end up with a new menu and toolbar entry that let’s you print a quick label from text in those programs – no retyping.