 Mail Factory delivers the goods
February, 2006
By: Andrew Wielandt
If you are like me, people struggle to read your handwriting (thank goodness for
Pages!) but that doesn’t help you when you need to address an envelope. The poor people
at the post office have to try and read my writing and work out whether I am posting a letter to
Aunt Bess in Sydney or Uncle Bill in Seattle. But no more, for there is now a program Mail Factory
from BeLight Software.
 Mail Factory allows you to print a choice of either labels,
envelopes or postcards. In each case, there is a wide range of paper sizes for envelopes and choices
from manufacturers including Avery and Xerox for labels. It is simply a case of choosing which size
you want before the assistant then moves to the positioning screen— simply how do you want the end
product to look, do you want it left or right justified, what colour etc.
One of the best features is next and that is the seamless integration of Address
Book with recipient screen. You simply choose one of your contacts and all the details are populated
into the label etc. If you don’t use address book for your data, other choices available
include Entourage, Eudora, Now up to date, Filemaker Pro, Excel or vCard format. Finally you get a
preview screen allowing you to add very useful labels like “do not bend” for envelopes,
etc., and the ability to add clipart pictures.
A few small issues weight on the program however— as an example in the
postcard assistant, one of the options is “birthday whishes,” a simple error, but
one which detracts from the overall quality. Also, the recipient window only allows one line for
an address, so there maybe some issues if you are trying to send someone a letter if he or she
has a long address.
Except for these small issues, the overall program is great. It integrates well
with other applications and makes professional looking labels, envelopes or postcards. If you
write a lot of letters, print labels or send a lot of postcards, then Mail Factory is an application
to seriously consider if you are aiming to impress.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.3 or later.
Macsimum rating: 7 out of 10
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