I am looking a small and inexpensive database to run an address and
phonebook that easily prints out address labels or labels for rolodex.
The software should easy to learn. I have tried excel but it is to
much of pain to print labels. I only will use this program to send out
christmas cards, birth announcements and the like.

Hello bigtop,

Thanks for your question.

Normally, I would recommend a contact management program for you such
as ACT! available from Symantec ( www.symantec.com), however I get the
feeling that this might be overkill for both your wants and needs.
However, you might want to look at ACT! to see what a best of breed
product has to offer you.

Following are a few programs that should fit your needs and simply
keep addresses and contact data and allow you to easily print labels:

Address Database Standard - $39.95
http://www.pragmaticsw.com/Pragmatic/Addrdb.htm

Contact Manager

An easy way to keep track of all your personal and business contacts.
Address Database Standard Edition for Windows not only stores basic
information like names and addresses, but also has room for unlimited
notes such as birthday, anniversary, spouse's or children's names,
etc.

It prints a variety of handy rosters, including a phone list, address
book, compressed address book, address book with notes and holiday
list.

Reports can be printed on standard, Day Timer, Day Runner or any other
sized paper. In addition, it prints mailing and file-folder labels
(supports any type of labels). It has an automatic phone dialer and
allows you to import or export information from other programs in
comma-delimited format - no need to re-type! Additionally, it has 2
fields that you can personalize.  The standard edition is designed for
home and small business users. It can hold up to 2500 names per file.
Price is $39.99.

Free trial available

Address Ex 4.58 - $15
http://www.nsnsoftware.com/

Address Express keeps names and addresses under different categories
for easy access. Includes csv export, cover letters and html output.
Prints label, envelopes, and address books. The small size makes it
ideal for jotting down names and numbers.

Addressinator! Address Book Software - $40
http://www.addressinator.com/

Addressinator! 3.0 is easy to use, affordable for the individual user
or for a network of users, allows for customization of your own
fields, includes the ability to search for contact information, allows
you to group your contacts, edit your import files to ensure no
duplication, individually email or bulk email contacts and many more
features.

Breme Address Book 2.0   - $17.26
http://www.breme.demon.co.uk/

"Breme Address Book is an easy to use database and a flexible and
accurate Envelope and Label addressing tool. Using Breme Address Book
your printed addresses will be optimized for sorting-machine
readability - so smoothing and speeding delivery. It is ideal for
international use, because you dictate the style of address. You get
instant full scale previews of exactly how your envelopes or labels
will look. Having entered names, addresses and other details, you
decide on how much is actually printed, and how. You can design and
save as many different styles as you want to - then load and use them
instantly. You can design your own return addresses and logos, place
them where you want to, save different configurations then load and
use them instantly. Printing Label Sheets, once you have saved your
favourite format, is simplicity itself."

These should give you a few easy to use and reasonable priced
alternatives. If you desire to audition more, try:

CNET - Address and Lable search:
http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=address+label&tg=dl-2001

NONAGS - Address Search
Free Software and shareware: http://www.tusafe.com/nonags/index.html

Simply search here for "address"

I hope this has helped you find a solution for your addressing and
labeling needs. If anything above is unclear, do ask for
clarification.

Regards,

-=clouseau=-

---

Clarification of Answer by clouseau-ga on 22 Oct 2002 16:37 PDT

My apologies, bigtop. You are absolutely correct. It seems Symantec
sold the ACT! product back to its original designer in 2001. You can
find their products at this link:

http://www.act.com/

Regards,

-=clouseau=-

The only problem with answer is when i went to Symantic to find out
about ACT, they either don't make it anymore or???? in any case the
answers from clouseau and hummer were more than satisfactory,

Try MS Access.

Hi bigtop,

There are plenty of freeware programs out there to try - 

http://www.afterzed.com/freeware/addressbookfreeware1.html

http://www.pricelessware.org

Search for "Address Book" at 
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/
Results are either "Free" or "Free to Try".

Search Google:
://www.google.ca/search?as_q=freeware+&num=100&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

Search term used:
freeware

hummer

Or give someone lunch to write one for you :)

On the subject of freeware, Star Office 5.2 provided this
functionality -- an address book database was integrated so that you
could generate form letters, labels, and other documents using the
information.  This was provided free by Sun, but now with the 6.0
version (<A HREF="http://www.sun.com/staroffice">http://www.sun.com/staroffice</A>)
they charge $75 for it -- still a lot cheaper than MS Office and has a
lot more features, including this address book integration.  If this
is still too expensive you can try the free version at <A
HREF="http://openoffice.org">http://openoffice.org</A>, but it tends
to be slightly buggy.  (Sun's version is basically a cleaned-up
version of the same application code.)