Herbarium label-making programs

[Michael]

        I was curious if anyone had recommendations for computer programs to
create and database herbarium specimen labels.  I have used several
in-house proprietary label-making programs and found these to be buggy, and
usually with few instructions or troubleshooting aids.

        I've also used Biota, and found the output herbarium labels to be
generally serviceable, but not very flexible or attractive.  Perhaps Biota
output could be fed into a mail merge template in Microsoft Word, allowing
for better control of fonts, italics, etc.  Has anyone tried this?  (I also
think an Angiosperm database, extracted for Kartesz for example, would be a
wonderful add-on to Biota, so that each independent user would not have to
tell the program that Quercus was in the Fagaceae, for example).

        At this time I am most interested in producing good quality herbarium
specimen labels, but I'd also expect such a program to produce a database
of the label data.  Judging from the enormous variety of plant labels
arriving here with exchange specimens, I wonder if any "industry standard"
label-making program exists for herbaria?

Thanks,

Michael Chamberland
Michigan State University Herbarium