Bert -

I (finally) found a "settings" page at p. 50 of the R300 user manual that indicates the printer does have a text mode, and should accempt input from a wp program to print normal text documents.

The most commonly available supplier in the US of "perf cards" like what you describe is Avery Office Products.

They supply a style that they call "clean edge" with which the cards separate with a smoother edge, and a standard "perf edge" that may leave small "fuzzbits" on the edges, but the basic layouts are the same for both.

They supply both kinds in a 2 x 4 layout that prints 8 cards per sheet, but the strips in between cards allow you to print to (and overlapping) the edge of the individual cards, with any misalignment spilling onto the separator strip.

They supply both kinds in a 2 x 5 layout that prints 10 cards per sheet, with no separator strips between cards. If you're using this kind, you are expected to leave an empty area near the edge of the card to take care of any minor misalignment of the print.

Templates are available for free download, both with and without predesigned "graphics."

All Avery templates are nothing but a Word document with a table preset on the page. Individual table cells on all the business card templates are 3.5 inches by 2.0 inches. On the "print to edge" layouts, intermediate rows/columns are 0.75 inches. On the standard (10 cards per sheet) layout, there are no separator rows/columns.

(If you have access to a recent version of "Works" the wp program included should be Word 2000 or Word 2002.)

OPTION I:

If you have Microsoft Word and can create an image of a single one of your cards, at Avery 10 Card Templates you can download the template for the Avery 10 card form. You should be able to use it if it's close to the layout you have, even if you're using some other suppliers forms.

Save the "picture" of ONE card, preferably as a .jpg file. Open the template in Word, place your cursor in one of the table cells, and choose "Insert | Picture | From File" to put a "card" in that cell. You can then highlight that cell, Ctl-C to copy, and then Ctl-V to paste the card into each of the remaining 9 cells of the table, or you can "Insert Picture" in each of the cells.

Click File | Page Layout in Word, and you should be able to adjust the document margins to get the printer to put the page on the form in the correct location. When you subtract an amount from one margin you probably should add an identical increment to the opposite margin. Left and right margins in the original template are only 0.75 inch each, but that should be enough to let you move where the print hits the paper.

OPTION II

If you have your "Paint Shop Pro" program available, you should be able to save your whole Template as a single .jpg file. Since you have "snap to position" images, the existing file probably has multiple layers, and a multi-layer image can't normally be saved as .jpg, so you may need to "flatten" the image to a single layer. You should then crop it so that the image includes ONLY THE CARDS, with no margins, and save as a .jpg (with a different file name than your original). Open Word, go to File | Page Setup and be sure that the margin settings leave a space at least 7 inches wide x 10 inches tall, and "Insert | Picture | From File" and paste the entire layout in Word. You may need to use the Picture toolbar to make sure that the picture is sized at 100% and wasn't "sized to fit." (Click on the picture, then go to "View | Toolbars | and click on Picture. Click the icon that looks like a paint bucket, and then select the "Size" tab.) You should then be able to use "File | Page Setup" to adjust the margins to align your print with the form.

OPTION III

If you have your Paint Shop Pro program available, the flattened and cropped image of the entire sheet of 10 cards can be edited to change the canvas size and add or change blank spaces on either side to make it print aligned on the form.

OPTION IV - PUNT!

Throw the perf forms away (or save them for later use) and print the template to plain white 5 x 8 inch or even 4 x 6 inch index cards. If you select "Text with Pictures" as the print mode for the printer, and tell it what size paper you're using, it should offer the option of whether to "fit to paper" or just crop. Chose the "ignore" when the printer warns that cropping will occur, and you should get a full size image of whatever lands on the card. No matter how the print lines up, there should be at least ONE OR TWO cards you can knife out of each index card to make something usable. Even if you only get a couple per card, they shouldn't be more expensive than using the perf forms.

John