Roll Call Directory 1.2 is a piece of software from a company called Midnight Mage Software. I learned of this software at the March, 2005 MLMUG monthly meeting where Steve Sheets and Sonny Worrell demonstrated their software. Steve is the developer of Roll Call Directory.

Roll Call Directory provides an easy way to print the contents of the Mac OS X Address Book in a wide variety of different ways. Compared with the built-in functionality of the Mac OS X Address Book software, Roll Call Directory offers a much greater range of options for printing an entire Address Book or selected groups of addresses.

As I watched Steve Sheets demonstrate his software, I realized it would be the perfect solution to my need to print address labels for a project that I was working on. I needed to design an invitation for the engagement party I am throwing for my sister and her fianc�. I also needed to mail out these invitations.

Roll Call Directory is available on CD or as a download from the Midnight Mage web site. In order to enable full functionality (such as the ability to print labels), registration via the company's web site is required. Although I bought this software on CD from Sonny and Steve after their MLMUG presentation, registering it via their web site was a quick and simple process.

I used this software on my dual processor 2.5GHz G5 with Mac OS 10.3.8 and it worked fine. Setting up the software was a simple matter. My goal was to print addresses on Avery labels. Since I do not normally use the Mac OS X Address Book, I had to export my addresses from the Palm Desktop software that I do use, then import them into the Address Book. This was an easy process that was done outside of the Roll Call Directory software.

Once I populated my Mac OS X Address Book with my addresses from my Palm Pilot, I set up an "invitation" group within Address Book, containing the addresses for everyone who is on my guest list. I also assigned a graphic to each invitee's Address Book entry so it would print on the labels. Double-clicking on the Roll Call Directory icon, selecting the "invitations" Address Book group, and selecting a few output format options was all the work I had to do within Roll Call Directory. Roll Call Directory offers options to print on several different types Avery labels and an option for creating custom formats for other types of labels. I just selected the appropriate label format from a pull down menu. I then placed some label sheets in my Epson PHOTO R200 printer's paper feeder and printed. Low and behold! I had a set of nicely printed labels!

The biggest challenge in completing this project was not in Roll Call Directory, it was within the Mac OS X Address Book. I had to figure out how to set up an address format for one of my cousins who lives in England. Once I had that done, Roll Call Directory did a fine job of printing it on an Avery label.

In the process of setting up my addresses, I had to consult the online documentation to find out how to format the printed output to the type of Avery labels that I needed to use. Finding the necessary information was easy. Ample help is available on the Midnight Mage web site and the help is clearly written and concise.