Introduction
I have been looking for a way to create address labels (also know as mailing labels) since SuiteCRM does not provide a direct means for creating the labels. I now have a workflow that will create the labels.
- No, this is not a simple 1 or 2 click workflow to print address labels.
- Yes, this is a multi-step manual workflow.
- Yes, it does create printable address labels.
My workflow is based upon the “Alternative to Mail Merge” posting by jshaheen on the SugarCRM Community Forum, January 25, 2016.
https://community.sugarcrm.com/thread/26561
Disclaimer
I offer this workflow “As Is” without any warranty. Please make a backup copy of your data before using the steps in this workflow. I have not experienced any data integrity issue with this workflow, but “Murphy’s Law” always applies.
Workflow Overview
This workflow has two major phases (Initial Setup and the Subsequent Updating & Reprinting) with several manual steps in each phase. It uses SuiteCRM as the data source, and LibreOffice 5.1 for the other workflow steps.
- SuiteCRM, contact database, address label report, export as a csv file.
- LibreOffice, import the csv file, and manipulate the data to create the printable labels.
I had problems using LibreOffice 4.2, so it would be best to use the latest version of LibreOffice. A similar workflow should be possible with Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.
The workflow details with screenshots are in the design section of the attached document.
Initial Setup
- SuiteCRM, Create a custom data field in the Contact module to filter the data
- SuiteCRM, Create and save your report, then export as a csv file
- LibreOffice, Use Calculate, Base, and Writer to open the csv file and create and save the label template
- LibreOffice, Writer, Print your labels
- Your File Manger, Cleanup, Erase the working files (csv, ods and odb)
Subsequent Reports
- SuiteCRM, update your data and run the report, then export as a csv file
- LibreOffice, Calculate & Base, open the csv file, save ods file, save odb file
- LibreOffice, Writer, Open the existing label template file and print your labels
- Cleanup working files
