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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!

Liam's picture

I bought a newer version...

I bought a newer version (the Labelwriter 400) of these when they first came out in Australia a few months ago, and I ended up taking it back for a refund. I wanted it for file folders and CD/DVD labels. The idea is good -- but the execution is lacking. When I loaded a roll of labels and launched the software, the first label would print fine, but subsequent labels would drift from centre -- the feeder didn't do a good job of keeping things aligned. For larger mailing labels it probably would be a problem (or not often), but for smaller labels like those I was using, it just didn't do a very neat job. The print quality was adequate, though nowhere near laser quality -- the labels themselves are very thin (one of the boxes I bought with the machine was actually water-damaged).

I think a cheap inkjet dedicated to the job, a pack of Avery labels, and something like a copy of BeLight Software's Mail Factory (which lets you choose the position of the label that you're printing to, so you can re-use partially used label sheets) would do a better job.

 
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