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GTD with a Mac label maker?

multipart/mixed: Turbo-Charging the Dymo LabelWriter

Dymo LabelWriter 330

I love my Brother PT-65, which is regarded by many as the unofficial official label maker of GTD nerds (and which, quizzically, appears to have been discontinued :-().

The PT-65 has easily paid back its modest sticker price with three years of faithful service. Trouble is, I like using it so much that it's gotten to be kind of a pain to pull it out and Blackberry-thumb-type my bajillion labels via its teeny keys. Now, I want something that hooks up to my Mac.

Josh Carter's gotten me interested in the Dymo LabelWriter 330 Turbo via this handy tutorial from late last year, which covers basic setup info, plus a tip on speeding up the creation of a new label with Quicksilver.

Josh has good stuff to say about the 330:

The advantages of the LabelWriter, as I see it:

  • The Dymo software is easy to configure for "power user mode" which eliminates all the extra dialog baggage, and then it's wicked fast to use. (Doubly so with Quicksilver in the mix.)
  • You get to use your computer's nice keyboard. This is especially important for me since I use the Dvorak key layout.
  • The Dymo labels are cheap and look totally pro, even better than a stand-alone label maker.
  • Labels are the same size, so reusing a folder is as simple as sticking a new label over the old one, and it still looks nice.
  • You can use fancy Mac OS X features like printer sharing if needed. (I tried it, it works great.)

Anybody using one of these units or similar? Care to recommend a label maker of any brand that hooks up via USB and works well with Tiger/OS X? I ♥ my little Brother, but I'm ready for Label Maker 2.0!

Guy Ferraiolo's picture

I use a Dymo LabelWriter...

I use a Dymo LabelWriter Duo via USB. It does both the mailing labels, up to 2 5/16" by 4" and the permanent labels, up to 1". I use those big shipping labels for everything from envelopes to packages. I use 1/2" permanent labels for file folders.

I particularly like that the Dymo permanent labels have a pre-split back which makes applying them very much easier than the Brother labels. I use a Brother labeller at work and it takes forever to get the backing off those labels.

The software is fine, it seems Macish to me. I got it at a considerable discount when an office superstore closed some locations near me.

http://global.dymo.com/enUS/Products/LabelWriter_DUO.html?WT.srch=1

 
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