A tape product for use in attaching shipping documents (such as packing slips, sales slips, invoices, letters) or the like to the outside of various containers with the tape being transparent and including a sticky adhesive material on the back side thereof with one or more separate coated layers also on the back side of the tape, said coated layers comprising in one embodiment a first layer of backward printed letters which are readable when the tape is in position on a container and a second layer comprised of a contrasting background color which facilitates the reading of the letters when the tape is in position on the container, in another embodiment a single layer of transparent coating material, and in other embodiments opaque and transparent layers used in various combinations with one another and in differing areas and number of layers, such layers rendering a portion of the adhesive material nonsticky so that documents may be retained without tearing or sticking to the tape product; and, the method of preparing such tape products.