Brother P-Touch PC Connectable Label Maker (PT-P700),White

Damn thing works great. I upgraded from a P Touch handheld- it worked well, too, but I needed a lot of plant labels and got behind trying to produce them one at a time. What a difference just importing a spreadsheet of 37 at once! Print, cut, print, cut, one after the other. And the .94 size fits zinc metal plant stakes perfectly, vs 2 strips each time with the handheld model’s width limits. Exactly the convenient personal solution I needed. Worth every penny.

Ive owned this 9 years. Print infrequently but when I do it works.

installing software on a Mac is a little tricky.

When I was considering purchasing this printer I read several reviews with complaints about the waste generated by the printer, cutting off a one inch piece of tape before every label printed. While I did find this to be true out of the box, I've found a work-around that will reduce the waste to one print session, rather than each printed label. If you click on the check mark icon just to the right of the Print button and check the box for Chain Printing (see attached screenshot), the printer will take an initial cut for calibration (1" unprinted piece) and then print all your labels except one, waiting to cut it until your next print command (see attached pic). You can then open or create your next label and print it without the calibration cut, cutting your final label from your last print command instead. I found this to be better but was still annoyed by the fact that it was leaving the last label uncut at the end of my print session. I then found another work-around to get the printer to cut and release my final label without waste. I created a new blank label and named it "Final Cut" (see attached screenshot) and made this label only 0.28 inches long. I now open this label file at the end of each printing session and print one copy. This will then cut my final label and wait, not cutting the blank label, therefore no additional wasted tape. I'm much happier with this printer, now that this issue is resolved and like the print quality much better than my previous handheld printer by a different popular brand.One other tip, install the printer driver before connecting the printer to your computer. I installed it after connecting the printer and my Windows 10 OS installed a generic driver and installing the driver on the CD didn't fix it, initially. It took me several minutes trying to figure out why my PC couldn't find the printer. It wasn't in the Printers & Scanners list and when I tried to add it, the PC couldn't find it. I finally found it in the Devices and Printers list under Unspecified Devices. After going to it's properties and clicking Update Driver, if found the driver I installed from the CD and the PC then recognized it as a printer.

There are some reviews here that look at this thing as incredibly complicated or a pain to set up. It is neither of these, and was actually quite easy to set up.Using my Windows 10 machine, I first went to the Brother P-Touch website and downloaded the full software drivers and installation package. When I ran the setup, it instructed me to plug in the printer at the correct time it needed it. The setup went flawlessly. I ran the software updater tool which updated the firmware on my PT-700, including the express software on the included partition. Super easy.The P-Touch Editor 5.2 software is fairly straightforward to use. There's a lot of options available. I would say it is not naturally intuitive. You can pick up any Brother P-Touch standalone label maker and understand how to use it fairly easily. The software here takes a little bit of time to learn. In the Express mode, you click on the paper settings to specify the tape width, length (or auto), margins, and orientation. You then click the large A to enter text mode, and a text box is automatically created on the label. Enter what you want, press Enter for new lines. The software will let you add infinite lines, but your practical limit based on printer resolution is really 7-10 lines at 3.5 pt font each. You can then select the Frame option, pick whatever frames you want (including specialty ones). You might have to go back and adjust label width if a frame doesn't fit. You can also add clip art or images to your label. I took the profile picture of my significant other, made it into a label with hearts on it as a gift. The Layout option lets you change where object boxes line up on the screen. You have to click the frame of that object to get it to accept those commands.The benefit of an object box editor like this is that it makes things easier when you're doing database connections. Brother has a good video detailing how to do this on their Youtube page. Basically, you can connect any database or CSV file and link fields on the form to specific object boxes, and line those up wherever is needed on the label. You could automate mailing address labels this way, or name and ID labels for sign in sheets or something. The possibilities are endless.Also, with this printer sitting on my desk, I have to say this is one of the sexiest office appliances I've owned yet. The white and black contrast looks great. The unit is weighted well so it doesn't fall over. And you can add batteries which stabilize it even more and provide some backup power.The printer does spit out a 1 inch segment before printing to ensure that the tape is properly fed before printing. It's an unavoidable part of the design, and only wastes like 3 cents. Not a big deal.The only problem I have with the printer is putting new cartridges in and out requires opening the side, like an old Walkman cassette player. But that's an unavoidable problem considering the form factor.Overall, this is a great printer, and I have no regrets buying it for $30 used after someone returned it who hated it. Great buy!