Sep 22, 2004

By: Quinn

A reason not to use Word.

Mail Factory is a new application from BeLight Software which lets you easily create labels and mail envelopes.

I found Mail Factory to be very straight forward, and user friendly. When you first start up Mail Factory an assistant helps you pick what type of paper you will use. After you choose what type of paper you are going to use it brings up another window which allows you to choose different formats for your envelope or label. Then it brings you to the final stage of the assistant, here you choose which contacts you want in your label or envelope. It allows you to get contact information from Address Book, Entourage, Eudora, Now Contact, Excel, a text file, or any vCard data source. It is as simple as that.

After the setup process you come to the stage were you can design your label or envelope. Here you can add clipart, add images from your iPhoto library, and add handling labels. You can also add text and draw on the label or envelope. One key feature is the ability to format the address for more than fifty countries. Also it allows you to place US Postal Service POSTNET barcodes on your letters.

My main qualm with Mail Factory is its insistence on defaulting to Address Book as its source for contact information. This creates a major hassle for the user if for instance they prefer to use Entourage, thus forcing the user to import every time.

After using Mail Factory I would never even dream of going back to using any other application for creating labels and envelopes. Goodbye Microsoft Word.

According to BeLight, Mail Factory's unique features include:

• Print USPS POSTNET and Royal Mail barcodes on labels and envelopes.
• FIM-A Code (Facing Identification Mark) can now be printed on envelopes with US addresses. This code is used together with the barcode and serves for automated sorting purposes.
• Over 100 handling label signs for use in envelopes and packages (such as "Airmail", "Fragile", etc).
• Correctly format addresses for over 50 countries.
• Postal Guidelines help you meet USPS automation addressing standards

Mail Factory retails for $29.95 (physical CD version costs $38.95), for more info please visit BeLightsoft.com.