Curating an insect collection, whether it’s for hobby or a reference/teaching collection, can be a full-time job. One of the biggest drains in my sample curation workflow can be labeling pinned specimens. When done by hand, it quickly becomes a punishing process. After just 20 specimens, my hand starts to ache, and my focus noticeably fades. Thankfully, there is a quick and easy way to produce museum quality labels using Microsoft Word and Excel.
Step 1. Create an Excel Spreadsheet for Your Pinned Specimens
At this step, you will create a list of samples to make a label in a spreadsheet format. This will be later imported into a Word file to create labels.
- Open a blank excel file and add the following column headers [you can add these columns in any order]:
- Scientific Name
- Sex
- Location (Country, State, County)
- Latitude
- Longitude
- Collection Date
- Collector
- Collection ID [a unique identifier for your specimen, helpful with large collections]
- Fill in information about each specimen. Each row represents a single specimen to be pinned and placed in your collection.
Be sure to change the format for Latitude and Longitude to text, this will make things easier in future steps.
- Save and close the Excel document
Step 2. Create a Word Document to Import Your Specimen Records Excel Spreadsheet
Next, you will import the sample information from your Excel spreadsheet file into a Word document. The mailing and labeling tool in Word can auto-populate labels based on the records in the spreadsheet.
- Open a blank word document
- Select the ‘Mailings’ Tab and click ‘Start Mail Merge’
- Scroll down and select ‘Labels…’
- This will open the label option menu
- Select ‘New Label’
- Give your new label a name. I used ‘Specimen Label’
- Enter values for the margins and number across exactly as shown below.
Side note: You can play around with margin, height, and width to suit your needs.
- Afterwards, click Ok when finished, and Ok again on the Label Options menu to exit
- Next, we need to tell Word where to pull information from to fit our newly created label cells.
This will become apparent after the next step. - Click ‘Select Recipients’
- Then select ‘Use an Existing List…’
- Locate and select the excel file we created in Step 1
- Click Ok to continue
- Your file will look like this. Don’t worry that’s expected
Step 3. Create Custom Labels
Next, we are going to use the column headings in our excel sheet to build our custom labels
- Click into the second cell and move the cursor as far to the left as you can
- To add fields select ‘Insert Merge Field’
- A dropdown list of your column headings from the excel spreadsheet we created in Step 1 will appear
The order and placement of fields and characters in this next step is important.
If you enter a comma (,) between fields, the field will be separated by a comma. If you enter a space ( ) the field will be separated by a space.
Use ‘Insert Merge Fields’ to build your customized label
I often create 2 labels for each of my reference specimens. 
The first label contains specific information about the collection. This includes Locality (country, state, county, GPS coordinates) and the Collection Date. The second label contains the taxonomic identity of the specimen and the Collector. For my teaching collections, I include only the information most relevant to class participants, such as taxonomic identification and locality. One of the advantages of creating your own labels is the flexibility to customize them to include whatever information is most useful for your specific objectives.
Label 1
For Label 1 select the following fields from the Insert Merge Field dropdown:
-
- Location [shift+enter to create a new row]
- Latitude [comma] Longitude [shift+enter]
- Collection Date [shift enter]
- Optional: Collection ID (your unique identifier for your reference collection)
Pro tip
Select all (ctrl+a) and change the font to Times New Roman size 4, then zoom in on one cell to get a better visual. This step is tedious but it only needs to be done once and then you will be set for all future specimens.
- When you are finished the label should look like this:
- Highlight the entire cell and copy it (ctrl+c)
- Next, copy and paste to fill in each label cell with a copy of your custom label
- Click Preview Results to view your labels
- Here what the final product looks like:
Label 2
For the second label select the following fields from the Insert Merge Field dropdown:
-
- Scientific_Name [space] Sex [shift+enter]
- Collector
- Repeat the steps above as needed
- When your labels are completed, save and print
- Remember to only use archival, acid-free paper. It won’t yellow, become brittle, or damage specimens over time.
Congratulations!
You are now ready to print, cut, and set your labels like a pro!
Acknowledgements
I acknowledge funding support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Multistate Hatch project (7007941), the Southern Integrated Pest Management Center (Project S26-070) as part of USDA NIFA Crop Protection and Pest Management (CPPM) Regional Coordination Program (Agreement No. 2022-70006-38002), and the Gulf South VECTOR sponsored by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The funders had no role in product design, data collection, decision to publish, or preparation of this blog.
Author Bio
Dr. Bryan V. Giordano is a founding member of the BEACONS (Biodiversity Enhancement And Control of Non-Native Species) committee. He currently works for Azelis Agricultural and Environmental Solutions as the Account Manager for South Florida, Caribbean, and International exports. Bryan is committed to improving public understanding of invasive mosquito biology and champions precise, morphology‑based identification to support effective vector control.
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