Mailing Label - layout order (vertical vs horizontal) - Word 2016

If you need a down-then-across arrangement:

1. In the Labels dialog, click New Document to create a new document based on the label definition you have chosen.
2. Display table gridlines (Table Tools | Layout | Table | View Gridlines) and nonprinting characters (Ctrl+* or Home | Paragraph | Show/Hide ¶) so you can see what you're doing.
3. Delete all cells except the first. If there is a spacer column, note its width beforehand.
4. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Columns and choose More Columns...
5. In the Columns dialog, select however many labels across your label stationery had
6. In the Spacing box, set the width to the original spacer column width or, if it had none, 0
7. If necessary, set the column width to your label width.
8. Change the mailmerge type to 'Directory'.
9. Run the mailmerge.

No version of Word has had that ability.  However, here's a macro that will modify a data source that is in a Word document so that when that modified data source is used the labels will be printed in that order.  If your data source is not initially in a Word document, you could use a Directory type mail merge to get it into a Word document.

' Macro to assign numbers to data source so that it can be sorted to cause

labels to print down columns

Dim Message, Title, Default, labelrows, labelcolumns, i As Integer, j As

Integer, k As Integer

Message = "Enter the number of labels in a row"    ' Set prompt.

Title = "Labels per Row"    ' Set title.

Default = "3"    ' Set default.

' Display message, title, and default value.

labelcolumns = InputBox(Message, Title, Default)

Message = "Enter the number of labels in a column"    ' Set prompt.

Title = "Labels per column"    ' Set title.

Default = "5"    ' Set default.

labelrows = InputBox(Message, Title, Default)

ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Columns.Add

BeforeColumn:=ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Columns(1)

ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows(1).Range.Cut

k = 1

For i = 1 To ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows.Count - labelcolumns

    For j = 1 To labelrows

        ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(i, 1).Range.InsertBefore k + (j - 1) *

labelcolumns

        i = i + 1

    Next j

    k = k + 1

    i = i - 1

    If k Mod labelcolumns = 1 Then k = k - labelcolumns + labelcolumns *

labelrows

Next i

ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Sort FieldNumber:="Column 1"

ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows(1).Select

Selection.Paste

ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Columns(1).Delete

Another way is the format a Directory type mail merge main document with the appropriate number of newspaper columns, into the first of which you insert a one cell table with the same dimensions as those of the labels that you are using and insert just one set of the merge fields into that cell, with nothing else in the document.  When you then execute that merge to a new document, the output will be in the order that you want.

Thank you so much! Unfortunately, I'm not techie enough to get it to work right. Your directions are too complicated for me. I'll print them across for now.

Thanks for responding. I do appreciate it.

Have a nice weekend, Dina

The instructions may not be precisely the ones you need for your label layout, but I suggest you try to adapt Suzanne Barnhill's answer and/or the other replies to a similar question at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_other/how-do-i-go-down-vertically-when-doing-mail-merge/3fdbddfc-383a-48c7-80ec-48f40303ad5f