If you're tired of struggling with labels in Word 97, try using the Avery Label Wizard, supplied with Office 97 but not installed with the program.

Designed by label manufacturer Avery Dennison, this wizard lets you create full pages of the same label, type different text on each label, or create and use a simple database of addresses for your labels. The wizard supports virtually every label format available from Avery and most formats from other label suppliers ù and its step-by-step process for creating labels is less complex than the method Word's built-in label wizard uses. Its only drawback is that it doesn't provide a way to let you add graphics to labels.

Caption: The Avery Label Wizard makes it easy to create any standard label in Word

To install the Avery Label Wizard, exit Word and insert the Office 97 CD in your CD-ROM drive. If you don't automatically see the contents of the drive, double-click My Computer on your desktop, then double-click the icon for your CD-ROM drive. Double-click the Valupak folder icon, then double-click the Averywiz folder. Finally, double-click the Setup.exe icon in the Averywiz folder and follow the prompts.

After installing the wizard, you can access it by selecting FileûNew in Word, then clicking the Avery tab in the New dialogue box, or by clicking the Avery Wizard icon on the main toolbar. Just follow the wizard's instructions to create your labels. (If you don't want to keep the Avery icon around, right-click the toolbar, select Customize at the bottom of the menu, drag the icon off the toolbar, and click Close in the Customize dialogue box.)