MT Sticky Notes
Simple and inexpensive method for printing sticky notes
Thanks to Rae Morrill for contributing this sweet little macro. Any MT who transcribes for Dr. Forgetful (who doesn't?) and has to handwrite dozens of little sticky notes to accompany the printed documents will love this macro! Rae has given excellent instructions (below), and at the end of her notes I've included a few thoughts about customization and other uses.
From Rae:First I made a page definition for labels using the below settings:
Format: Labels
1 - Label Size
Width 2"
Height 1.5"
2 - Number of Labels
Columns 4
Rows 5
3 - Top Left Corner
Top 0"
Left 0"
4 - Distance Between Labels
Column 0"
Row 0"
5 - Label Margins
Left 0.22"
Right 0.103"
Top 0.2"
Bottom 0"
I then save a blank document with this label definition and an 8 Point TR font to a document called postit (you'll need to edit the path for this in the macro as I have it saved to other than the current directory I'm working in).
Each time I start a new tape I would delete all previous text from this document, starting fresh. I use macros that assign the patient last name to Variable 8 and first name to Variable 9. The first time I run the postit.wpm macro it switches to document 2, opens postit document and prompts for physician initials (IF it is page 1 of postit document only). It then assigns doc's initials to Variable 7, then enters the variable information like this
DOCINITIALS PT: Lastname, First name
Then pauses and waits for you to type note. Hitting page up key saves and takes you back to document.
When you're all done with the tape, you just take a plain sheet of paper (I use some rather stiff semiconstruction paper) and stick small sticky notes on it (4 across). Then run through printer. My page format is set up using a Laserjet 4P printer definition.
From Mitz:
I followed Rae's instructions and everything worked like a charm. My only question, having not seen this in action, was what size sticky note to use. My guess, based on the instructions, was to use sticky notes with dimensions of 1.5 h x 2 w, and this worked perfectly.
My printing workhorse is an HP Laserjet 5, and cardstock fed through the manual paper feed without losing any notes in the paper path.
Coincidentally, about the same time this macro arrived in my email I had just returned from pricing laser-ready sticky note pages at a local office supply store. We needed to print thousands of sticky notes to be attached to a marketing piece. The per-sheet price is prohibitive, to say the least. The notes on sheets run approximately $0.125 per note, while regular sticky notes in pads run only approximately $0.016 per note. In other words, buying printer-ready notes costs almost eight times as much as making your own. Depending upon your tolerance for sticking notes on cardstock, this may or may not seem like a deal to you!
I was going to include a template for laying out the notes, but I decided that was unnecessary. Just lay the notes out almost touching each other from left to right and top to bottom, and you've got it. If you want to be sure, print your page without sticky notes first and you'll see where to lay the notes.
Customization ideas:
- The macro is set up to exit a second page and return to an active document. If you plan to use the macro without an active document, you might change the code like this:
{HPg}{Exit}y{Enter}yy
to: {HPg}(Exit}y{Enter}yn{Switch}
- You can change the variable names to reflect whatever variables your patient names and the like are stored in
- You can alter the label page set up to accommodate larger labels.
- With larger labels, you can easily include a graphic box with logo
- Feedback to MTs
- "Thank you for your business" notes on invoices
- "Just a Reminder" notes on monthly statements
- Eye-catchers on marketing pieces
- All sorts of personal reminders for self and family
- Print whole sheets of confidential or urgent "stamps" by using graphics or text boxes
