How to Print Labels From an Excel Spreadsheet

How do I print a barcode using a spreadsheet?

After 14 days, you can choose between a one-time license or an inexpensive monthly label software subscription that you can cancel at any time. Try it out and see how easy label printing can be.

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A complete label printing solution that works perfectly with Label LIVE on Windows and macOS. The mydpi direct-thermal printer features 300 dots-per-inch, ideal for barcodes and tiny text. Easy replacement and alternative to DYMO 450/550.

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It can be a pain to fire up your spreadsheet program to print a set of labels. To work faster, just pop open Label LIVE's built-in spreadsheet editor. Add as many columns and rows as you need.

Built-in Spreadsheet

Edit data and print labels without leaving Label LIVE

Create thousands of label variations based on data from Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers or plain CSV text files. Use your own serial numbers, prices, descriptions, weights and dates.

Excel and CSV Integration

Turn a spreadsheet into individual labels

Use variables to control text, barcodes, images and even colors across a whole set of unique labels. Label LIVE connects smoothly with your spreadsheets to determine how and where your data gets printed. 

Variables

Data Forms enable operators to get the job done with less error. Each Form is progressively simpler. Choose the level of detail your operators feel the most comfortable using.

Forms

Three different ways to view your data and print labels

When you need a serial number, you can handle it in a few clicks with Label LIVE. Each time a label prints, the number will change by an amount you specify. You can count up or count down.

Serial Number Generation

If your spreadsheet lists time in one format, but your labels need to use another, Label LIVE can translate. Our data tools can even handle adding time onto dates.

Date and Time Support

Calculate and print date and time in the formats you need

Convert effortlessly between weight units and display the weight in a format that makes sense to your customers.

Weight Calculation

Price-computing label machines can be cumbersome to use. Label LIVE makes it easy to set up and maintain beautiful custom label designs that use existing prices for bulk repack.

Price Calculation

Multiply quantity and price-per variables

Round currency, define precision, and format prices with leading or trailing zeros. There's a lot you can do with a spreadsheet and formulas. For everything else, use Label LIVE.

Price Formatting

When data on your label needs to toggle between a few known values, you can add them as a list, making them easily selectable.

Simple Lists

When it's time to print, a simple arrow points in the direction that the label will be come out. Design labels in the orientation that makes sense to you, without waste or confusion.

Size and Orientation

Take the guesswork out of clunky "landscape" and "portrait" modes

Label Size and Orientation

Label LIVE automatically scales text size to fit within your label width, anchors text fields to corners, and deletes blank lines. When you need to incorporate a lot of information into your label, our design tools keep it neat and consistent.

Complex Text

Complex Text Handling

Label LIVE lets you customize your design with squares, circles and lines. Each object has separate fill and outline colors. Outlines can sport custom dash-dot patterns and squares can round their corners for a professional look. Read more in our guide below.

Shapes and Lines

Full control over dashes, dots, thickness and color

Label LIVE handles high-resolution images both large and small. Add any image you want to your design—you can make it work with full-color printers and black-and-white low DPI models alike.

Images

What you see on the label designer screen is what prints on the label

Generate just about any kind of barcode. As you input your data, labels update instantly. All of our supported barcodes integrate seamlessly with your business workflow.

Barcodes

Beautifully boring UPCs to magically mundane QR Codes

Save all of your custom Label LIVE designs to your computer for future printing. Need to make a new label based on an old design? Duplicate a saved design template with a single click, then keep customizing. Read more in our FAQ below.

Saved Label Files

Save and re-use designs on Windows and macOS

Saved Design Files

When you're printing labels from a spreadsheet, text and barcodes can grow larger or shrink smaller. Anchor points help you rein in the complexity of dynamic data.

Anchor Points

When text or barcodes change size, make sure they stay put

Non-printable objects let you set aside space in your layout to incorporate what's already on your labels. Check out the related guide below.

Non-Printing Objects

Design around die-cut borders or pre-printed label art

You can "program" your label based on spreadsheet data. Label LIVE gives you easy-to-use variables for advanced label printing. Read more in a guide below.

Dynamic Color

Change the color of text, shapes and barcodes using spreadsheet data

Until now, generating labels with dynamic images would have involved a programmer. With Label LIVE, you can use your data to pull up the right image for each label, via URLs or filesystem paths on your computer.

Dynamic Images

Printing to sheets of labels should be easy, but without Label LIVE it's a nightmare. Label LIVE puts the adjustment power in your hands to craft pixel-perfect PDFs. Use the Sheet Setup feature to align your sheets precisely, without tedious trial-and-error.

Multiple Labels on Sheets

Render multiple labels per page and align with popular sheets from Avery and U-LINE

You choose the best printer for the job and Label LIVE will make it work. You can easily take a design from one printer and modify it to work on another, totally different printer.



Full Color or Black & White

Works with one-color thermal printers and full-color inkjet and laser printers

AirPrint is a technology that lets you print wirelessly without the need to download or install drivers. Using an AirPrint printer with Label LIVE is the gold standard in label printing.

AirPrint Support

Automatically detect and print to AirPrint printers

Label LIVE's powerful features help you design for low-DPI printers. Design preview allows you to modify images to look pixel-perfect.

Dithering for Low-DPI Printers

Optimize the dithering (dot-detail) of your label images with two clicks

Trigger your label printing from the command line, across your network, or by saving spreadsheets/CSVs to special batch folders. Read more in our guides below.

Nerd-Friendly Integration

Nerd Friendly Integration

Use a spreadsheet to control how many labels print. Select the variable on the Print tab and Label LIVE will adapt smoothly to your data.

Dynamic Copies

Flexible data controls for label duplication

When you need to print tons of unique barcodes, just get your data and design set up, and Label LIVE will generate and save a set of images in one PDF or PNG file. Read more in our guide below.

Batch PDFs or PNGs

Generate Batch PDFs or PNGs

Once you've created the label design you want with Label LIVE's powerful, intuitive tools, you can keep it consistent. Lock design elements, or freeze out certain buttons to prevent unintentional changes.

Locked Designs

Minimize operator error by locking or freezing a design

Locked and Frozen Designs

No need to install pesky drivers for our supported thermal printers—just connect your computer and printer and start printing. Label LIVE is compatible with dozens of leading thermal printer models.

Driverless Thermal Printing

Label LIVE directly supports popular thermal printers via USB

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Check out this post's YouTube 📹 demo: 

How To Print Labels From An Excel Spreadsheet To A Dymo, Zebra, Rollo Or Brother Thermal Printer

Label LIVE can import label data from Microsoft Excel and CSV (comma separated value) files which means learning to print labels from an excel spreadsheet is fast and easy.

For best results, ensure that the spreadsheet has short and simple header values. The text in the first row (header) will be referenced later as a variable. Label LIVE will remove any punctuation or spaces and will change all of the letters to upper-case.

The column header "DATE:SELL_BY" tells Label LIVE to automatically create an "SELL_BY" variable and format it as a DATE.

Once you feel good about the spreadsheet data you are ready to import.

Try Label LIVE right now by downloading in the Mac App Store or Microsoft Windows Store. Both apps include a 14 Day Free Trial. You can also watch the YouTube video demo at 

Label LIVE makes the easy things easy, and the hard things possible.

First, let's add the product name as a text object. From the Data tab:

Test how the text changes by selecting a different row on the Data tab. 💯

The green ➕ button offers shortcuts for utilizing variables created from spreadsheet imports. To create new variables by hand you just create text and barcodes in the Design tab and add your own formatted {VARIABLE} text.

Now you can easily change all of the label's text from the Data tab.

Ok, back to our label. Adding the sell by date is almost identical to adding the product name.

To make a label easy to scan you can add a barcode that uses your imported spreadsheet data.

Each time you select a row the barcode will update from the spreadsheet data.

Let's get printing! We made Label LIVE easy to navigate and easy to print. To search for a product just click the ROWS dropdown menu and start typing. Select a product by pressing the ENTER key on your keyboard. If you press ENTER once more, a single label will print. You can immediately start typing again to begin another search. Your hands never have to leave the keyboard.

If you need to make a quick adjustment to the imported data you can hover over the filename and click "Edit."

This same data can be exported, too. That way, your newly edited data isn't trapped in a label design document.

 to create labels that, by themselves, are simple and easy to use. When you begin to learn the different features, you can start to fit them together to build powerful label designs with ease.

The point of this post isn't to sell you labels, or a certain kind of printer. You get to choose what labels you need. Small? Big? Your choice.

We believe that most printers on the market are truly great machines. Be sure to check out our 

 for our software. And remember, if your printer isn't listed – just drop us a message and we'll try our best to add support.

Thank you for learning how to create product labels from spreadsheet data using Label LIVE. We trust our label software is going to save your business time, and let you and your staff do what's most important: running your business.

Print from Excel

You can easily import a spreadsheet of your label data. This data can be printed on your Mac or Windows PC using using inkjet, laser or common label printers from DYMO, Brother, mydpi, Zebra, ROLLO and more.

There's an old saying, "the problem with computers is that they do exactly what we tell them." Indeed, printers in general, and label printers especially, are fussy little robots being told exactly what to do.

Most label printer problems boil down to a few simple points. Follow along in our guide to label printer troubleshooting to resolve your label printing problems.

A lot can go wrong if your label printer doesn't understand how "long" each label is. Learn how to calibrate like a pro: 

When computers "print" they always print to "pages." Makes sense. However, label printers use "labels" but the system printer driver still treats each label as a separate "page". This can lead to labels printing too small or large. To fix, you must setup your driver's default page size. Learn how, here:

There is nothing more frustrating than a label printer that skips labels. Learn how to fix the issue here:

Use Label LIVE's Print Preview feature to verify that the label looks correct before printing:

Try these easy fixes when Label LIVE seems slow, doesn't respond, or won't open.

Need to figure out how to fix your printer so your labels print perfectly? Check out our curated list of frequently asked questions.

Ultimate Guide to Label Printer Troubleshooting

Label LIVE is designed to be licensed per computer. 

If you have 3 people using 3 computers to print, then you will need 3 licenses.

There are a few exceptions for one-time licenses:

If any of these fit your situation then please 

We are a small business and we understand that you need to see value in every purchase you make. We are confident that Label LIVE will save you time and money, so please purchase additional licenses when our software adds value to your business.

Did you change or replace a computer? If so, check out this other FAQ.

Are you currently using the Mac App Store version? If so, you might want to read this.

And lastly, you only need a license to generate and print labels. You may use Label LIVE unlicensed to 

Can I use a license on more than one computer?

This is an answer on how to switch, change, or otherwise move an existing Label LIVE license to another computer or PC.

The “Computer Name” is displayed on the License screen. For example, this computer’s name ends in “23F.”

Your license can only be reused if you  stop using Label LIVE on your old computer. On the license website click on the old computer's name. Toward the bottom click on the red "Retire Computer" button.

After retirement the licenses are now available for use on other computers. If the new computer is registered, you can click on the new computer and "Use" the license. You can also click on the available license and "Choose Computer."

If the new computer is unregistered you can create a license invitation. This is great when you know the user but don't have the computer details.

Click "Create Invite" and copy the invitation. A license invite will start with 

This code can be "Pasted" into Label LIVE versions 2.9.0 and newer.

Once pasted, the invite will automatically register the computer and install the license.

If you want to use Label LIVE on two computers then please consider purchasing a second license.

How do I move a Direct license to a different computer?

We support all major brands and models across thermal, color, inkjet and desktop printers. If it prints labels there is a good chance we support it. 

How do I print a barcode using a spreadsheet?

How to Print Labels From an Excel Spreadsheet

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