I haven’t had to use MS-Office / word in years and I have never had a problem with awesome OpenOffice.org software. I have been using it in Linux for a long time, and recently at work we started using it in windows-xp systems too. I have also got a couple other people in my school, work and small business to use it as well. This tutorial explains the approach you take when you want to print labels under Ubuntu Linux using gLabels. It is a label, business and media cover designer for the GNOME. The intuitive editor allows to create text fields, insert images, simple objects, and create barcodes. It is designed to work with common laser/inkjet printers peel-off label and business card sheets. From the article:

Ubuntu has no shortages of software for printing labels. Many users content themselves with the label and mail merge features in OpenOffice.org Writer or in Abiword or KOffice. All these solutions will do a basic job, especially with text. But what if you want elaborate formatting or graphics with your labels? What if you want a smaller, dedicated program that is quicker to load than a complete word processor? In these cases, you should consider turning to gLabels instead.

=> Printing Labels in Ubuntu