I hate label makers too. On service stuff or small jobs i just type out all the labels i can think of and print them out. On large jobs the labels are generated for me but i hate having to look at spreadsheets and blue prints to see what the hell 101-123 is...so i include my second set of labels to make life easy for us lowly installers.

These laser labels are on the expensive side but they save you a ton of time. Apx $2.25 a sheet when you buy the 100 pack. This page has the different models of label sheets and the downloadable WORD template.

[Link: cableorganizer.com]

DO NOT try and use the downloadable templates. Go here to get an excel version of the template [Link: ncusa.com]

Rather than waste labels practicing...just use normal paper and line them up with a light behind them to see if everything lines up the way you want it to then cut one out and wrap it around a cable to see if all the text can be read.

The LSL-78 is what i got because we use a lot of 2+2+? banana peel cable. The longer laminate area is necessary. If you can get away with smaller labels you can get more labels per sheet. For example if you moved to LSL-77 you could get 42 labels per sheet. Download a few of the templates and print them out to see what size works best for you.