Competitive LW SW review

1. Competitive LW SW review April 2, 2008 Nelson Hsu, DYMO LabelWriter

2. Competitive Overview • Products to review • Brother QL570 SW and HW • Avery DesignPro, Avery Wizard • NiceLabel • Macenvelope • http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/soholabels.html • Dazzle • Possibly Mail Factory. • http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/soholabels.html • http://www.belightsoft.com/products/mailfactory/overview.php • Talk to Pat and Aaron • Look at Dazzle • Better integration for direct and catalog purchasing •                 Focus My Dymo on that with Amazon-like quality • Widget

3. Consumer feedback/needs • Amazon.com • The software for the labelwriter is truly awful and some of it damages other applications. If you use Microsoft Word with other applications that share startup manipulation of the Tools menu, you will find that the DYMO startup file, DYMOWordAddin.dot, will destroy all the other starup commands of applications such as Adobe pdfwriter, Endnote, and others. These applications will no longer appear in the menu, but the DYMO application will. This is doubly insulting because the DYMO addon is itself dysfunctional only safe way to create labels is to use the DYMO label application, which works reasonably well, although it too is unable to position graphics and writing with the necessary flexibility. Add on • The software has some good features (mailing lists, and the ability to use the OS X Address Book database), but otherwise it's pretty minimal and limited, particularly in its design capabilities • Simple features you would expect from an application don't work like copy (using ctl + c) and paste (using ctl + v). I'm surprised that no label templates are provided for Microsoft word. • Brother QL 500If you use PayPal or take money orders, you can print out postage with this machine using the continuous tape (about 100 labels for every roll). You can chose to remove the amount of postage on the label so nobody can see & print multiple labels using PayPal. Brother has made it very easy & compatible with this service. • The first one was a Dymo and it's software crashed my computer horribly. Boxed it up and got rid of it. Next up was a Avery Personal Label Printer.

4. Needed features • DYMO review website • This labelwriter is not user friendly. It is difficult to: (1) type multiple lines in the same font without the font continuously getting smaller and smaller as I type one line to the next, (2) there is too much space at the top of the labels when making labels for a file folder, and (3) if the same title on the label is needed for back and front of the label, I cannot fold it over so that the writing reads correctly on both sides. These are just a few things that I have found since purchasing this labelwriter. The labelwriter that I used before was a Smart Label Printer 240 (SII Seiko Instruments, Inc. This label maker was more user friendly. • Two Problems:1. When I print a label with Dymo and then want to print a document on my regular printer, the Dymo remains as the default printer for all documents. I have to change the printer for each print. Big headach. The Dymo should only be the printer of choice for Dymo labels not every other document.2. After using the Dymo the first time I have a problem with WORD and EXCEL. When I open up these Office programs, I get some silly statements "Microsoft Visual Basic" + "Errors occurred during load" + "Can't load or unload this object". What a pain to open an Office program now. • I was much happier with my old Dymo Labelwriter than I am with this one. This is due to their changes in the software making it more difficult to create and modify label designs! • Awful software. This is my 3rd Labelwriter. You can't doouble space one line to make it stand out the print jumps up. You can't print flush left - center - flush right on the same label. The postal barcode options have a mind of their own.Even trying to print vertical labels has become a time consuming process. Do something about that.

5. More SW feedback • DYMO website: • the label to put on file folders does not print upsdide down like the Seiko product I used before this. This is real problem.I tried to figure out how to do it as I supposed MIRROR was the way, but it is a process that is not intuitive. Why not just have a label set up in format to do this as it is a very common use. Also, std address label is 3 lines when 90% of businesses use 4 line plus barcode. Hassle to keep modifying lables to fit • The label design software is pretty lame when compared to the Brother QL550. I own both the Twin Turbo and the Brother QL550. Honestly, your software applications is light years behind theirs. I print my labels on the Brother and Postage on the Twin Turbo. • OK. This software was developed by someone who has no interest in making things simple.When you type something in to the enter box it should be direct - not enter it, then "apply". Its been a problem with this software since before DYMO bought the company and its never really been fixed. • Great hardware, but software is klutzy. Worst of all, Dymo hasn't discovered that Apple Mac's use the Apple Key + C for copy (not ctrl + C), and the software instantly shuts itself down whenever I use the Apple Key + C to copy/paste text from a label. • Need to make software to add pictures from my collection to my Dymo • Cannot save a label under same name in two different formats (with zip & without zip). My prior label printer had that option and I loved it. Now I have to change format each time I use it. Time waster.

6. More SW feedback • DYMO website: • Examples: 1.) Program needs to offer the user a way to change the margins of the labels so that the print does not automatically shrink to fit. 2.) Program needs user option to stop bar code from printing on address labels with zip code extension because the print gets too small for mailing 3.) Font settings do not seem to save and revert to the factory default settings even when changed. • We switched everyone in the office from Seiko's SmartLabel Printers to Dymo. Seiko allows you to print closer to the top of the label which we need due our files and content information on the labels. Although you can use the "Label Designer" feature, it still does not go right up to the top. Also, adjusting 2 sizes of font does not seem possible or too complicated to do if I have to look it up. • The program needs some work. should have one button total delete and not 2 step. Needs more graphic designs to put on label or go online to download other graphics. Does not print exactly on the label, a little off-center sometimes. when I put in a label size from your drop-down menu, size of label I have that says on your menu does not match the printout. Plus, when I make a label,I almost always have to stretch the corners on some of these. That should not be part the program. Centering is done by the left,center and right icons on top. • I have to go into the "other labels" each time to find the hanging file label whereas the file folder label is right there in the drop down box. I wish there was a way to have the hanging file label in the drop down box instead of having to search for them each time

7. Tech support calls • Copying graphics to clipboard and from one label to another. • Adding address fixer as add in to word, customize? • Quickbooks compabitility? How do we make this more compatible and how do they customize the label, i.e. PO number etc. • Intelligent mail barcode standard? • Darker print? • Download software option for DYMO stamps? • Goldmine/act compatibility? • Confusion on different label #’s and differences, also, terminology doesn’t match whats on box, also vertical/horizontal (nelson personal)

8. Tech support calls • Rotating text on shipping/address label to vertical? • Diagnostics to help people determine if its working or not? When it doesn’t print?

9. HW issues Amazon.com • Also, make sure your label roll is TIGHT on the spool. Mine was a little loose and that really fouled it up. • wish the printer had an on/off switch. This unit is always on. If you have to reset the printer, which we did several times when the first one failed, you must pull the power plug. The power plug is very inconvenient to access. • The QL-570 prints fast and silent. It's a little bigger than you would expect, but that's due to the easy-to-change label cartridges, which are a big plus.

10. HW issues • DYMO review website • The labels jam too frequently. I sent the first one back, received a new one--it is also jamming • Labels don't feed properly, especially postage stamps and jamb with result of ruining labels. To make things worse, the "feeding lever"jammed and does not work properly either. Result is no confidence in changing labels, especially stamps. • I haven't had time to call or look up why this machine will print the one label I want and then right behind it it will spit out a blank unused label right behind it. I have to tear off the good label and then reload the extra one (which is at the beginning of the roll) just to have it do it again after printing off 2 or 3 more individual labels. If I can get this problem fixed or replaced with another machine in the event this is a defect, I would gladly recommend it to others. • Too sensitive to label alignment. Users have difficulty replacing spool of labels - sensors are too sensitive to spool mis-alignment.

11. Brother QL570 Overview: Preliminary • Quick Overview of Brother QL570 from a hardware and software perspective • Overall HW works well, the autocutter is impressive, easy to see what labels you have in the printer. • SW is split in two parts (p touch editor, address book), and functions well, Brother has a lot of clip art and their snap feature which allows you to type in and print anything is a nice bonus. The address book does not have the feature set that DLS has, but does allow import from Outlook. • It seems to know what type of label is in the printer which is a step above what we have, although it does not offer much help in terms of fixing it.

12. P Touch Editor P touch Editor has basic editing features to create labels. There are three modes: Snap, Express and Professional. In Express (default) you can choose the type of label, font, add images, make changes, import from a database

13. Brother Professional View Professional view has a lot more functionality to it, you can add tables, date and time, save your favorites, layout an address label from a database (although not that well). It also have a screen capture mode which allows you to take a picture of anything on screen an put it on the label

14. Brother Label Software Not great for laying out address, need to use Address book

15. Brother Snap Brother has a snap mode which allows you to run the application from a small window, take picture, drag and drop text right from the window. The entire application must be open, but you can switch back to express mode. We could go one better and at a widget from which you print (like an add in)

16. Brother has a lot of art options Brother has a lot of art options to allow the user to add artwork to its label: Extensive clip art collection Screen capture Import jpeg’s

17. Software seems to know the label type It seems to know when there is wrong size label within the printer.

18. Detection However, when you click in, it does not help you elegantly solve the problem. It looks like it knows size by how the holes go into the cartridge loading system

19. Brother Address Book • Brother separates its address book from its ptouch editor but it does allow the user to easily print address labels, although it lacks some of the features of DYMO. You can also import your Outlook address book into the address book. It looks for all outlook files and imports them in • Negative: • No address fixer • No stamps • CSV import only

20. Brother P-Touch Address Book

21. Address book template

22. Manual Entry into Address Book Difficult process

23. Brother p-Touch address book You can choose from different templates which automatically switch the label type.

24. Brother P-Touch Address Book Imports all Outlook contacts that it can find, allows for selection of subset of contacts for print

25. Brother QL 570 hardware features • Brother’s QL 570 also has a number of different hardware features • Ability to continuous feed label with an autocutter which works very well • Ability to turn on and off printer • Ability to load a cartridge like mechanism with the labels • Although difficult to take off tape holding labels together and difficult to put into printer • Holes on bottom identify label type • Labels have name, size, SKU number on back of each label that can be easily seen

26. Mail Factory by Belight • Belight software is a company based in the Ukraine which has a number of software applications, the most prominent is DiscCover to label CD and DVD’s • They are developers for the mac and design very easy to use software. • Mail factory is a application that allows you to print labels to either Avery, DYMO, Brother and others

27. You can choose from a wide variety of label types

28. You can choose different type of designs for the address label

29. Allows for easy import from a number of different file format types

30. You can choose how to map the data from excel

31. After the program imports it the info, it stores in the address book

32. You can name and save a list and select the people you want to mail to

33. Wide range of choice of label: Avery, Decadry, DYMO, Xerox, APLI, Pimaco, Devauzet

34. It stores a wide variety of DYMO label sizes with SKU numbers

35. Easy to layout from and to address and pick them

36. Easy to do a merge print

37. Comes with variety of icons that can be easily put onto the label

38. You can import and change shapes

39. You can choose predefined layouts and types (dept name) or you can drag and drop the address fields wherever you want

40. It comes with different handling icons to make it easier to use You can also import pictures also from Iphoto

42. DYMO • Next few slides just highlight in DLS7 how we do mail merge better vs. brother

43. Import from a database

44. DLS allows you to format the envelope from Excel You can format the address how you want from Import. Import from any database

45. Address Fixer DLS allows you to check each address and put it in proper format zip 5+4 And put the USPS barcode on top for faster delivery