I determined to create the name tags for my upcoming retreat on this snowy day. I’m really good at work-arounds. When something doesn’t come out the way I expect on the first try, I’m creative enough to figure out a different way. Today, however, I vowed to stay with this project until it was right.

When the first batch (on the right) printed so that only 1/2 the name showed, I knew that I could put full sheets of paper into my printer, then cut and slice them to fit the plastic holders I use. But the paper was thin, and I had pre-cut name tag stock to use.

The Avery.com site suggested switching browsers. I use Mozilla Firefox. It said to use Internet Explorer (note the time suck in making this adjustment).

I’m going to single-handle this and stick with it until these suckers print, I vowed.

After getting that browser to download, I re-did the design, re-entered the names and smugly pressed “print.” That’s when I got the rendering on the left. All three names per sheet showed up where only the first name should. Aarghh!

But I’m gonna get this right, dammit. I kept getting an error message on my printer. Turns out, it thought I was feeding photo paper in through a special slot. Once I figured that out, the message stopped appearing, and I was able to get the right size image on the right sized tag: see Jane name tag center.

Remember the old adage, “When in doubt, follow directions!” Yeah, well, I didn’t…