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NiceLabel Designer Pro User Guide

1. 0000 000 e eee cece eeeeeees 30 Using Advanced Functionality 0000000 0000 c ccc ccc eee coco 30 Creating a Label with GS1 128 EAN UCC 128 Compliance 30 Add Content to GS1 128 Barcode Using GS1 128 Wizard 0 0 0 0 0 0 222 eee 30 Edit Barcode Gola 28 cuna iras ladridos 32 Usmo ESC e ene ad 33 Using the PIATS Function occ 33 Designing Label with Variable Length _ 22 00220 0002222 35 Controlling Cutter in the Printer 00000 0000 c cece cece cece eee eee eeee 36 Defining Label Batch Printing and Using Header and Tail Labels 37 Designing Double Sided Label 00 0 000 ccoo conc 38 Designing Labels for Mobile Devices 2220000000 cece 39 Multicolor Printing 0 0 0000 c cece conoces 39 Setting up Stock Manager to List Commonly Used Labels 2222 40 Tracing Variable Values 02222 ocn ccccoo nono ccoo ccoo 40 Using Contents Mask 00000000 eS ols ai sting ees 41 Using Expression Builder 0 0 00000 c cece cece ccc ce eee cece eee eee e teen eeeeeees 41 Using Label Inspector ccoo conc 42 Using Pictures from the Memory Card ccoo 44 Designing an RFID Smart Label coc 44 SA SA 44 Create RFID Smart Label occ ccoo 45 Encode REED ae 3x52 ars da eee ek eae Ai a dennades o ota renato cta dd lento o al 45 RFID Tag Sellos costa
2. Click the Import button and browse to the txt file which includes the PIATS codes you have been issued Import the file and your list of available codes will be populated You can preview the list by clicking on the View button The imported data is bound to the global variable therefore data imported for one variable will not be available in another Likewise if the label is exported the data from the global variable will not be transferred and will remain available only locally _ 34 Electronical Product Supervision Code Viewer Printed PrintedTime ImportedTime 1 08007786000000007867 21 8 2008 11 10 02 2 08007786000000018882 RAS 21 8 2008 11 10 02 3 08007786000000022111 21 8 2008 11 10 02 4 08007786000000035087 21 8 2008 11 10 02 5 08007786000000040861 21 8 2008 11 10 02 6 08007786000000058585 21 8 2008 11 10 02 7 08007786000000068517 21 8 2008 11 10 02 8 08007786000000070830 21 8 2008 11 10 02 9 08007786000000088740 21 8 2008 11 10 02 10 08007786000000088825 21 8 2008 11 10 02 00 00 0 A Insert a GS1 128 barcode onto the label and connect it with the PIATS information Once the labels are printed they are marked as printed in the log along with the timestamp of their print ing It is not possible to print a code that is already marked as printed nor is it possible to import the same list of codes twice NOTE It is possible to delete the log of printed codes makes it possibl
3. There are several methods to connect a variable to some label element that should contain variable values e If you have the element already positioned on the label select it then choose the appro priate variable in the list e Ifthe element is not already on the label you can first select the variable in the list and then click the label where you want the element positioned Text element will appear there and will be connected to the selected variable _ 56 e If you want any other element and not text connected to the variable you can first select the variable in the list then click the desired element in the Toolbox and then click the label e Youcan click on the small arrow button next to the object icon in the toolbox select the option Use Existing Variable select the variable from the list and click on the label Variable toolbar always shows the name of the variable which is attached to the current selected element If there are two or more elements selected and do not have the same variable attached to it then the variable combo box is empty Using Zoom Toolbar Zoom in This command increases the selected element or part of the element Zoom out This command decreases the selected element or part of the element Factor You can define your own factor of zoom in Zoom to label You will see the entire label on the screen Zoom to page You will see the entire page on the screen Zoom to objects Yo
4. lt nice_commands gt Automating the Software Automation with ActiveX Programming interface Automation ActiveX The information in this chapter is for advanced users and application developers only If you don t plan to write applications that use the embedded print engine to print labels you can skip this chapter entirely The labeling software can act as an OLE Automation server Its class name is NiceLa bel6 A pplication The commands actually allow you to have more control over the labeling software from your own application Active X allows also the status of variable managing procedure to be returned to your application so you can control printing process more accurately A lot more programming func tionality is allowed The ActiveX interface makes is possible to query every label element for its properties The same goes for variables and functions defined on the label The properties of all label elements can be modified prior printing if for some reason you do not want to use label defined settings You can even create a label preview in your own application For more information about programming interface please refer to the manual ActiveX and DDE Programming manual available on the product CD ROM and on the product website You can also auto generate the description of the interface using typelib command line para meter It will create NUABEL6 OLB with description of methods properties and events that t
5. 2 2 0 0 202 cece ccc ccc cece ccc corn cnc 151 a AAA enc ei ele ness oan ome eee Rasen 152 Formatting Allergens for Food Ingredients _ 202 22222 cc cece ee eeeee eee 153 Printing and Previewing Labels 0c ccc cccc cece ccc ccceccceeceeeeteetteeetees 162 Preview ang Printa Label aos cde gue yl ad ce ta eho elses eee eN 162 Store and Recall Printing Mode 00 00 00 2222 c cee ccoo ccoo cnc 162 Previewing Pictures necesa a e e od ca DS 164 Optimize the Printing Speed occ 164 Reprint Eabels ca ad dl tods e cies 165 Use Custom Edit Forms occ ccoo conc cece cceeeeeceeeeeeeeees 166 INI O ME oea eet tees pun eterna st ohee eee eet oe cce eee nee eater 166 Integration and Connectivity _ 0 00 ccc ccc cece cece ceccceeeeetettetttttteteteees 168 O RAN 168 Command Files occ rre 168 Use Command Files o ooocccccccccccccccccccccccnn ccoo cnn nr r cnn 168 Command File JOB File 02 2 02 2 ccoo ccoo 169 Automatic Print with JOB Files oooocoocccccccccccccccccccccccconcccconncccnnco 169 Usmo JOBE eS 000 deoosccnans era tata do aca dl dd da ecos tia ae 170 Command Pile CSV File acrem rociado costa tias 170 Command File XML File ociosos ora iidsasencasiiiliccrcosdlsd 172 Automating the Software _ 00 00 0c cc cece ccc cece cece cece cece eee ee eee cnc cnc 174 Automation with ActiveX __ 2 222 022 lice c ccc cece eee c cece cece cece
6. Editing check digit algorithm To understand all parameters you must know how check digit is calculated First of all we must have a numeric value and on top of that the check digit will be calculated If weights are required we will need them as well Let s look at EAN13 check digit calculation Value 123456789012 Weights 1 3 When starting calculating each digit has its weight When only two weights are specified the third digit gets the first weight the forth the second and so on If only one weight is specified all digits have the same weight According to Sum determination we can use weights sum of the 143 products or not sum of the digits EAN13 algorithm uses products so we define Sum of the products The sum is 1x1 2x3 3x1 4x3 5x1 2x3 When the sum is calculated we take modulus parameter and divide the sum with that number and remember the remainder of division This can already be the result If Result complemented is specified we subtract the result from modulus and so we get the new value When this value is less than 10 we already got check digit If it is greater value two digits we take the whole value or just the least significant digit One digit only as the result of check digit algorithm Special Characters Using Special Characters Special characters are the kind of characters you usually cannot find directly on your keyboard In spite of that some of them can be ty
7. NLABEL6 EXE file name options file name Represents the full path name of the file If the label file is given then this label is opened If JOB file is given then this JOB file is executed For more information about JOB files refer to the topic NiceCommands parameter can be one or more of the following silent Silent mode no toolbar menu or banner is displayed and window is minimized This is useful when using the labeling software as label printing engine for label production from other application lr Registers the software as an OLE server lu Unregisters the software as an OLE server 1 After JOB file is finished the label designer exits typelib This option will generate NLABEL6 OLB file with type library description of the ActiveX interface The file contains COM interface description if you would like to integrate label printing functionality to your application Mang lt LANG gt Run the software in the specified language This will override the language selection in the program pref erences but only temporarily If you start the soft ware without the Aang switch the default language is used 185 Technical Support Online Support You can find the latest builds updates workarounds for problems and Frequently Asked Questions FAQ on the product web site For more information please refer to e Knowledge base http kb nicelabel com e NiceLabel Support http Awww nicelabel co
8. PRINTSPEED Use this parameter so specify printing speed The value for parameter varies from one printer to the other Consult printer s manu als for numbers PRINTDARKNESS Use this parameter so specify printing dark ness contrast The value for parameter var ies from one printer to the other Consult 183 printer s manuals for numbers PRINTOFFSETX Use this parameter to specify left offset for all printing objects The value for parameter must be numeric positive or negative in pixels PRINTOFFSETY Use this parameter to specify top offset for all printing objects The value for parameter must be numeric positive or negative in pixels SETTABLE SETTABLE lt table name gt lt value gt table_ The name of the currently used table as defined in the program name value The name of the new table that should be used as data source This command allows you to use some other table with the label file and not the one that was con nected to the label file at design time This other database table will only be used when printing labels the label template will remain unmodified with connection to the original table The new database table must be of the same type as original table For example you cannot change the table from dBase to Paradox The structure of new table has to be identical to the ori ginal one You can use table from the database that is already connected to the label or from some entirely differe
9. Start the application NiceMemMaster memory card manager If the icon for NiceMemMaster is not shown in the labeling software folder in the Start menu check your installation Reinstall the labeling software 1f necessary We ll assume that memory card is empty or safe to delete First step is to let NiceMemMaster know what type of card 1s inserted in printer Click Print Setup in Card menu Select your thermal printer from the list If your printer 1s not listed you will have to install the appropriate NiceLabel Printer Driver Click button Prop erties then click button Memory to open dialog box Printer memory Here we have to activate the memory card in Slot 1 Look at section Slot 1 In field Type select Memory Card leave field Connected file intact Keep clicking OK until you return to NiceMemMaster al We will format the memory card and prepare 1t for downloading our data Be careful 1f the card contains any previously downloaded elements they will be deleted Click Format from Card menu or click e Formatting will take a few seconds 146 6 Next step 1s to build a list of fonts and graphics that we want to store on memory card The information about these fonts and graphics is stored in memory card file MMF Let s make a sample memory card file Select New from Card menu or click La Name the file Sample and click OK In dialog Card setup type in description and select proper card size in kilobytes You can always
10. 69 Defining Rich Text Box RTF Object The Rich Text Box object enables you to format text in any kind of font types and styles To create a Rich Text Box object do the following 1 Click on the E Rich Text Box y button in the Toolbox The rich text box cursor appears on the screen 2 Move the cursor to the location on the label where you want to place the text box object and click on the mouse button The rich text editor will open Enter the content Use the text toolbar in the editor to format the characters Click on the OK button The Rich Text Box object is placed on the label Double click the Rich Text Box to open its properties Go to the Detailed tab and select the option Best fit Click on the OK button The text size in the Rich Text Box object automatically changes when you re size it oo i ey ek ES Defining Barcode Object To place the barcode object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Barcode icon in the Toolbox 2 Click the position on the label where you want to place the object Barcode Wizard dialog box will open Define the contents for the barcode object Click on the Next button to advance to the next step of the wizard Follow on screen instructions in the next steps Click on the Finish button 3 4 as 6 Note Should you later want to edit the object select 1t then double click 1t The wizard with properties appears Defining Picture Object To place the p
11. Keyboard Shortcuts You can quickly accomplish tasks you perform frequently by using shortcut keys one or more keys you press on the keyboard to complete a task Note that this is just a faster and more con venient way of choosing commands Command itself is executed just as if it was selected from the menu or toolbar Shortcut Command Delete Deletes selected element Shift Delete Cut Ctrl Insert Copy Shift Insert Paste Alt Backspace Undo numeric pad Zoom In numeric pad Zoom Out Alt Shift Back Redo space Ctrl 1 Open the label design for the next template within current label file Only applicable if you use the head er main tail or front back labels Ctrl Shift 1 Open the label design for the previous template Ctrl Shift N Ctrl T Ctrl A Ctrl X Ctrl C Ctrl V Ctrl Z Ctrl Y Ctrl N Ctrl O Ctrl S Ctrl P Ctrl R Ctrl G Ctrl H Alt F4 Ctrl move object with mouse Alt move object with mouse Shift move object with mouse Ctrl move object with cursor keys Shift cursor keys Click Text icon Ata Min ToolBox then press Ctrl click on the label Click Graphics icon Bree ToolBox then press Ctrl click on the label Select variable from the list in tool bar click Text icon in ToolBox then click on the label within current label file Only applicable if you use the header main tail or front back labels Crea
12. Selecting printer Formatting Allergens for Food Ingredi ents The European Union s mandatory food labeling legislation formalized in Regulation EU No 1169 2011 not only specifies what information must be shown but also how that information is presented including font color and contrast The regulation deals in detail only with font size but leaves the exact type of allergen highlighting to the user The allergens in the ingredient list must be printed in a typeset or font that distinguishes them from the rest of the list such as bold italic underlined inverse different color NiceLabel has a built in support for allergen formatting through the custom functions These are predefined functions that you can use to highlight the allergens in the list of ingredients By high lighting you can you bold italic underline CAPS formatting or combination of this formatting The function result is RTF formatted data you can use with the Rich Text Box object The allergen word might appear inside some ingredient that is not allergen In this case you can use the WithExceptions type of functions These functions will accept another input parameter a list of exceptions These are words or sentences that must not be formatted even if they contain the allergen word For example if you define the word milk as allergen it will be also high lighted in the ingredient coconut milk which is wrong You can define coconut milk as an excep
13. port printing of fixed images truetype fonts Variable text fields on the label has to be set in internal printer fonts that usually do not look as good as truetype fonts Only prompted variables can be used Because the label design application is not present at print time functions and advanced label elements cannot be used 175 For more information about connecting labeling software to SAP R 3 system please refer to the appropriate White Paper on the web site of contact technical support Label Export Label Export Label Export functionality is used heavily from stand alone and some print only variants of this labeling software Its functionality is tightly connected to the ability of printer that is used on the label Export is only available when using thermal printer drivers shipping with the labeling soft ware The printer driver also must have built in the support for the required export Windows version of labeling software on PC computer is used to design the label layout compliant to the labeling request All label elements can be used on the label text paragraph RTF barcode image line rectangle ellipse When printing fixed labels there is no issue you should pay attention to The label elements are printed as graphics The exported printer file can have fixed or variable values If you have label with fixed fields you can send it directly to the label printer If you have a label with variable fields some
14. Ctrl Code completion When typing the command press this shortcut Space to display all commands that match the partially entered name Ctrl Define the bookmark at the current cursor position Next to the Shift row number you will see a bookmark number You can use up to digit 10 bookmarks simultaneously To remove the bookmark go to the row where the bookmark is defined then press the same keyboard shortcut again Ctrl Go to the bookmark with the selected number digit Using Label Inspector Label Inspector is a tool for advanced element and data manipulation on the label It is used for overview of label s structure and modifying label components all element s properties can be simply modified from Label Inspector You can of course still double click the element and change its properties from dialog box but for smaller changes it is much quicker to change them in Label Inspector Now you can change properties of several selected elements at the same time If elements are of the same type for example all texts you will be able to change their every property If elements are of different types for example one text one barcode symbol and one rectangle only the prop erties common to all elements could be changed With Label Inspector you change some element s properties that are not accessible otherwise Each element can have its own name so you can distinguish between them Whenever you select _ 42 the elemen
15. Date Field 12 5 2006 C Time Field 10 40 19 O Database Value from a database O RFID tag contents Use RFID tag contents Varlable name Prompt _ Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard next time Text Wizard Choosing variable text Select the type of the variable field you want to use If some of the option in the list is not access ible the functionality is not available Variable name Type in the name of the variable that will be linked to the barcode object and will provide the value for it The next page of the wizard depends on your selection here Text Wizard Keyboard Input Use this variable type when you want the operator to enter a value of the variable from the key board before printing the specified numbers of labels 59 Text Wizard Keyboard Input Define the properties of the prompt keyboard input Prompt text for this varable field are a e n Lammber o o Format O All characters Numeric Alphanumeric Currency Set maximum number of characters Dialog box for Text Wizard when Keyboard input option is chosen Prompt text for this variable field Fill in the message that will be shown to the user when he will enter the values for the variable field Format Select the format of data you allow to be entered for the variable field Set maximum number of characters Define the maximum length of characters that can be entered for the vari
16. NiceMemMaster program to download these graphics to printer s internal memory only if your printer supports this When using barcodes make sure that you don t print barcodes as graphics if your printer supports printing barcodes When using counters the printer will internally increment the numbers if the mternal fonts are used if supported by the printer This means that the printer will only receive the first number of object and will later increment this number to print other labels Using this option also reduces the amount of data transferred between computer and printer but the difference is noticeable only with high quantity of labels 164 e Set the printing speed to a higher value if your printer supports it Note that setting the printing speed usually affects the quality of printing The higher the speed the lower the quality You will have to find an acceptable compromise for this e Don t print too much data on labels If the speed of printing is an important factor you should consider using preprinted labels and only print the data that is different on each label Reprint Labels The ability to reprint labels is one of a stronger key values of the labeling software When you have the print logging enabled the software will keep track of all printed labels The Microsoft Access database stores all information about the printed labels Not just basic information like the user name the label name label quantit
17. Step Change value every am labels Creating new variable for the application identifier If you have selected new variable value in previous dialog box a new variable field will be cre ated You will have to provide some information about variable being used Calculating Check Digit Select how the check digit will be calculated 1 You can enter the check digit with the data and the software will validate it 2 The software can calculate the check digit Defining New Variable Define the properties of the variable that will provide value for the application identifier Prompt Enter the text that will be displayed to the user at print time Format Define the format of the variable Counter If the variable will be a counter define its properties 79 Step 4 List of selected application identifiers A UCC EAN128 Wizard Application Identifiers Construct the list of Application Identifiers that will be encoded in the bar code Application Identifiers selected Global Trade Item Number GTIN Batch or Lot number Due Date fy MMDD Input Application identifier delimiter Lett I Right a ses ees Ss Se es ee e es Previews 01 5999993955999911 012345121050301 Help Cancel Back Nest Finish Listing the selected application identifiers This is the last step of the GS1 128 Wizard Here you can add edit or delete Application Iden tifiers and define separator among the
18. Use it whenever you do not want to use data from the table that is configured on the label but some other table You can use this element several times within the command file e name The attribute contains the table name Required Variable The element that sets the value of variables on the label You can use this element several times within the command file e name The attribute contains the variable name Required Sample XML Command File The sample presents the structural view on the elements and their attributes as you can use them in the XML command file lt nice_commands login username quit true gt lt label name label name 1 close false gt lt session print job printer printer name 1 skip 0 Job _name job name 1 print to file filename 1 gt lt database name db1 gt database name 1 lt database gt lt table name tablel gt table name 1 lt table gt lt session quantity 10 gt lt variable name variable name 1 gt variable value 1 lt variable gt lt session gt lt session print job gt lt print Job printer printer name 2 quantity 10 skip 0 identical Coples l mmber Of sets L J00 name jJob name 2 print TO file filename 1 gt lt database name db1 gt database name 1 lt database gt lt table name tablel gt table name 1 lt table gt lt variable name variable name 1 gt variable value 5 lt variable gt lt print job gt 173 lt label gt
19. last label production is required e g serial number The last value of the counter that was used on the label is stored and the numbering is continued from this point at next use 1 Create a new variable Instructions for this step can be found in how to topic Create a serial number counter 108 2 Name the variable e g Counter Set the length of the variable and Format to Numeric Go to the Increment page of the dialog and set the parameters e Incremental decremental counter e Step value of the variable will be increased in steps e Change value after the number of labels 3 Go to Prompting tab select the option Prompt and enter the Default value you want to use as the starting value for the counter 4 Then tick the option Remember last used value dynamic value This will enable the counter to remember the last used value Note The counter which preserves last used value cannot be made with Variable wizard but only using dialog for adding new variables The last used value is stored in the same folder where the label is The file extension with last used value is DVV the filename is the same as the label Last used values are stored in the external text files in the same folder where the label resides The external files have the same filename as the label file but the extension DVV The label file does not have to be saved to store the dynamic values If you use labels with dynamic values and exchange t
20. lt SHIFT gt while clicking them Use the element shortcuts in toolbars whenever possible Each label element that can be connected to some Contents Provider has a shortcut enabled to quickly access existing variables or define new ones Click the element s shortcut handle for this shortcut It is shown as a small arrow by the side of toolbar button Inthe Toolbox LA Tet r text ox v Rich Text Box F Bar Code and E Picture e In the Variable toolbar EM ST Label Security Tracking Label Design and Printing Enable Revision History Comment To enable the revision history functionality do the following 1 Select Options from Tools menu 2 Go to Settings tab 3 Tick the option Enable revision history logging 4 Click on the OK button Each time the label is saved a revision note is saved with the label To review the revision history data do the following 1 Open your label file 2 Select Properties from File menu 3 Click on the Advanced button in the bottom of the dialog box to show the Revision His tory tab 4 Go to the Revision History tab 5 Review revision history data 6 Click on the OK button to close the dialog box Use History Log to Track Label Printing The labeling software has the ability to log all information about printing action in the database for later review and reports By default the logging is disabled To be able to track label printing do the follo
21. then click on the desired fields Each selected field from the table will be represented as a variable on the label Using all fields in the text database 2 Specify what records and how many you want to print Select the options I want to select which record to print and I will enter label quant ity for each selected record Before printing labels the table with the records will open and you will be able to select the records you want to print and the quantity of labels for each record 126 Select which recorde do you want to print O I want to print all records from the table 2 want to select which record to print Specify how the label quantity information le defined Print one label for each record in the database One field in the table contains the label quantity information Specifying which records from the database will be printed and in what quantity 3 Click on the Next button 4 Select if the Database Wizard should link all selected fields from the database to the text objects on the label or if you want to link the fields manually to the label 5 Click on the Next button 6 Select I want a text object for each selected field and click on the Finish button Define how you want the selected database fields to be used on the label will link the database fields to the objects myself later Each field from the database will be linked to a text object The label will show several te
22. 8021228310049 PAPPARDELLE 2506 6 PAS5O6GI 8021228310056 SFOG LASAGNE 250G 6 Name the data in each column Enter the name of the column in the first row The column names will be imported into the label as variable names Having field names will make label design easier You don t have to name the columns but in that case the variables in the label will have unfriendly names such as Fl F2 F2 Acquiring the Data from Excel To connect to the Excel spreadsheet and acquire data do the following GN 1 Open your label 2 Select Data gt Database Access gt Wizard 3 4 Select the Table containing the label data Table drop down box will display all spread In the Database and Table dialog box browse for your Excel file sheets in your Excel file Click Next 6 In the Fields Selection dialog box select the fields you want to use on the label The fields are columns from the spreadsheet You can use standard Windows shortcuts with Ctrl click to select individual fields or Shift click to select range of fields Click Next 8 In the Records Printing dialog box select the printing mode 10 11 12 13 Click Next In the Field Usage dialog box choose if you want the designer to create a Text object for each selected field Click Finish To close the Database Access Functions dialog box click Close Select File gt Print Preview to preview the labels on screen Each line of data from Excel will be used on a
23. AI 01 Check Digit Select how you want the check digit to be applied This Application Identifier includes a check digit select check digit input Check digit to be entered with data GS1 128 Wizard How check digit should be applied If you have selected the Application Identifier which data includes a check digit for example AI 01 GTIN Global Trade Item Number then first you will have to select how the check digit will be applied The possible options are Automatic calculation Check digit will be calculated by the application Check digit to be entered with data Manually enter the data and check digit The application will verify if the entered check digit is valid 76 Step 2 Application Identifier Input Type UCCIEAN128 Wizard A104 Application Identifier Input Type Define the data source for Application Identifier Define the input type for the Application Identifier O Fixed New variable Use existing variable GS1 128 Wizard Where the data for AI is obtained from When the Application Identifier is selected you will have to define where is the data for its value obtained from There are three possible options e Fixed The application identifier will have the fixed value on every label e New variable The application identifier will be linked to the variable and have variable value on each label You will define a new variable e Use existing variab
24. Edit to change function s properties Expression is an simplified version of Visual Basic Script Expres sion can be used in situations when you want to manipulate exist ing variables extract some sub string or perform a quick calculation and you do not want to write a dedicated Visual Basic script For this purpose Expression will do just fine You can enter one line expression in the edit field that will be validated at print time Of course all Visual Basic scripting commands can be used in here An entire Microsoft Visual Basic Script functionality can be included on the object Each object can have assigned its own pro gramming script for advanced functionality Visual Basic Script option will allow you to use a complete imple mentation of Visual Basic programming scripting provided my Microsoft Corporation This makes is possible to perform advanced data manipulations comparisons and calculations dir ectly on the label If you are not familiar with Visual Basic script ing a comprehensive help system is accompanying the labeling application To access is click the VB Script Help file Once your script is written it will be check for the consistency and syntax errors and you will be notified of the exact positions of any pos sible error for easier problem solving There is one thing you have to pay special attention to your script has to define an output vari able Result The value of variable Result is output of the function
25. Edition Function VBScript function allows you to perform the most demanding and difficult data manipulation on the label Available are all the functions procedures and operands from Microsoft Visual Basic script Your script can take values from all label variables work with the values and save the result in a function generated variable Creating a VBScript function To create a visual basic function do the following l Click on the button in the Standard toolbar or select Open in the File menu Select the label file ID CARD LBL from the sample The label has a link to the database so you see how the concatenate function operates on a set of records 2 Select the command Functions in the Data menu 3 There is already one function defined in the label Ignore it and click on the New but ton The dialog box with the properties of the new function will open 116 4 Type in the name for the function for example My Visual Basic function 5 Select the Visual Basic Script function from the list of functions Function General Detailed General Properties Mame My Visual Basic Function Description L Type of the functor Concatenate Subset Linear function User defined check digit algorithms Date addition Currency exchange Visual Basic Script ASC FACT Transfer Data Syntax for High Capacity ADC Media HIBE Lookup table Link To File Review result before print
26. If all images are of the same file format and you store all images in the same folder you can define a prefix and suffix to the variable When the variable will obtain the image name as its value prefix will provide the path to the image and suffix will provide the file extensions This way the whole path and extension of the graphics file will be added automatically you just have to provide the image name For example If you set the variable prefix to C GRAPHICS and suffix to JPG while the variable has the value ROSE the result will be C GRAPHICS ROSE JPG The labeling soft ware will try to locate this image and use it on the label When you define graphics as an variable object Some variable defines the path an file name of the picture the labeling software does not know the size of the picture in advance because this information is provided only at print or preview time Until the picture name is known the picture is previewed as a question mark Usually you will print the images from files that originate in some file system However you can also use the images that are stored in the database BLOB fields In this case there is no file name on the disk the whole image is in fact stored in the database Using Transparent Images NiceLabel supports the image transparency opacity Transparent images are without any back ground but use a see through background You can stack the transparent images on top of each other
27. If you don t select this option the definition of tag content is saved but not sent to the printer 4 Select the appropriate entry from Data Fields section For RFID Gen2 tags you are able to select from different data fields For other RFID tags usually only one data field 1s possible RFID Tag Memory 5 Go to the first available block in the section Data Blocks and click on the Data cell in the table Note You might not see the table like structure Instead you can see edit fields to enter the RFID data The typo of data entering depends on the type of selected RFID tag 4 Type in the value you want to encode into this block Repeat the process for other blocks 5 Click on the OK button A schematic view of the RFID Tag antenna will open in the label background identifying the definition of the RFID data on the label _ 46 RFID test label RFID Tag antenna in the background 7 You can continue designing the smart label with non RFID data as described in the pre vious sections Whenever you print the label the RFID data will be sent to the printer The printer prints the RFID smart label and programs the RFID tag embedded into the label at the same Note The labeling software can work with Unique RF Tag numbers Each RFID tag has embed ded a unique serial number Some printers can read the Unique RF Tag number and it can be used on the label linked with some label objects RFID Tag Settings T
28. To place the line object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Line object in the Toolbox 2 Define the line starting point by clicking the mouse at the start position 3 Move the cursor to the end point while holding down the mouse button A line will be drawn from the left to right side of the label Note If you need to draw a vertical line just click for starting point then drag the cursor in the up down direction Defining Ellipse Object To place the ellipse object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Ellipse icon in the Toolbox 2 Click the position on the label where you want the upper left position of the object to be set 3 Drag to bottom right direction until the object size is as requested 4 The other method of positioning the object on the label is simply selecting the Ellipse tool and then clicking the label A default sized ellipse will appear and you can re size it using handles around the object F lt Note If you want to draw a circle grab a handle a on one of the ellipse corners simultaneously press and hold Shift key then re size the ellipse A circle will be drawn For more useful short cuts available in the software refer to the chapter Shortcuts 4 To move a ellipse to a different position simply select it and drag it elsewhere on the label Defining Inverse Object To place the inverse object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Inverse icon in t
29. Transmission Block 25 EM End of Medium 5 ENQ Enquiry 6 ACK Acknowledgement 7 BEL Bell 8 BS Back Space 9 HT Horizontal Tab 11 VT Vertical Tab 13 CR Carriage Return 10 LF Line Feed 12 FF Form Feed 14 SO Shift Out 15 SI Shift In 16 DLE Data Link Escape 17 DCI XON Device Control 1 18 DC2 Device Control 2 19 DC3 XOFF Device Control 3 20 DC4 Device Control 4 28 FS File Separator 29 GS Group Separator 145 30 31 21 22 24 26 27 188 189 190 191 RS Record Separator US Unit Separator NAK Negative Acknow ledgement SYN Synchronous Idle CAN Cancel SUB Substitute ESC Escape FNC Function Code 1 FNC Function Code 2 FNC Function Code 3 FNC Function Code 4 Working with Memory Cards Using the Printer Memory Card Usage of printer memory card is recommended whenever faster label printing is required A memory card boosts performance because there is no need to transfer large bitmap images or cus tom font files to printer over and over again Every element that is needed on the label is already stored on the memory card Preparing Data for Memory Card Follow these steps to prepare and use your memory card l First of all go through the user manual of your memory card Memory cards are sens itive devices and misuse could damage the card as well as your printer Insert memory card into Slot 1 The slots are usually located at the back of the printer Switch on the printer
30. Varables Available variables Selected variables User Information1D W User Information ID User Information M ame Fe User Information Name User Information Picture User Information Positia User Information A oom Output variable Concatenate Delimiter None E3 CRLF Preview ABCDEFGH ELMMNOPORSTU VW ZA ABCOEFGHIJ 115 Definition of the Concatenate function 9 Click on the Close button to close the Functions dialog box 10 The function generated variable is defined on the label You should link it to text object on the label 11 Click on the small arrow next to Text Object in the Toolbox 12 Click on the option Use existing variable and select the variable Concatenate TEXT Text Box Fixed Text Box ta Mew Keyboard Input 33 Mew Counter EL New Date Field G New Time Field Use Existing Variable m Concatenate h User Information Picture User Information Room User Information Position User Information Mame EEI EEI EE EELEE User Information ID Selecting the function generated variable Concatenate 13 Click on the label where you want to place the text object The text object is linked to the new variable Concatenate The values of variables ID and NAME are merged and saved to the function generated variable Concatenate every time the label is processed for preview or print Using VBScript Visual Basic Scripting
31. Windows operating system Note Be careful when setting values to variables that provide data for pictures on the label as backslash characters might be replaced with some other characters For example if you assign a value c My Pictures raw jpg to the variable the r will be replaced with CR character and the final result is this c My Pictures aw jJpg Note You cannot use the command SET to set the value to the variable of the type Global Val ues of global variables cannot be set from outside of the label designer SETDATABASE SETDATABASE lt database_name gt lt value gt database _ The name of the currently used database as defined in the pro name gram value The name of the new table that should be used as data source This command allows you to use some other database with the label file and not the one that was connected to the label file at design time This other database will only be used when printing labels the label file will remain intact with connection to the original database SETPRINTPARAM SETPRINTPARAM paramname value This command allows you to set advanced print parameters before printing Currently supported PARAMNAMES are PAPERBIN Use it to specify from which tray the paper should be used If the printer is equipped with more than just one paper label tray you can control which is used for printing The name of the tray should be acquired from the printer driver
32. You will be able to review from where the variable gets its data database function and to which element s it is connected to At the top of the upper section you can define a new variable You can right click any variable name and quickly access fre quently used commands from the drop down menu e View by Functions All functions used on the label are listed here If you click the plus sign in front of func tion s name the view will be expanded You will be able to review which are input and output variables for the function At the top of the upper section you can define a new function You can right click any function and variable name to quickly access fre quently used commands from the drop down menu e View by Databases All databases used on the label are listed here If you click the plus sign in front of data base s name the view will be expanded You will be able to review which are output variables from the database At the top of the upper section you can define a new data base You can right click any function and variable name to quickly access frequently used commands from the drop down menu e View as List This view is similar to View by objects with one difference Not only objects are listed here but also all variables functions and databases You can right click any name to quickly access frequently used commands from the drop down menu The rightmost button Inspector properties is used to define the default be
33. according to standards and normally you would not have to change anything about it However sometimes it is necessary to manually add such character to label data To include Function Codes just type in the appropriate character for Function Code ASCII codes of Function Codes are as follows FNC1 0188 FNC2 0189 FNC3 0190 FNC4 0191 144 To type in character for FNC1 press and hold down left Alt key then type in digits 0188 on the numeric keyboard Note the leading zero it is mandatory Release the Alt key and FNC1 character should appear These characters can be typed in directly using the keyboard Predefined Character Shortcuts The labeling application has several control characters predefined and they can be selected from a drop down menu in any dialog box where a text input is enabled Just look at the right side of the edit field and find a button with arrow Click it for a list of all available shortcuts to predefined characters The same list can be accessed with right click on the edit field where you select Insert special character For example FNC1 character can simply be encoded as lt FNC1 gt If special characters you want to use on the label is not available in this list of shortcuts consult additional input methods ASCII Abbreviation Description of the char code used in the acter application 1 SOH Start of Heading 2 STX Start of Text 3 ETX End of Text 4 EOT End of Transmission 23 ETB End
34. and filename to the Microsoft Access file containing the allergens 159 The name of the table containing the list of allergens The name of the field containing the allergens The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used The name of the table containing the list of word amp sentences to be excluded from allergen formatting The name of the field containing words and sentences that will not be high lighted even if they contain allergen words For example Milk is an allergen so the word milk must be highlighted but not when used in context coconut milk In this case coconut milk must be defined as exception Example FormatAllergensFromAccessWithExceptions wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nut s ce data db mdb tblAllergens Allergens bold italic tblAllergensEx Es FormatAllergensFromAccessWithExceptions Ingredi ents c data d b mdb tblAllergens Allergens bold italic tblAllergensEx Exclusions Allergens from Microsoft SQL database This function will accept the list of ingredients and location of the Microsoft SQL database The function reads all records from the selected field in the specified table and creates the RTF code with highlighted allergens All words from the spreadsheet that are matched in the Ingred
35. and is used for setting of Visual Basic Script variable For more complex scripts click the Build script button to edit your code in Expression Builder The value for the label object is acquired from the specified text file in this case The contents of the file is used for the object You can link the object to some fixed file name on the disk Or you can use variable file names To achieve that connect the object to the variable containing the path and file name of the file Lookup Table is a facility for the user to simplify working with data tables Although the software can interact to any database sometimes there is a need only for one quick simple table that stores your data Lookup Table provides a shortcut to database usage Lookup Table is used when you want to use a data from a simple database on your label You can use some external databases as data source for all variable fields But Lookup Table greatly sim plifies this task It is in fact a table stored within the label file Built in database editor can be used to manage the data records Every Lookup table can have a Key Primary and Secondary Key that are used for actual data query Using these keys you can make a query into the table and extract only fields that comply to the condition Both keys can be either fixed or get a value from some variable When the record from the table is found based on 99 ASC FACT HIBC Rich Text Editor Structured RSS
36. are accessible only when you have enabled Data view on the label and when record selection in the prop erties of database link is disabled Using Design Toolbar The design toolbar is used for e Changing color of the objects e Aligning objects e Rotating objects e Arranging objects Using Printing Toolba G A eee A ee Form PEI Le es E E E E i rT A aa aeg Print Direction PE Norra gt Preview labels on screen Print the current label Test print the current label Print the label using the form generated in the application NiceForm If you want to print a label from the form you must have a label already defined The form file must also be prepared and linked to the label 54 Note To link a form to the label use the command Tools gt Design Form os Open the dialog box with printer properties You can change the set tings in the printer driver Print Direction Quickly change the print direction of the label Using Text Toolbar You can use text toolbar to quickly format the text objects on the label y AaB SS FP Arial Fr al Here is how 1 First select it the text object by clicking it 2 Click the appropriate shortcut button in the text toolbar 3 To change the font select the appropriate font from the list in the list box Note You can limit the display of fonts in the list You can list all fonts on the system o
37. barcode RFID Tag Contents information from one or both Keys the value of the database field selected in Output fields is returned as the object contents The object on the label now has its value from the database The but ton Configure tables will let you manage your Lookup Tables ASC FACT is used when you want to encode the data using this standard for Data Identifiers DI It is much like GS1 128 stand ard and its Application Identifiers AI There is the ability to encode data in the object using HIBC stand ard This contents provider is available only for RTF object It provides you with the RTF editor where you can define the fixed or variable contents for the object This contents provider is available only when using RSS type of barcode It provides you with the functionality to provide linear and composite if applicable data to the barcode This contents provider is available for text and barcode objects It is available when you have RFID aware printer driver connected to the label and the printer can extract part of the RFID encoded data and print it on the label Two types of data are usually available 1 The Unique Tag ID It is the number that is programmed in the RFID tag dur ing the manufacturing process The number is unique and usually cannot be changed 2 RFID Tag Data Any part of the tag data can be extracted The printer will read the data from the tag remember the value and use it with the tex
38. be entered for the variable field Set maximum number of characters Define the maximum length of characters that can be entered for the variable field Variable Wizard Counter On this page of the variable wizard you define the counter variable 102 Variable Wizard Counter Counter Properties Define properties of the counter Starting value _ Prompt for value before print SSS Set masimum number of digits E E Increment 1 2 3 etc Decrement 10 9 6 etc Preview f j 8 9 10 Dialog box for Variable Wizard when Counter option is chosen Starting Value Set the starting value for the counter The counter will increment or decrement from the starting value Note You can enter only digits for the starting value Prompt for value before print Tick this option to enable entering the starting value of the counter when you start printing labels Enter the text that will be shown to the user before printing The message will be shown on the screen each time when the label is to be printed Set maximum number of digits Define the maximum length of digits the counter can occupy Increment or decrement You can define that the variable value will increase or decreasefrom label to label Preview The field shows the preview of the counter based on your selection Variable Wizard Counter Continuation Step Define the step for your counter The counter will increase by this number on every
39. cass N cule Cassa Santee SE 118 Usine Database Wizard on o o ir este ah 118 Sel ctino Database File ccs ccc eterno detras 119 selecting Desired Fields cata atea ie susie ehh eh ass hehe ie ai lh be a 120 Selecting Which Records will be Printed _ 2 2 2 2 2 0 022222 222222222 121 Selecting Variable Quantity from the Database Field 2 02 2 2 2 122 Adding the Fields to the Label oia A A AA 122 Finishing the Process with Database Wizard _ 0 0 022222 2 2 2 2 e eee eee 122 Linking Label to Text Databases _ _ 0 2 2222020 123 OPV CEVICW ed a Site 123 Connect toa Database src cece ied dates esses eaten ene oa chee hee eae 123 Format the Data with the Text File Wizard 0 2 0 0 0 20222 e eee eee ee ee eee 124 Place Database Fields on a Label 0 2 0 0222 126 Use Print Preview to Select Data and View a Label 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 127 Fonta Lapel aise tth ates a totems tit tata cl a Seer Aas a 129 Usmo Text Pile Wizard 233265 sos a e a Soh be ae ele bide Sa 130 OX CRG Wizard csr ccs oh cast a os cat 130 Choose Data ly Denuncias nad tn i dado ee debo td eee Bote 130 Settino the Ficlds 3 0 252 acl deter ess ele trials dela o ads 131 Formatting the Fields casio aid i 133 Linking a Label to Advanced Databases 0 00000002 ccc ee ee ee ee 133 VCE VOW IC rn A cose beetles 133 Link to a Database Using Dat
40. control for RFID programming _A47 Antenna offset To achieve better programming accuracy of the tags here is the option to define the offset for the antenna in the printer This 1s the distance from the antenna to the to the embedded tag on the label This option will help you program the tags more accurately Power attenuation Specifies the radio output power Use it do adjust the RF emission from the antenna Maximum tags to stop When the programming of the RFID tag fails usually the word VOID is printed on the label With this option you can specify how many tags can be pro grammed wrongly before the printing of labels stops The option can be used as a precaution measure to prevent endless consumption of labels Number of retries The number of times the printer will try to program the tag if first attempt fails The parameter is sent to the printer with the rest of the data Check for a valid tag Before the tag programming begins the printer will verify if there is a proper RFID tag available in the smart label The printer will also verify if the tag can be pro grammed at all If the printer cannot check the currently selected RFID tag the option will not be accessible Verify data write Once the data has been encoded into the RFID tag the printer will check if the written data is equal to the original value EAS Settings This section provides settings for Electronic Article Surveillance EAS is n
41. defined on the label Print the label to some other printer The other printer must be accessible from this computer Use the printer name for value of this attribute Not required Use this field to specify the number of labels to print Possible values numeric value VARIABLE or UNLIMITED Is required Use this field to specify how many labels to skip at the begin ning This feature is useful if you print sheet of labels to laser printer but the sheet is partial already printed Not required Use this field to specify how many label copies should print for each unique label This feature is useful when printing labels with data from database or when you use counters and you need label copies Not required Use this field to specify how many times the printing process should repeat Each label set defines the occurrence of the printing process For example setting this value to 5 will cause the printing process to repeat five times Not required Use this field to specify the port name for the printer You can override the default port as specified in the printer driver Not required All other fields define the name of the variables from the label The fields provide values for variables The order or appearance of the columns in the CSV file is no important But it is important that all rows in the same CSV file have the same structure Session print is used automatically Session printing is disabled when you change the printer
42. external application has to assign values to the variable fields Usually the external application does the following e Takes the generated print file e Searches for the locations of the variable fields e Inserts the correct values for these fields When you use variable fields on the label you have to pay special attention to their format All variable elements must follow some designing rules All variables User must be able to set their values before printing on the label Date Time variables have to acquire the data from the have to be printer clock not from PC system clock prompted Support for As PC labeling software is not available at print time the functions is functions cannot be processed so you cannot use them on limited Con the label catenate Sub There are some exceptions for example Export to set etc Pocket PC where some functions can be used because the application that will eventually print these files knows how to process them All counters As PC labeling software is not available at print time the have to be printer must be capable of using internal counters Make incremented sure you defined the counter variable on the label as the by printer printer internal hardware counter not software counter Variable Because PC labeling software is not available at print graphics are time it cannot handle the variable graphics Any image not supported on the label has to be static Label Export is one me
43. from allergen formatting The name of the field column name containing the words amp sentences to be excluded from the formatting SpreadsheetEx You can also provide the column index number containing the list of allergens Column A must be provided as 1 column B as 2 etc For example Milk is an allergen so the word milk must be highlighted but not when used in context coconut milk In this case coconut milk must be defined as exception Allergens y coconut milk Example FormatAllergensFromExcelWithExceptions wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nuts er tfilesidata xlsx Sheetl 1 bold italic Sheet2 2 FormatAllergensFromExcelWithExceptions Ingredi ents c itilesitdata xlsx Sheet1 1 bold italic Sheet2 2 Allergens from Microsoft Access database This function will accept the list of ingredients and location of the Microsoft Access database The function reads the allergens from the specified table and creates the RTF code with high lighted allergens All words from the spreadsheet that are matched in the Ingredients will be formatted by the Highlight specification The last parameter provides the CSV list of sentences that must not be highlighted even 1f they contain the allergen words Syntax FormatAllergensFromAccessWithExceptions Ingredi ents AccessDb Table Field Highlight TableEx FieldEx Ingredients The CSV list of ingredients AccessDb The full path
44. iin k Using format options in the text toolbox 6 To change the position and size of the text object select the text object and drag object with your mouse to the position where you want to have it The screen should show the following SAMPLE The text object is placed on the label Insert Barcode Now you will add a non changeable Code128 barcode on the label To insert the barcode click on the E Bar code y button in the Toolbox Move the cursor to the desired position on the label and click on the mouse button The dialog box with object properties will open Enter the value 1234567890 for the barcode contents Click on the Define button Edit Barcode dialog box opens 6 Make sure you select barcode Code128 and click on the OK button Aa eS a Edit Bar Code General Check Digit Human Readable Detaile Available bar codes EAN UIPC A E Linear Symbol height Royal Mail Bar Codabar _ X Expansion factor 4 M Codel 28 L FBA Ratio Code128 B Codel28 C Code 32 Base object width mils 13 Code 39 1 mils 14700 inch Code 39 full AS Code 39 Tri O ode 39 Tri Or 123456 Enable preview Selecting barcode type 7 Click on the Finish button to return to the label 8 Change the position of the barcode by selecting the barcode and dragging it to the desired position 9 Change the object size by dragging the object handles The ha
45. on the disk It makes the label more portable If you copy the label to some computer the picture goes with the label There are the following types of image embedding e To embed the selected image in current the label open the picture properties and select the option Embed into label e To embed all images into the current label use the command Transformations gt Embed all Pictures into Label e To enable automatic embedding of all images that you will place on the label from now on enable the option Embed graphics into label in Tools gt Options Use Variable Images When you use variable pictures on the label usually you will provide the path and file name of the picture stored in some file system The labeling software will locate the image file and use the pic ture on the label The picture name can be acquired from different sources contents providers keyboard prompt field in a database result of some function etc To create a variable picture object do the following 1 Make sure you already have an appropriate variable designed that will store the path and name of the picture on the disk 2 Click on the small arrow button next to the Picture object E Picture in the tool box 3 From the drop down menu select the option Use Existing Variable 4 Select the appropriate variable from the list of available variables 5 Click on the label where you want to create the variable image object 89 Hint
46. on the label and the top image will not cut rectangular shape out of the images lower in the stack Transparency is honored when you use NiceLabel printer drivers and also when printing to non NiceLabel Postscript and full color printers You must use the valid image file formats that supports transparency The popular format are PNG PSD and WMF Using Variable Pictures from Blob Fields You can use the pictures stored in the database BLOB fields These database fields do not contain the reference to the image location in some file system path and file name but contain the image itself The labeling software will read the data from the BLOB field If the data from blob field is identified as the image it will display as the image on the label when you link such database variable with the picture object You can connect such field to any label object not only picture object But the field value will be as follows IMAGE ext XXX ID where XXX stands for the image extension that defines the image type ID stands for the internal number that identifies each image from the database uniquely When you use the BLOB fields with MS SQL database server you can embed different image types into the fields BMP JPEG GIF PCX TIFF PNG TGA PXM ICO JP2 J2K However when you use some other database type not all types might be accessible Bitmap BMP format is always supported _ 90 Handle Missing Images The labeling sof
47. or label within the same CSV file All columns in the CSV file are used when setting the values to the label variables If the vari able with the name from CSV does not exist on the label no error message is displayed Sample CSV Command File The sample presents the structural view on the fields that you can use in the CSV command file La bel Print er Quantity Skip IdenticalCopies NumberOfSets Port Varl Var2 Label name printer name Quantity Skip IC NS port name variable value variable value Label name printer name Quantity Skip IC NS port name variable value variable value 171 Command File XML File The commands available in the XML command files are a subset from NiceCommands You can use the following commands Login Quit Label LabelClose Set Port Printer SessionEnd Ses sionStart SessionPrint SetDatabase and SetTable Of course the syntax of the commands differs a little bit when used in XML file The root element is Nice Commands that must be present in the XML command file The next element that must follow is Label that specifies which label to use Next you have two options for label printing 1 Print labels normally using the element Print_Job 2 Print labels in session using the element Session Print Job Y ou can also change the printer to which the labels will print you can set the variable value and you can change the database that 1s currently used
48. page 182 See SETDATABASE on page 183 See SETPRINTPARAM on page 183 See SETTABLE on page 184 See TEXTQUALIFIER on page 184 177 COMMENT 7 When developing program code or scripts it is very wise to well document your commands This will help you decode what the script really performs when you will look at the code after some time Use semicolon on the beginning of the line Everything following it will be treated as script com ment and will not be processed by application CREATEFILE CREATEFILE lt name of the file gt s This command will create a plain ASCII text file The file will contain only one line of text The purpose of creating such file is to signal some external application that the label processing or printing has began or has ended The example of the CREATEFILE usage 1s printing labels with the data from some text file First the external application prepares variable data for the labels and stores the data into the text file Then labeling software is activated and printing starts A CREATEFILE command is used to cre ate a file on the disk The appearance of the file represents a signal to the application that the cur rent printing process is finished DELETEFILE DELETEFILE lt name of the file gt This command deletes the specified file You can use it in combination with CREATEFILE com mand EXPORTLABEL EXPORTLABEL ExportFileName ExportVariant CreatelVXFile The c
49. return to this dialog by selecting Memory card information in Card menu or clicking o On the left side of the NiceMemMaster windows is place for inserting fonts on the right side 1s a place for graphics files To add a font select Add from Font menu or right click Fonts side of the window Select font to be downloaded and its style and size Next dialog allows you to select only the required characters in this font Only selected characters will be downloaded to memory card Use this option if you are run ning low on kilobytes on memory card Let s add the whole font in our sample Next we we ll add some graphics to our list Select Add from Graphics menu or right click Graphics side of the window Select some pictures e g SAMPLE PCX or PRINTER BMP In the lower part of the window you can see information about selected font or graph ics preview used memory width and height Every element can be printed to label just to see if everything is all right Use command Test print Add some more fonts and graphics to get a grip Undesired elements can be removed from the list Use Delete from Font Graphics menu or right click the element and select Delete 7 When layout is complete and every font and graphics is in the list we are ready for download You can download the whole list to the printer at once Right click left or right side of the window and select Download All from the list Or you can download one element at a time by selecting it
50. start 2 Select the printer that supports RFID smart label printing 3 Click on the Finish button You will see that RFID Tag command is enabled in the Toolbox on the left side of the labeling software working window I s Select 1 A Text ea Text Box a fit Rich Text Box Bar Code Picture O Rectangle e Line Ellipse RFID Tag is available for use 4 Click on the RFID Tag option in the Toolbox and define the data you want to encode into the RFID tag Encode RFID Tag The RFID tags embedded into the label are usually of two types ISO tags which encode blocks of data or UHF tags which can encode one string of data 1 Click on the button in the Toolbox to begin encoding the data The RFID Tag dialog box opens _45 RFID Tag Write data to RFID tag Type Hranu Tag Settings Data Blocks Data Fields RFID Tag Memory Block Num DataSource Data Size Data Type Locked 1 Fixed labe IIA ASCII string E a ASCI sting E ASCII string ASCII string 4 LASCI string ASCII string ASCII string ASCII string Encoding contents for RF Tag 2 Select the type of the RFID Tag you want to use from the list box on the top of the dia log box Click on the Tag Settings button to review RFID tag contents and define the encoding advanced properties 3 Enable the option Write data to RFID tag if you want to program the tag at the same time as the label is printed Note
51. that you want to align Note All objects are aligned relatively to the first selected object Then click appropriate buttons in the Design toolbar to align selected objects to each other If Align toolbar is not visible by default it is located on the very right side of the window enable the Design toolbar in Toolbar option in View menu You can align objects to Left Right Horizontal center Top Bottom _ 93 Vertical center You can also distribute object evenly so that spacing between them is equal Horizontally Vertically Note If you hold the lt CTRL gt key while clicking the buttons objects are aligned relative to label and not to the first selected object Resizing Objects To re size the object on the label do the following 1 Select the object The selected object is framed with a rectangle 2 Click on one of the small rectangles in the corners of the rectangle 3 Hold the mouse key pressed 4 Move the position of the cursor on the screen The object will re size with the cursor Rotating Objects To rotate the object do the following 1 Select the object 2 Click on the icon in the design toolbar The object will be rotated for 90 clockwise Note If the design toolbar is not visible select the command Toolbars in the View menu then click on the Design Grouping Objects You can work with individual objects on the label or you can group the objects into groups of
52. the human interpretation _ 86 Edit Bar Code GEO y REAT ce General Check Digit Human Readable Details Style No interpretation Contents Mask Mask characters will be replaced by the actual data All other characters will be used for formatting only Example mask char is asterisk 10 ee TESTI Mask character Enable preview Edit barcode dialog box Human readable tab Details Tab On this tab you can define advanced settings for the barcode Note Not all of these options are available for all barcodes and printers Include quiet zones By checking this field you set that the barcode will have some white space in the front and in the end for increased readability Descender bars Some bars of a barcode will be longer than others This is typically used with EAN and UPC barcodes that have longer bars in the begging in the middle and in the end of the barcode Mirror horizontally mirror vertically The barcode can be mirrored vertically and horizontally barcode will usually have to be printed as graphics for this option to be accessible Intercharacter gap Some barcodes allow you to change the gap between characters in the bar code e g Code 39 Include EAN white space Before and after the barcode a special character is inserted lt or gt It indicates the width of the barcode If you put any other object in the extent of the barcode it will reduce the readability of t
53. values When values are fixed the Wizard dialog box will inform you what is expected to be entered digits the maximum places The defined Al is presented on the list of selected Application Identifiers Click the Add button to add a new AI or on the Delete to delete existing one Should you need to change the AI and the data select the AI and click the Edit button You can sort the listing of AI by using the Up and Down buttons All the settings can be previewed on the Preview field The separator among Application Identifier can be defined by entering the required separator for the left and for the right side of the Application Identifier The default separator is bracket Variable values GS1 128 barcode supports keyboard variables the variable data will be entered from the key board You can define the Prompt the message for the operator who will enter the data The data can be numeric only or the operator is allowed to enter all characters The value can be fixed or incremented decremented on every label or certain number of labels with the desired step The variable data will be written in the Preview field as a series of A character When you are satisfied with the settings click the Finish to put the GS1 128 barcode to the label PDF 417 2D Code General tab Y expansion factor This option defines the height of the barcode symbol Security tab _ 8 Accordingly to the standard you c
54. values of other variables not just RFID data into the database fields Error Logging If you do not see the RFID data stored into the selected database you can enable error logging to catch the error messages The RFID data storage takes place outside of the labeling application by _50 another software component The RFID data is returned by the printer driver when the printer actu ally prints the label and reads the RFID data It might not be immediately after you issue the print command the job might be delayed in the spooler out of several reasons When you enable the error logging select the text file into which you would like to store error mes sage The error messages will help you resolve the error situation Usually the conditions you have defined in the Storage Fields tab are not met Note RFID data is always stored in the XML data structure Changing Printer Settings Changing Common Printer Settings When you start designing a label you tell the labeling software to what printer the label should be connected Each label file remembers the printer settings for the selected printer driver on the label As an example you will change the printing speed and darkness To change the printer settings do the following 1 Go to File Printer Settings The window with the printer settings will open 2 Open the Options tab 3 Change the Speed and Darkness options 4 Click on the OK button 5 Save the
55. will open Select the option Mixed Windows and Application authentication Click on the OK button If you do not have or do not want to use domain users define new user by doing the following l Za 57 Make sure you are still in the Configure Users dialog box Click on the button Add user in the main toolbar For the username enter the name you want to use for your user like User then define a password for the user Click on the OK button Set up the profile and define user permissions by doing the following _15 Make sure you are still in the Configure Users dialog box Click on the Add Profile button in the main toolbar Open the General tab and define the name of the profile for example My profile i aS Go to Permissions tab Here you will define the access permissions to all applications that will be contained in this profile 5 Expand the NiceLabel selection then tick the options Label design Label print and Label view The members of this profile will be able to use the label design application in full mode They will be able to open the label view it design it and also print tt Add Profile METETE General Permissions Members Permission O Administration E Label Designer L ah e Label A Label view E Print Application Database Manager EJ Form Designer e E Font and Graphic Downloader e E Middleware Integration Module _ Select al_ Unselect an nn Defi
56. you to type the variable value just before printing the label but this has expanded a lot You can now automatically get correct value from a database or perform a calculation on existing variables and take the result as a vari able value A variable also has several properties its name type text numeric date maximal length of value in characters and many more One other important but fixed property is the input for spe cific variable keyboard database function system clock Functions Functions are very powerful tool which offers almost unlimited possibilities to the user when processing data for the label The function takes some variables as input make some processing on the data and return the result in one or more variables that contain new values Complexity of function varies from simple concatenating of two variables to very complex manipulation of external data For example you can use functions to concatenate two strings of data to one if they are separate in database like FIRST NAME LAST NAME You can also do numeric calculations on vari ables That way you can for example have the weight on a label displayed in pounds although the weight in database is in kilograms Using the built in Visual Basic scripting you can add any functionality to the labeling software you can possibly need Database Access 97 If you have existing database on your computer or network you can use that database to print la
57. 0 Handle Missing Images soc bei d Set oce ess ie So ches aadetnde dice d Sebce eee ce ele iale 91 Designing Objects with Relative Positions 00 20222 c cece eee eee ee 91 Rotating Label css eg Orde mse ere St pes ee ee eee eesti een koe See Sade tele 92 Selecting Objects 2 0 irradia 92 Editing Objects occ 93 Movino ODIO CES occa pj enn ie conato perdonar cias ideados del Marte a de once dada 93 Al o ino ODICCUS onananassticc datos coda ecards 93 RESIZING Objects 0 ii E e a as 94 Rotating ODOC ES untar io dde e e tU heat een E bas 94 Grouping Objects cc 94 Clipart Galleries occ ccc ccc cece cece cece cece e cece ee eeeeeeeeeeeeeees 95 Font Files ns 95 Supported Graphics Formats ccoo ccoo conocio 96 Working with Text Objects icc ga sude es ries id ias 97 Working with Variable Data 2 00 000222 97 Dynamic Data Overview cseccdccacacscessacoasanscadeasan 2 scadancsiaenenceseeesanencauanacosdasaes 97 Contents Providers ci iS cn 98 Contents Providers dies 98 Working with Variables _ 00 00 0022 cece ccc eee c cece cece conc ccoo 100 Usine Variable Wizard atada a ds Peels ao lid e dado e odo 100 Variable Wizard oo casita is E a a a id 100 Variable Wizard Keyboard input 0 0 0002 2 e eee ee 101 Variable Wizard Counter 265025000 523 e atrasa 102 Variable Wizard Counter Continuation _ 0 0 0 0 020202 e eee eee eee eee ee 103 Variable Wizard Date Field 2000 A is 104 Va
58. 2 User Information Browse for the table containing label data Wizard will help you make a connection to table fields and transter their values to the objects on the label Database wizard Selecting database file Enter the full path name of the database file in edit box or use Browse button to find the file on your computer Note that you can only select databases that are stored in files If you use databases via ODBC or OLE DB drivers you will have to set that manually in Database dialog box 119 Selecting Desired Fields Database Wizard Fields Selection Select the fields from the database you want to use on the label Select the fields you want to use on the label For multiple field selection press and hold Ctrl key then click desired fields Name Position Room Picture Database wizard Selecting fields On this page you can select the fields you want to use on the label All fields in a table are selec ted by default but you will probably want to unselect some of them especially if you have large table Variable will be created for each selected field and can later be attached to objects 120 Selecting Which Records will be Printed Database Wizard Records Printing Specify how the records from the database will be printed Select which records do you want to print 0 want to print all records from the table 2 want to select which record to print Spe
59. 3 Prompt order dialog box pops up This is where you can change the order in which you are entering values to variables Select the variable from the list on the left and roll it to appropriate position using buttons Up and Down Repeat the procedure for every vari able that needs its position changed Creating a Prompted Variable l Create a new variable Instructions for this step can be found in how to topic Create a serial number counter Name the variable Prompted Set the length of the variable 3 Go to the Prompting tab Type in the Display this text to the print operator field the content Please enter a value 5 Ifyou want to be prompted for every label that is printed change setting to Every to 1 6 Ifyou want the variable to have a default value go to the Prompting tab If you do not want to be prompted for value at print time change the mode to Do not prompt for value The variable will behave like a constant Press on the OK button and link the variable with text or barcode 107 Creating a Serial Number Counter The easiest way of creating new variable is using Variable Wizard 1 Click the arrow button in the button on variable toolbar to start Variable Wizard 2 From drop down menu select Counter as the type of the variable set the name of the counter and click Next 3 Type in Starting value and you are finished with setting up this simple counter However using Variable Wizard you a
60. Code 7 button in the Toolbox 2 Select Fixed Barcode in the context menu 10 Fixed Bar Code ta New Keyboard Input hasl Mew Counter 5 New Date Field New Time Field Use Existing Variable Creating a fixed barcode 3 E E A a Move the cursor to the location on the label where you want to place the barcode object and click on the mouse button The wizard with object properties will open Click on the button Define The dialog box Edit Barcode will open Expand the group EAN UPC and select the barcode GS1 128 Click on the OK button to go back to the Barcode dialog box Click on the Next button The GS1 128 Wizard will open Using EPSC Using the PIATS Function The Product Identification Authentication and Tracking System Code PIATS CODE also referred to as EPSC is a monitoring system set up by the General Administration of Quality Super vision Inspection and Quarantine of the People s Republic of China Its intent and purpose is to improve product quality and safety as well as simplify product tracking throughout the production cycle PIATS Standards compliance requirements Barcode type GS1 128 MULTI AI 21 Barcode structure AI 20 supervision code Minimum barcode module width gt 7 mm recommended minimum is 10 mm full bar code width in this case is 42 5 mm Minimum barcode height gt 8 mm Barcode quality Above C 1 5 10 670 Blank area on sides 10 minimum module width S
61. Database Wizard finishes For every field in the table you now have a text object on the label Each database field is avail able as a variable on the label If your database type 1s not available in the Wizard or you want to use different driver OLE DB provider for connection to the database you will have to use direct database set up option and not the Database Wizard Using Data from Excel Spreadsheet NiceLabel can collect data from any data source for which you have the appropriate drivers installed A database driver is a computer program that allows access to the data stored inside a database The developer of the database also provides the drivers for various operating system plat forms so the user can access the data 141 The driver for Microsoft Excel spreadsheets is usually already available with your Windows sys tem The Recommended Structure of the Spreadsheet You can look at the Excel file as the database The spreadsheets are like tables in a database Columns are like fields defined in the tables Rows are like records in the tables Each row record will print one separate label 00 J Om Wm tf ww ha A E C E E Prod uct D LongField TODE EAN Product _ desc Padane CAS006 173456789 12 8021228110014 CASONCELLI ALLA CARNE 250G 6 PAS501 8021228310001 BIGOLI 250G 6 PAS502GI 8021228310018 TAGLIATELLE 2506 6 PAS503GI 8021228310025 TAGLIOLINI 250G 6 PAS504 8021228310032 CAPELLI D ANGELO 250G 6 PAS505
62. Label Setup Printer Paper layout Stocks Dimensions Cutter settings Printing Background Picture Batch Printing Label Batch Definition Preview All labels in the print job Based on the variable value change a User Informal _ Conditions FE User Informal Actions Header Tall Labels Use header label Action after the header label None v cm Use tall label MEA Action after the tail label None Setting up label batch Unit of measure 6 To enclose the main labels with header and or tail labels tick the option Use header label and or Use tail label Header and tail label are stored in the same label file but you can still design them as separate labels Access to header and tail label from the View menu where you can enable and disable view on the these labels Designing Double Sided Label The labeling software supports double side printing for office printers ink jet laser and for thermal printers The option is enabled in the Label Setup dialog box Printer tab Look at the option Double sided printing As soon as you enable this option the option Label Side in the View menu becomes available Use it to switch between front and back sides of the label The identification of the current page is also visible in the status line at the bottom of the window When printing to office printer these two pages are always printed one after another They are sent to the printer one af
63. NiceLabel Designer Pro User Guide English Edition Rev 1411 O 2014 Euro Plus d o o All rights reserved Euro Plus d o o Poslovna cona A 2 SI 4208 en ur Slovenia tel 386 4 280 50 00 fax 386 4 233 11 48 www nicelabel com info nicelabel com Table of Contents Table of Contents occ 2 INTTOQUCU ON gecesi certs sense ir lnea iaa vetoes 8 Welcome to NiceLabel coccion een eee cee cece eee c cece ceeeceeeeeeees 8 Setting Up the Software 22088888 ccc ccc cece cece cece cceccceeceeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeees 9 User GAC Cc oa op ei eee tor asa dara Does 9 Basic and Advanced User Interface _ 22 2 0222 oo ec cece cece cece cece ceeeeeeeee 9 Keyboard Shortcuts occ 9 Main Window ns 11 Main Window ns 12 Attached form _ _ 2 00 0 02 o lee ee ee ee ee ee ee eee eee eee eee eee 12 A oi ss es bade ae eee eee nee eee kok ee eae eee aeee eee 12 Label Tabs se tessa eee et dee acetone aceh shesdaddecseeusesteseeeebesaccaeesesuaeseesente dc 12 MVCN as ses e see saeta sad 12 Label Rotation _ 0 0 0 2 lle ee ee ee ee ee ce ee ee ee eee eee ee eee 12 MO AAA 12 Object Description __ _ 2 000 22 eee eee eee 12 BOOT sees cea e sees hee cre wesc ost 12 SCKOM PAP accord ds tits 12 Selected printer A 13 Mouse Wheel support oo 13 Using the Keyboard and Mouse Effectively 0000000 00022 cece eee eee eee eee 13 TAC SG Aa 14 Tracking Label Design and Printing 0 0 000 0000 c cece cee cece eee ee
64. QL sentences This rules out spreadsheets like MS Excel Storage Fields tab Here you can select the table field into which you want to store the RFID data You can insert new records in the database or you can update the existing records in the database Update existing data records in the table Use this option to insert RFID data val ues into the existing records in the database table In the first table below select the field into which you want to store RFID data Make sure that the Data Source is set to RFID Data At the same time you can also store the values of other variables not just RFID data into the database fields In the second table define the query condition when to store the values in the data base The data values are stored to the database when all conditions are met This feature allows you to define a condition based on the fixed values or variable values Create a join between the field name and the data source For example Usually you create a join between the ProductID field in the database and the label variable ProductID If both IDs are the same you can be sure you will write the data into the correct field Insert new data records into the table Use this option to insert RFID data values into new record in the database table In the first table below select the field into which you want to store RFID data Make sure that the Data Source is set to RFID Data At the same time you can also store the
65. a way of optimal label printing It is not necessary to generate a complete data stream for each print session you can join more sessions in one stream Important for the session printing e You cannot change the label template within a session e You cannot use commands SETDATABASE and SETTABLE within a session e You cannot change the printer PRINTER command within a session e You must set values for all variables from the label within a session even if some of the variables will have empty values e When you test the JOB files that use session printing the command File gt Command Files gt Print Preview does not work SET SET name vartable value stepl quantity of repetition Name is the name of the variable defined on the label If the variable isn t on the label an error will occur Step and Quantity of repetition are option parameter These parameters tell the incre ment of the variable and the number of the labels before change 182 If Variable value contains space characters or commas you have to enclose the text in the text qualifier marks By default the text qualifier is a double quote character but you can use any other character refer to the command TEXTQUALIFIER If you want to assign multi line value to a variable use the syntax r n to encode newline char acter r is replaced with CR Carriage Return and n is replaced with LF Line Feed Both CR and LF represent newline character in
66. abase Wizard 2 2 2 22 22 ccoo 134 Link to a Database Manually occ ccoo conoces 136 Print All Database Records ccoo coco conoce 137 Print Selected Database Records 0 0 0 2 2 cece eee eee eee eee eee eee 137 Query and Create a Database Filter 000 0 00000 eee 139 Database AC CeSS 3 320 5 020 e eRe tn sr rro ads 140 Changing the Order of Database Records 0020 002202 c cece eee ee eee eee 140 Quickly Editing Database soc A eh oR Sees 141 Read Data from the Database 0220 00 002 eee eee ee eee cece ee eeees 141 Using Data from Excel Spreadsheet occ ccoo 141 Usine ODBC Databases o o en Nh ee e reo nO 142 Creating Custom Check Digit 00 0000200 nn cc coco eee ee eeeeees 143 Creating Custom Check Digit 2 0 0 0000022 143 Special Characters otitis cde cial sino 144 Using Special Characters o cc262cnc0cchsnacdcoucncecdacesetauusedasenetatasssaeneumekasstwaeseess 144 Entering characters with lt hex_ code gt syntax 000 0000s 144 Entering characters with Alt lt ASCII code gt 0 0 00002 144 Predefined Character Shortcuts 0 0000 00000 coreo 145 Working with Memory Cards occ coco ccoo 146 Using the Printer Memory Card occ 146 Using Label Setup Wizard ccoo 148 Using Label Setup Wizard ccoo conoce 148 Defining Label Dimensions 0oooooccccccccccccccccccccc ccoo 148 O E 149 Selecting Label Layout occ 150 Defining the Page Size
67. able field Text Wizard Counter On this page of the wizard you define the counter variable 60 Text Wizard Counter Properties Define properties of the counter Starting value Prompt tor value before print Enter the starting value forthe counter ees Set masimum number of digits E Increment 1 2 3 etc Decrement 10 5 8 etc Preview 123456 20 9 10 AAN Dialog box for Text Wizard when Counter option is chosen Starting Value Set the starting value for the counter The counter will increment or decrement from the starting value Note You can enter only digits for the starting value Prompt for value before print Tick this option to enable entering the starting value of the counter when you start printing labels Enter the text that will be shown to the user before printing The message will be shown on the screen each time when the label is to be printed Set maximum number of digits Define the maximum length of digits the counter can occupy Increment or decrement You can define that the variable value will increase or decrease from label to label Preview The field shows the preview of the counter based on your selection Text Wizard Counter Continuation Step Define the step for your counter The counter will increase by this number on every label Change value every lt n gt labels Define the number of labels when the counter will change the value Rollover
68. ag Information This section provides the information about the selected tag type You can see the structure of the selected RFID tag The outlook of the information depends on the selected type of the tag For RFID Gen2 you will see table like structure with the information about the avail able data fields number and size of the block read or write support For other RFID tags you can review the following structure Number of blocks The number of blocks that are available in the RFID tag Reserved blocks The number of blocks that cannot be accessed and used Block size The size of each block in bytes Unique RF Tag This property is set to Yes if you have the printer and or the tag type that can provide you with the Unique Tag ID Each tag has a unique ID encoded already in the pro duction line If your printer can read this information from the tag you can use it with the label objects using RFID Tag Contents contents provider For example The printer scans Unique Tag ID remembers it and prints it on the label encoded in a barcode element The value of Unique Tag is never returned to the labeling soft ware It is handled internally by the printer RFID Tag Data Read This property is set to Yes if you have the printer and or the tag type that allows the extraction of the encoded data You can extract all or part of the data encoded in the RFID tag and use it with the label objects Tag Settings This section provides more
69. ame for value of this attribute Not required e quantity Use this attribute to specify the number of labels to print Possible values numeric value VARIABLE or UNLIMITED Required e skip Use this attribute to specify how many labels to skip at the beginning This fea ture 1s useful 1f you print sheet of labels to laser printer but the sheet 1s partial already printed Not required e job name Use this attribute to specify the name of your job file The specified name is visible in the print spooler Not required 172 e print to file Use this attribute to specify the file name where you want to save the printer commands Not required Session Print Job The element that unions commands for printing labels It considers session print rules You can use this element several times within the command file For available attrib utes lookup the attributes for the element Print_Job All of them are valid you only cannot use the quantity attribute See the description of the element Session to find out how to specify label quantity in session printing Database The element that overrides the database selection on the label Use 1t whenever you do not want to use data from the database that is configured on the label but some other data base You can use this element several times within the command file e name The attribute contains the database name Required Table The element that overrides the table selection on the label
70. an select among 9 levels of security Higher security level allows more reliable reading regardless errors but the barcode symbol is bigger Truncated barcodes can be used where label damage is unlikely and there is no demand for very high level of security The truncated symbol 1s smaller Aspect Ratio It is the ratio between number of columns and number of rows Contents PDF 417 code can encode e Full 128 ASCII character set e All 128 Extended ASCII characters e 8 bit binary data DataMatrix Barcode General tab Y expansion factor This option defines the height of the barcode symbol Aspect Ratio It is the ratio between number of columns and number of rows Enter the wanted value in the fields Details tab ECC Type Error Correction Codes define the security level You can select one from the standard levels in the pull down menu Format ID This option defines which character set will be used in the barcode You can select one of the formats with the following filter 01 and 0 9 space 11 02 and A Z space 12 03 and A Z 0 9 space 13 04 and A Z 0 9 space 14 05 and 7 bit ASCII lower part from 0 to 15 127 06 and all 16 07 and 7 bit ASCII 17 _ 22 The formats from to 7 allow the data length to 500 characters while formats from 11 to 17 allow to 2000 characters Border Size Factors from 1 to 15 set the dimension of the border in the shape of the character L Data M
71. and clicking Download from Fonts Graphics menu or right clicking 1t and selecting Download from the list If for some reason you want to remove a downloaded element from memory card but keep it in the list for later use command Remove Now let s do a status print Printer will report some useful information of memory card usage Click Status Print from Card menu Using Data from Memory Card in the Designer Memory card is now filled with elements fonts and graphics and is ready to be used from the labeling software 1 Start the label designer 2 Create new label Click New from File menu or click La Choose your printer from the list Select predefined label stock or design your own label 3 We have to tell the label designer that our printer is equipped with memory card and what kind of data is stored on the memory card Double click the printer name in the status line in the bottom of the window Click but ton Memory and in section Slot 1 for Type select Memory Card and for Connected file select SAMPLE This is the name of the memory card file MMF we created before Click OK to return to the label designer 4 Using downloaded font Click Text icon Ata y or Paragraph icon 19 Box and type in some 147 text From text toolbar select the font you downloaded to memory card before If text toolbar is not shown on your screen switch it on using command Text tool in View menu You will recognize downloaded font by special pr
72. ands The sample above will command the print engine to do the following Load label stored in a file C LABELS LABEL1 LBL Set the variable Title to the value Some string Set barcode value to 123456789012 Print ten labels In this case ten copies of the label Close the label file a oe SY See also the Samples folder It provides additional JOB file samples Automatic Print with JOB Files Use this facility for automatic un attending printing from the labeling software The JOB file is a plain text file with commands that instruct the labeling application what to do automatically Usu ally the scenario goes like this 1 The software opens the label file as defined by LABEL command 2 The software sets the values of variables on the label as defined by SET commands 3 Optionally the software selects some other printer for printing as defined by PRINTER command 4 The software prints the required amount of labels as defined by PRINT command The Automatic Print can be used interactively in the application or with command line parameter To start Automatic Print with JOB file interactively do the following 1 Open label designer 2 Select File gt Command Files gt Print 3 Browse to the JOB file and click Open To start Automatic Print with command line parameters do the following 169 1 Make sure the syntax of your commands in the JOB file is correct 2 Start the software from command
73. ard If you are satisfied with your selection click Finish to complete the process of creating a new database access function 122 Linking Label to Text Databases Overview Text databases are text files containing data values that can be used for variable objects on the label The text database is not a real database It contains the data values but lacks the information of the data structure name of the fields and maximum lengths of the fields You have to provide the missing information before the labeling software can use the data from such a text database An example of such text database is a CSV file comma separated values where some delimiter semicolon delimits the fields Every line provides data for one label and can be understood as a record in database nomenclature Note The label designer does not support XML data files To use data from XML files see NiceLabel Automation line of products eee dede dede de dede dede De de de dee red Label Designer PAR RP RT i er ee ee a Label design and printing Form Designer Middleware Integration Module 2 3 Data entry application design Data detection and connectivi Database Manager Font and Graphic Downloader 4 a Database management Font and graphics download The label in design mode on the left and preview of the five labels with data from the database Connect to a Database The labeling software offers a Database Wizard that guides you through th
74. ase Variable field linked to the database gets the value from the specified database field Define Click on this button to open the database wizard that will help you define the link to the database Field Choose one of the available database fields as a source for the variable field Length Define the maximum length of the string in variable If field in database contains more characters they will not be printed This option is useful if the field length in your database is not fixed for example tab delimited ASCII file or if you don t want to reserve space for all the char acters in database s field Barcode Wizard Prefix and Suffix The variable element can have a prefix and suffix values The prefix text is placed in front of the variable s value The suffix text is placed at the end of the variable s value Note If you leave the edit fields empty the prefix suffix will not be used Prefix and suffix can be used in situations where they are required only if the variable has set some value If the variable is empty the prefix suffix will not be printed as well Defining Objects Defining Text Object To place the text object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Text icon in the Toolbox 2 Click the position on the label where you want to place the object Text Wizard dialog box will open Define the contents for the text object Click on the Next button to advance to the next step of the wizard Fol
75. atabase type as long as you have the appro priate database drivers installed on your computer The labeling software supports different data base drivers such as ODBC OLE DB and BDE Your computer comes preinstalled with database drivers for frequently used database types but you can always install additional database drivers The typical databases you would connect to are Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Server Oracle SQL Server MySQL Server and PostgreSQL Server NiceLabel is not limited to relational data base structure You can connect to any other database as long as you have the appropriate data base drivers installed on your system and permissions to access the database For example you can use data from NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and other You have total control over which records in the database table will be printed By default all records are printed but you also have the option to select the records for printing Before the labels are processed you can select the records in the table that you want to print You can also specify the print quantity for each record Advanced record selection techniques are also available in the labeling software You can create database filters and obtain only the records that match the conditions The same functionality allows you to join two or more database tables together and obtain values for the same product from multiple databases Manual modification of the SQL sentence is availabl
76. atrix can encode e Full 128 ASCII character set e All ISO characters e All EBCDIC characters MaxiCode MaxiCode is a public domain machine readable symbol system originally created and used by United Parcel Service UPS Suitable for tracking and managing the shipment of packages it resembles a barcode but uses dots arranged in a hexagonal grid instead of bars A MaxiCode symbol internally called Bird s Eye or Target appears as a 1 inch square with a bullseye in the middle surrounded by a pattern of hexagonal dots It can store about 93 characters of information and up to 8 MaxiCode symbols can be chained together to convey more data The centered symmetrical bullseye is useful in automatic symbol location regardless of orientation and it allows MaxiCode symbols to be scanned even on a package traveling rapidly All MaxiCode symbols include a Structured Carrier Message containing key information about a package This information is protected with a strong Reed Solomon error correction code allowing it to be read even if a portion of the symbol is damaged These fields include A national postal code MaxiCode supports both numeric postal codes e g a ZIP Code and alpha numeric postal codes e A 3 digit country code encoded per ISO 3166 e A 3 digit class of service code assigned by the carrier e A 20 character tracking number e A 2 4 character code indicating the originating carrier Additional information can be enc
77. axiCode Aztec QR sional MicroQR Codablock F MicroPDF 88 Working with Images Place Images on the Label To insert an image to the label use the Picture object in the toolbox and browse for the image file on the disk The supported image types are displayed in the Browse dialog box If the image size is too big for the current label dimensions the image will be proportionally re sized to fit into the label You can also freely re size the image by dragging the handles surrounding it The image can be re sized proportionally or stretched in both directions The images can also be placed on the label from the clipboard or imported from another applic ations such as graphical designers and scanning programs using either the Insert Object or Paste command from the Edit menu In both cases the graphics is embedded in the label file Note When you insert the graphics as OLE object on the label copy paste from other software the entire design environment of that other software is available in label design When you double click such OLE object that other application opens on the label When using OLE object the label processing might be slower A label also occupies more space on the disk and takes more RAM If possible avoid using OLE objects on the label Once you place a fixed picture on the label you can embed it in into the label The picture will be saved inside the label so you no longer need the original picture
78. bel The label stored in the printer memory can be immediately printed out Using the recall process the software creates another command file to instruct the printer which label from the memory to print The recall label command can occupy a few bytes of data only It depends on the situation you have e Fixed labels If you have labels without any variable contents the recall command file contains just the recall label command e Variable labels If you have labels with some variable fields the command file will include the values for these variables and the recall label command To use the store and recall printing mode do the following l Make sure to select the appropriate printer driver for your label printer Not all label print ers have the ability to use the store and recall printing mode 2 Select File gt Label Setup and go to the Printer tab 3 Enable the option Store label template and recall for printing in the Print Mode sec tion Click OK 5 Define you label template ace a 10 IT 12 13 All object on the label for which you want to be variable should be formatted as internal printer objects You must format text objects in printer internal fonts not Truetype fonts You must format the barcode objects as printer internal barcodes Y ou can still use vari able objects formatted in Truetype fonts or variable pictures or database fields how ever during the label store process default val
79. bel design and printing 15 A Middleware Server O Database Manager 4 7 Database management O Font Downloader A Font and graphics download E O Printer Drivers E True Windows thermal transter IIA LA al gt l Records selected 2 Row 3 of 6 Selecting records and specifying label quantity 3 Click on the OK button 4 Click on the Print button to start printing labels 129 5 Click on the Close button to close the dialog box Using Text File Wizard Text File Wizard When the input database file is a plain ASCII text file or formatted CSV Comma Separated Val ues Text File Wizard will be started within Database Wizard and it will guide you through quick and easy steps of text data acquire The main difference between real database and text file is in their data structure information Databases include the whole information about their fields names data format length and can be automatically used with the application Text files on the other hand do not have stored such information and you will have to instruct the application how the data is encoded When Text File Wizard finishes 1t will return control back to Database Wizard that will guide the rest of the way Choosing Data Type Before you can use text file you will have to define its data structure Fields can be delimited by some sort of a separator tab semicolon comma or some entirely user defined separator or can be of a fixed len
80. bel in the upside orientation Selecting Objects To select two or more objects you should press the lt Shift gt key and hold down while clicking the object with a mouse The objects can be selected cut copied pasted and edited with the right mouse button If you click the right mouse button on the object the menu shows all the available commands Note that these commands are equivalent to correspondent menu commands _ 92 You can also change the anchoring point of a selected object by holding lt CTRL gt while clicking the placeholders corners of the bounding box of the object Editing Objects To edit the properties of the object do the following 1 Double click the object on the label The dialog box with object properties will open Note You can also press the lt Enter gt key while the object is selected 2 Make modifications to the object properties 3 Click on the Finish button Moving Objects To move the object on the label do the following 1 Select the object 2 Click on the object with the left mouse button 3 Hold the mouse key pressed 4 Move the position of the cursor on the screen The object will move with the cursor Note When you move the object it fades in the preview window so that you may be able to pos ition 1t more accurately The opacity will return to normal when the object is placed in its new position Aligning Objects First you have to select objects
81. bels Simply create a special database function that gives you variables you can use to access the specific records in your database That way you can completely automate the process of print ing the labels for your product For example as new products are created you fill a special table with serial numbers of those products The application then uses this table as source to print appropriate labels Contents Providers Contents Providers Contents Provider is an expression for any method that can be used as an source of data for objects on the label It is applicable to all label objects that can have some sort of data associated with them Text Text box Rich text box Barcode and Picture The contents provider for objects can be one of the following Fixed Variable Functions Database When you Select Fixed you can enter a desired value in the edit box This value will remain the same on each label To edit the text all standard Windows editing features cut copy and paste can be used If you need to enter some special character that is not accessible via keyboard click the button with the arrow to the right of the dialog box You can also right click anywhere in the edit box and select Insert special character from the menu When the Variable option is selected you can connect any vari able field to the object just select the appropriate variable name from the list This approach will allow you to change the obje
82. cess Contains the name of the default printer on the system Contains full name of the current label including the path to the file Contains the name of the printer that is used on the label Contains the quantity of the labels as specified by the user or external application Contains the name of the label without the path Only file name with the extension LBL is available Contains the name of the system Windows user that is logged in and is running the application Contains the quantity of all unique labels printed Label cop ies are not included in this variable only the number of dif ferent labels is Contains the name of the user that is logged in and is using the application This variable has some value only when you have enabled user management in the software 111 Types of Variables Each type of variable has its own icon to easier distinguish variables among each other The icon in front of the variable name determines its type The available types of variables are System Date Time variable P O Printer Date Time variable Counter variable Counter variable with enabled Dynamic Value Prompt variable Prompt variable with enabled Dynamic Value Global variable Database variable Function generated variable Internal variable DEJTA Locked variable Using Printer Internal Increment Counter Almost all thermal printers offer internal increment counter This is a special printer counter tha
83. ci how the label quantity information i defined O Print one label for each record in the database One field in the table contains the label quantity information Database wizard Selecting which records will be printed Select the desired option how you want to use the records in the database By default the option I want to print all records from the table is set and all records in a table will be printed one at a time Each record will be printed only once If you do not want to print the entire database you can select which records should be printed In this case select the option I want to select which record to print Prior printing you will be shown a dialog box with all records from the database Then you will be able to select which records should be printed By default records are used once for a single label If you would like to print several copies of a label with database data you can define it in the second part of this step of the Wizard A field in table contains quantity to print option will let you chose some field in the database This field has the information about the quantity of labels for each record For example You have database with records of your products It contains a field with a numeric value where the required number of label copies is stored Select this field and let the application print the quantity of labels specified here I will enter print quantity for each record This option is o
84. ck on the Select Records button in the Print dialog box Record Selection dialog box opens 6 Click on the small arrow button next to the field names in the table and choose the con dition Database identity mdb Table User Information Be CE Exact search Drag a column header here to group by that column gt E Room Aaa Custom a ale General PT k System Analyst Defining the filter by clicking the arrow button You can display only the records that are equal to the selected value in the list or you can define your custom filter All records eee the condition will be filtered from the database and displayed in the table 139 Database Access Database access functions are functions used to retrieve data from the database The records can be obtained from the database using different approaches 1 You can successively read record by record from the database and use them all on the label 2 Youcan select records for printing 3 You can define filters that will be used to retrieve just a subset of records from your data base that will comply to your conditions The result of the database access function is a set of variables one for each selected field of data base table Each database variable is named the same as the database field but has additional pre fix of a database name This allows you to quicker identify from which database table the variable comes from For example If yo
85. ct value on the labels Object is connected to some variable The variable is defined on the label Its type can be Keyboard Input Counter Date Time field etc When variable s value changes the change will be reflec ted in the appearance of the selected object If no variable is defined on the label you should first create one Click Wizard button to start Variable Wizard that will guide you through the steps of creating the variable Variable field will be created very easily but cannot be used for setting of all the options For advanced variable setup click New button Edit but ton will let you change properties of selected existing variable You will find more information about variables in the topic Vari ables When this type of contents provider is selected you can select the proper function from the list of defined functions and then also the output function generate variable This variable will be the source of data for the object Click New to create new function Click Edit to change function s properties When this type of contents provider is selected you can select the proper database from the list of defined database connections Then select the proper field from this database This field will be the source of data for the object 98 Expression Visual Basic Script Link to File Lookup Table Click New to create connection to new database click Wizard to use the wizard for the connection Click
86. ct value is sent to the variable e Incorrect label is being opened to be verified e Incorrect printer is used to be verified Note Automation module processes the JOB files and will display the errors in the log pane You can ignore the errors that occur during JOB file processing if you use the undocumented switch in the registry Setting the IGNOREERROR command to ON will ignore errors in variables printer selection label selection and JOB files This command should be used with utmost care as the labeling oper ator will not be warned about potential errors in the mentioned settings LABEL LABEL label name printerName The command opens the working label If the label is already opened the program will use this one It is recommended to write full path name along with the file name Note if variable value contains space characters or commas you will have to enclose the whole path in quotation marks e g LABEL C My Labels sample3 Ibl The PrinterName when provided sets the printer for which the label will be initially opened If non existing printer 1s provided the command will raise an error LABELCLOSE LABELCLOSE The command closes the currently active label The label application will stay opened FILECLOSE command does the same thing but is depreciated To speed up label printing do not use this command frequently You can have opened more label files simultaneously If the label is already ope
87. decrement You can define that the variable value will increase or decrease from label to label Preview The field shows the preview of the counter based on your selection Text Wizard Counter Continuation Step Define the step for your counter The counter will increase by this number on every label Change value every lt n gt labels Define the number of labels when the counter will change the value Rollover when reached Enter the value when reached will cause the counter to reset the value to the starting value Barcode Wizard Date Field Define the properties of the date field The variable field will get the value from a computer clock Format Select the format for your date from the list You can also enter the custom format Date offset You can add a certain numbers of days months or years to a current date and print that date instead of the current one Preview The printer will print the date as shown on the Preview field This way you can see how the selected date format will look on the label Barcode Wizard Time Field Define the properties of the time field The variable field will get the value from a computer clock 07 Format Select the format for the time from the list You can also enter the custom format Preview The printer will print the time as shown on the Preview field This way you can see how the selected date format will look on the label Barcode Wizard Datab
88. der varies depending on the Windows operating system used The location of the System folder is a 7s c Documents and Settings All Users Application Data EuroPlus NiceLabel 6 system It is vitally important to own the write access to this folder on your computer system and the right to write to and modify files in this folder The software stores important system settings in the System folder as follows User data and user rights Various application settings Label printing logs Barcode standards 18 Designing Labels Designing a Basic Label Overview In this section you will learn how to design a simple label file with fixed and variable objects The variable objects can obtain values from several sources You will learn how to e Provide object values with a keyboard prompt e Obtain object values from a database e Preview the label on the screen e Print the label The label you create will look like this SAMPLE AE Basic label Create a Basic Label Create a New Label To create a basic label do the following 1 Open the labeling software 2 Select New label under File menu or click on the icon in the standard toolbar Each time you create a new label a Label Setup Wizard will start to help you setup the label and connect to the printer 19 Select a Printer l Select the printer you want to use for label printing Note If you don t find your printe
89. dos iria lero cia 47 RFID Tas DOCKING ccoo a O EEAO nee nentowek 48 Support for RFID Tags occ cnc 49 RFID Read and Store Data occ coco conc 50 Database Storage Plug in coccion conc 50 Changing Printer Settings oooocccccccccccccccocncccccon occ cc conc 51 Changing Common Printer Settings ooocccccoccccccccccccccccccnnccccccocccnnnnccccccocos 51 Changing Dithering Options ooooooccccccocccccccococncccccn cnc corn c cnn nc 52 Defining Unprintable Area occ conc 52 ST O 0 Sea A CT Ye ee aan AN eee A 53 Using Standard Toolbar ocio cence cece cece cece cece ceeecceceeeeeeeeeee 53 Using Database Toolbar occ ccccccc cocoa 53 Using Design Toolbar AMA rectesce sud quer eiavee aaan annann 54 Using Printing Toolbar ooo coco cccc e cece cece eee cceeeeee cesses 54 Using Text Toolbar coc ccnccarsoretai listas tel aen zoe 55 Usimo EO0IDOX lt ocooccnas asii odiados 56 Using Variable Toolbar 0 conoce 56 Using Zoom Toolbar tai aa is eee eda eee bea 57 Working with Objects 00000000000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 cece eeeeeeeeeees 58 Usine Text Wizard AMA A AS 58 Tee Ward AAA II aaea 58 Text Wizard Choosing Variable Text 020000 20000 o cece eee eee eee eee 59 Text Wizard Keyboard Input occ 59 Text Wizard OU spc 3 hot he Niece aed ee oes a ohh ia res lt a 4s 60 Text Wizard Counter Continuation occ 61 Text Wizard Date Field ic ce te fine rr nnd decd aun
90. download Defining the type of the text database 3 Click on the Next button 4 Define the widths of the individual columns by placing a break line before the second column and before the third column 125 To CREATE a break line click at the desired position To DELETE a break line double click on the line To MOVE a break line click and drag t Data preview 5 Lo LS oO 25 20 25 40 45 fo 55 60 Label Designer Label design and printing Form Desiqner Z Data entry application design lddleware Server gt Data detection and connectivity Database Manager y Database Wanaqement Fonts Downloader Font and graphics dowmload UII 4 Defining the fields in the text database Click on the Next button 6 Accept the default field names and click on the Next button 7 Review the text database structure The field names and their maximum lengths are dis played Click on the Finish button to close Text File Wizard The link to the database has been created and database fields are available on the label The labeling software brings you back to the Database Wizard Place Database Fields on a Label The next step in the Database Wizard opens the dialog box with the list of available fields from the database 1 By default all fields from the database will be used on the label Click on the Next but ton Select the fields you want to use on the label For multiple feld selection press and hold the Ctrl kep
91. e cc cc ence rn 183 SETPRINTPARAM ooo aaa aoaaa cece cece ccc LLALLA LALLA LLL LaLa eeeeceeeesees 183 SRE ETABLE ceea a a a da ut ro eE dea e A 184 TEXTOUACIFTER bu conc llos drdcc nas 184 Command Line Parameters nn 185 Technical Support nn 186 Online SUDO 338300 55 do aoe ee es ee eee eects ee eee 186 Introduction Welcome to NiceLabel NiceLabel is a family of professional labeling software products that brings a complete barcode label printing solution to desktop and enterprise users NiceLabel is used all over the world by com panies in all industries including retail logistics manufacturing FMCG health care chemical automotive and others The latest software is available for download at the NiceLabel product web site at www nicela bel com Setting up the Software User Interface Basic and Advanced User Interface The labeling software has two level user interface By default basic user interface is enabled that makes the software easier to use for beginners and inexperienced users Software in basic mode e Hides the advanced tabs in dialog boxes e Enables all wizards for frequent tasks in label design e Hides the advanced Toolbars e Shows large icons To switch between basic and advanced modes do the following 1 Click on the User Interface command in the Tools menu 2 Click on the command Set Basic Mode to enable basic mode or click on the command Set Advanced Mode to enable advanced mode
92. e dither ing option set in the printer driver All color pictures except WMF and EMF files are converted to monochrome images The illusion of colors and shades of gray is accomplished by varying the pattern of dots More dots close together will provide darker shade of gray The preview of the label will show pictures in the same way as they will be printed accordingly to the dithering setting More accurate print preview is guaranteed this way If the picture is not previewed as you would like to print it change the dithering setting in the printer driver Optimize the Printing Speed There are many factors that affect the printing speed By following the guidelines below you can dramatically increase the speed of printing If your printer supports parallel and serial port use the parallel port Computer can send data to printer over parallel port much faster than over serial port Use printer s internal fonts instead of Windows true type fonts True type fonts must be sent to printer as graphics and therefore the size of data sent to printer is much bigger couple of kilobytes When using internal fonts only the text 1s sent to printer couple of bytes If you must use true type fonts use the NiceMemMaster program to download these fonts to printer s memory and later access these fonts as internal printer fonts only if your printer supports this Avoid use of graphics on labels If you must print graphics on labels use the
93. e eee ees 14 Enable Revision History Comment 0 2202 2 020222 eee eee eee eee 14 Use History Log to Track Label Printing _ 2 0200 2 00000 00000222 14 Define User Passwords and Permissions _ 22 2 222 202 eee eee eee cceeecceeee 15 LOC er tos E sipede 17 System Folder es 17 Designing Labels 22 0 0 aaan aaao cence ence cece eee e cece cece eeeeececeeeeeeeeeeeees 19 Designing a Basic Label 0000 coccion ccoo e cece ce eeeeee ees 19 DAS 19 Create a Basic Label occ 19 Create a New Label aioe ei cuco iusaiorerssrso iones teciarts techno oboe ds 19 SS hee es 20 Define Label and Page Dimensions occ 20 Enter Non Changing Text occ 22 Insert Barcode eae ee a aaa R adaa 23 Insert Pict res ASA A 24 Save MAA ee ee ance ee hae eee toes en eet at 25 Use Alignment Tools occ 25 Object Positioning Guidelines occ 26 Create Guidelines oa cra tse ee se ee Se Sena eee 26 Using Guidelines 120 ee ee beeen id o si 26 Guideline Properties oc 26 Use Drawing Tools sicher ice ist oa a 26 Add Variable Fields ooooccoccccccccccccccccccccnccccnnccccnn cc 000o rr rc cnn rc 27 A A 27 Create Keyboard Entry Variable Fields 2 2 2 0 02 22 c cece eee eee eee eee eee 28 Create Serialized Data Variable Fields Counters _ 2 2 22 2 22 eee eee cece eee 28 Create Date and Time Variable Fields _ 0 0 00000 c cc eee eee eee ee ee 29 Use Prefix or Suffix Options
94. e field on the label Both are added to the value when you preview and print the label 1 Click on the small arrow next to the icon in the Toolbox to display a list of available variable types 2 Select New Keyboard Input from the list 3 A dialog box with variable properties will open 4 Type the text Enter product weight for the option Display this text to the print operator Set the allowable characters to digits and click on the Next button 5 Enter kg for the Suffix option Suffis kg Defining the variable suffix 6 Click on the Finish button 7 Click on the label where you want to position the prompted field The text object is placed on the label and linked to the new variable When you will pre view or print the label the suffix kg will be appended to the entered value on the right side Using Advanced Functionality Creating a Label with GS1 128 EAN UCC 128 Compliance Add Content to GS1 128 Barcode Using GS1 128 Wizard Use the GS1 128 Wizard to help you add the necessary Application Identifiers AI in the barcode Complete the following steps with the wizard 1 Select 10 Batch or Lot number _ 30 UCC EAN1 26 Wizard Selection of Application Identifier Select the required Application Identifier for your bar code Select the required Application Identifier Detaled Serial Shipping Container Code Se al Shipping Container Code Global Trade ltem Number GTIN GTIN of trade teme co
95. e for advanced users Link to a Database Using Database Wizard 1 Click on the button Database in the Standard Toolbar The Database Wizard will open 2 Select the option Direct database access and click on the Browse button Use the option Direct database access if you use file based databases like Microsoft Access Paradox dBase Excel or TXT files Database Wizard Database and Table Select the type of database and table you want to use on the label Select the type of the database Direct database access Recommended option Allinstalled database drivers ODBC OLE DB BDE Browse for the database table you want to use _ AE T able User Information Browse for the table containing label data Wizard will help you make a connection to table fields and transfer their values to the objects on the label Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard nest time 134 Selecting the type of database connection 3 Point to the Access database c Program Files EuroPlus NiceLabel 6 Samples Data base IDENTITY MDB Note The database might not be included with your labeling software 4 Click on the Next button The next step Fields Selection of the Database Wizard will open The dialog box will show all fields defined in the database table Database Wizard Fields Selection Select the fields trom the database you want to use on the label Select the fields
96. e necessary steps to con nect the database to a label To connect your label to a database using the Database Wizard do the following 1 Click on the Database button in the Standard Toolbar 2 Click on the Browse button and point to the text database c Program Files Eur oPlus NiceLabel 6 Samples Database data txt Note Your labeling software might not include the text database sample 123 Database Wizard Database and Table Select the type of database and table you want to use on the label Select the type of the database All installed database drivers ODBC OLE DB BDE Browse for the database table you want to use AAA Browse for the table containing label data Wizard will help you make a connection to table fields and transfer their values to the objects on the label Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard nest time Selecting the text database 3 Click on the Next button Note If you connect to the database for the first time you need to define the database structure Continue with the next section Format the Data with the Text File Wizard Because the text files do not contain the structural information like real databases do you must define the fields and their data structure When you use the same text database some other time you won t have to define the structure again 1 Select the encoding of the data in your text file The encoding se
97. e program group in the Start menu Using the application you can perform all print ing steps in one single window e Select the label for printing e Set the values for variables e Select records in the database e Change the printer and its properties e Define label quantity e See label preview e Print the label 166 gt ra m Ibi FOOD SERVICES 32 Dak Ave Wiaconsin BANANA 02 24 2005 11007 EDI g 1 100 kg PRICE 1 709 167 Integration and Connectivity Overview The most common method is to print labels directly from the labeling software But sometimes there might be other requirements of label production The labeling software has a wide con nectivity and integration options so you do not have to use the labeling software interactively but through ActiveX interface or DDE connectivity You can use a print engine totally integrated to your custom application and invisible to end user s eyes If you do not require such tight integration to your application you can use the automation module add on utility for non programming integration to existing systems and fully automated printing A set of actions is defined that are trigger if pre defined event occurs These actions can open the label connect it to database fill variable s values connect to proper printer and print the required number of labels You can even build your custom data entry and printing applications wit
98. e to perform import and printing these codes a second time Be cautious when deleting printed codes from the log or you may lose track of past printing activities Designing Label with Variable Length In most label printing scenarios you design and print the label with fixed dimensions The label width and height do not change so you must make sure to fit all objects on the label However 1n some cases you need the ability to design the label with the variable length The label length changes in accordance to the size of the label objects When you assign more data to the label objects their size increases and occupies more space on the label In order to fit such objects on the label the label height must change Note The requirement for variable label sizing is quite often in the textile industry where labels print to endless label material There are no gaps between the labels The printer cutter cuts the material after the label prints To enable the variable label sizing do the following Select File gt Label Setup Go to the Dimensions tab Click the Advanced button Enable the option Enable variable label size A Se Make sure to set the offset to the proper value The offset defines the amount of space between the last object on the label and the bottom label edge See the screenshots below to understand the automatic label resizing function The variable label size is enabled on the label There is alway
99. each other but in top bottom order one on top of the next one The text orientation 1s remains the same just the alignment within the element changes e RTL printing If selected the internal printer text will be printed in right to left order It is useful 1f you operating system does not have native RTL support but you still need to print text in this manner Note For RTL printing option to work you printer has to have an internal right to left printer font built in for example Hebrew or Arabic font This option only works with internal printer fonts and not Truetype fonts Font scaling This is a factor that defines how much the font is stretched from its original pro portions If the factor is 100 the font has a normal look If factor is 200 it means that font is twice as wide as normal If it is 50 the font is stretched Alignment Define how the text will be aligned within the object when using multi line text e None No alignment is used e Left Text is aligned to the left side of the object e Center Text is aligned to the center of the object e Right Text is aligned to the right side of the object Spacing Define the custom spacing in the object e Line The distance between lines of text e Character The distance between characters in the line of text ee Color Click on the Color button to change the color of the object Appearance Tab Position and Size Enter the new values for position a
100. eck digit Check digit is calculated by the software You must only enter the bar code data For example when using EAN 13 barcode input the first 12 digits check digit on 13th place will be calculated and added automatically Verify the provided check digit Use this command when you want to enter the value for the check digit At print time the entered check digit it will be verified for validity Enable custom check digit algorithm You can set some other algorithm you want to use for cal culating the check digit Click on the button Select to choose the algorithm Human Readable Tab On this tab you can set the options regarding position and format of the barcode interpretation No interpretation Barcode object does not have any human interpretation Below barcode All data encoded in the barcode is placed beneath the barcode symbol as human readable characters Above barcode All data encoded in the barcode is placed above the barcode symbol as human readable characters Font Using the Font button you can choose the suitable font for auto translation text The option Auto font scaling will adjust the font of the auto translation text to the size of the barcode Note You can only format the font for human interpretation if the barcode is printed as graph ics When printing barcode as internal printer object the printer will print the interpretation using resident built in fonts Contents mask sets the custom format of
101. ed field in ascending order 4 Click OK To order records by multiple fields from the database do the following 140 1 Connect the database table to the label 2 Make sure the Database toolbar is visible then click on the Edit button The Database Access dialog box opens with General tab displayed Note If the Database toolbar is not visible select Toolbars from the View menu then click Database 3 Click on the Advanced button next to the Order combo box The Table Order dialog box opens 4 Look at the Available fields section Select all fields by which you want to sort the records 5 Look at the Selected fields section Define the order or appearance of the fields 6 Define the sort order for each field When you will print or preview the label the records are first ordered by the first field in the list then by the second field and so on until the last field in the list 7 Click OK Quickly Editing Database Click the icon in the Database toolbar The application NiceData will open the currently selec ted database Note NiceData must be installed on your computer Read Data from the Database To read data from the database create a new connection to the database using either of the two methods below e Click the New database wizard button in the Database toolbar e Select Database access from Data menu and clicking on the Wizard button Follow the on screen instructions until the
102. ed in a table 2 Under the Stock type option select the group from the combo box for which you wish to show the stocks The table will contain stocks from this group only Define your own group by doing the following 1 Click on the ellipsis button The dialog box of Stock Types will open 2 Click on the Add button and provide the name of the group Click on Save and Close 3 Select your new group and click on the button New in the bottom part of the dialog box The stock definition dialog box opens 4 Open the General tab and define the identification properties of the stock 5 Open the Dimensions tab and define the width and height of the label 6 Click on the OK button The stock will be saved in the library and available for selection whenever you will create a new label Tracing Variable Values Each value of the variables can be traced and logged into the log file By default the tracing functionality is disabled To enable tracing do the following _ AQ 1 Select Variable Trace Setup from Data menu 2 Select the variables you want to trace Note By default values for all variables on the label are traced 3 Select Configure Log File from Tools menu 4 Enable logging functionality 5 When you will print labels the values for variables as were used on the label are saved to the log file Using Contents Mask Contents mask is very useful when you must display the input data differently on the labe
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104. el as variables The variables will be linked to the text objects Link to a Database Manually The Database Wizard does not support your database if it is not listed in the direct database access or does not have an ODBC driver In just a case you have to link your database to your label manu ally by doing the following 1 Click on the button LE P t base 7 in the Standard Toolbar The Database Wizard will open 2 Select the option Other databases ODBC Use this option if you use server based databases like SQL server Oracle Informix or some database not directly supported by the option Direct database access 3 Select the available ODBC definition in the list 136 4 Click on the Define button if the connection to your database is not already defined 5 The dialog box Database opens Here you can define the connection to your database Database connection type Database connection definitions E Text drivers DDEC data source TEXT CESA gerals E BDE drivers PARADOS ODBC driver MSSOL MySQL ODBC 3 51 Driver INTRBASE as Conga Add Configure Remove ace Conga Bemove E OLE DE drivers MS SOL Server DDEC Data Sources i MSACCESS Password EXCEL y User name Show system tables Select the type of the database you want to l USE Automatic browse for tables Test Connection Manual definition of the database connection 6 Click on t
105. el cent rally in the printer so it sticks out of the print head evenly on both sides You define a new label in the labeling software with 12 cm width By setting the unprintable area to 1 cm on the left and 1 _52 cm on the right side you let the labeling software know that the actual label width is 10 cm There will be two vertical red lines on the label identifying the unprintable area Note You might also see the vertical red lines when you switch the printer on the label The original printer might had wider print head than the new printer Maximum widths of the labels are not the same for both printers The labeling software will try to preserve the original label dimension and automatically define the unprintable area for the new printer Using Toolbars Using Standard Toolbar Click on the icons in the standard toolbar will execute the following actions Database E Create new label Open existing label Save currently opened label Cut the selected objects to clipboard Copy the selected objects to clipboard Paste the objects from the clipboard Undo last action Redo last action Access to the print functionality Click on the small arrow for more commands Access to the zoom functionality Click on the small arrow for more commands Access to the view functionality Click on the small arrow for more commands Access to the variables Click on the small arrow for more com mands Access to the da
106. eld Names and Fields to Import Set custom held names and ther maximum possible lengths Field name and impor Field name Field length Data preview PC Me stem Analyst Cindy Gr y Jennifer O e retary Ol permifer wut Database Wizard Formatting the fields In this step of the Wizard you can review the field names and lengths and modify them if neces sary You will probably use more friendly field names so you can distinguish between them more easily When you are finished with Text File Wizard the structure information of the used text file 1s stored to a separate file with a extension of SCH Scheme File If you will try to use the same text file some other time on a different label you will be spared all efforts of structure creating SCH file will be automatically used and Text File Wizard will be skipped entirely Note that SCH file is created also with add on database manager NiceData when you open the text database in NiceData for the first time Linking a Label to Advanced Databases Overview You can use the labeling software to retrieve data from any database on your computer or network If you have the appropriate database drivers you can connect to the database and use the records on the label Note Designer Express does not have all database options available You can only use data from text databases and Excel spreadsheets 133 With the labeling software you can connect to any d
107. etting up a PIATS Variable A PIATS code is based on a function which draws its data from a variable Therefore the vari able must be created first Use the New Variable toolbar button to create a new variable Name it and set the following set tings e Source Global e Maximum Length 20 ee e Data format Numerical e Incremental counter e Increment by 1 e Initial value gt 1 Only if the above criteria are fulfilled will the barcode variable provide for valid PIATS codes Setting up the PIATS Function Use the Function toolbar button to add a new function Name it and select Electronic Product Selection Code in the type list If the variable described above was correctly set up you will be able to select it as the Global Variable in the Detailed tab Only valid variable types are dis played and if your variable is not available there was an error in the variable setup Function esc General Detailed Global variable Select a global variable that will be used with Electronical Product Supervision Code EPSC function Global variable must be a numerical counter P g1 Manage ESC data Import view or delete printed EPSC Data Import View Delete printed Output variable Enter the name of output variable that will be created This variable Will contain the Electronical Product Supervision Code Output variable name VEPSCL Varables ox Cancel Help
108. functions will be empty and you must click the New button to define the function The Function dialog box is then displayed 113 Function General Detailed General Properties Mame Description Type of the functor Loncatenate Subset Linear function User defined check digit algorithms Date addition Currency exchange Visual Basic Script ASC FACT Transter Data Syntax for High Capacity ADC Media HIBC Lookup table Review result before printing seal Function dialog box General tab This dialog box 1s also displayed when you want to change the existing function To define change the function all required parameters must be entered and confirmed by clicking OK button Dialog box has several pages tabs Note that only General tab is fixed all other tabs change according to the function type you select on General tab Each other tab 1s described separately for each function Function Types Using Functions to Manipulate Label Data Using Functions to Manipulate Label Data The labeling software enables you to work with variable values on the label manipulate the values and use them with other label objects The labeling software offers a group of functions that help you work with the variable values There is always some input to the function that the function manipulates and always some output that is stored to a function generated variable The function generated
109. g box differs from thermal and office printers Label Setup Wizard Label Dimensions Set the Label layout dimensions and select the appropriate unit of measure Label width o Label height Top Margin foo Lett Margin Bottorn Margin 0 0 Right Margin Roms Columns Right Margin Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard next time Defining label dimensions ea 7 Click on the Finish button New empty label will open Enter Non Changing Text 1 Click on the button in the Toolbox The text cursor appears on the screen 5T AAA l Select A Text TENT Text Box rtf Rich Text Box Bar Code Cursor for text object 2 Move the cursor to the location on the label where you want to place the text object and click on the mouse button The dialog box with object properties will open 3 Enter the text SAMPLE and click on the Finish button Text Wizard Text Object Define the contents and style of the text object Contents 2 Fixed text Variable text SAMPLE Font ee Inverse Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard nest time Entering content for text object eae 4 Click on the text object to select the object 5 Change the font for the text object using the Text toolbar Choose Arial font 28 point size and bold style Ip ial m PA Aria i TEE H j pn A
110. ge them appropriately to suit you needs The same global variable is not limited for use on only one label You can use it on as many labels as you like Please note that only one label using the same global variable can be printed at a time When using global variables they are locked for one label and this prevents more labels to use the same global variable at the same time Groups of Allowable Characters The format of a variable is selectable to filter the input data This helps avoiding mistakes when entering data You can only enter characters which are included in the specified format range All Select this format when there is no need to limit the variable data For example one variable can be used to define changes in the barcode the text and the graphics You can enter all char acters from the keyboard Numeric Use this format you need numeric variables for example serial numbers or EAN and UPC barcode Only numeric characters in the range 0 to 9 can be entered Alphanumeric Use this format when numbers and characters are mixed in the same variable for example identity codes Characters from 0 to 9 a to z and A to Z can be entered Letters Use this format when you need the character variable 7 bit ASCII The variable will contain only characters with ASCII code from 0 format to 127 Hex Use this format to allow input of hexadecimal numbers Date Use this format to print date stamp Time Use this format to pr
111. gth Text File Wizard Choose Data Type Choose the data type that best describes your data structure Data type 2 Delimited Characters such as comma or tab separate each held Fixed Fields are aligned in columns with spaces between each field First row contains field names Database Wizard Choosing Data Type Choose Delimited if you know that data fields are separated with some special character File pre view at the bottom of the dialog box can be helpful if you do not know exactly how the data is organized Choose Fixed if you know that your data fields always occupy the same number of characters Start import at row option is useful when you do not want to import some rows at the top of the file Most usual situation when you would want to use this option is when text file contains some header on top of actual data fields 130 Setting the Fields Text File Wizard Set the Delimiter and Text Qualifier Set the delimiter and text qualiter that are used in your text file Delimiter C Tab Semicolon Comma Other Cir Ces Database Wizard Setting separator and delimiter In the second step of the Text File Wizard you have to set the fields in the text file If you have selected Delimited in the previous step choose the appropriate separator here The ones that are usually used with text files are already predefined But if you require some other there is an option to u
112. h NiceForm in a totally user friendly way without any programming skills required Command Files Use Command Files You can use command files to instruct the print engine what to do The command files use the structure of NiceCommands in order to send the commands to the print engine The following command files are supported e JOB file e XML file e CSV file You can use the command files from several applications e From labeling software interactively command File gt Command Files or auto matically the name of the command file specified as parameter in the command line works for JOB files e From NiceForm in action Run Command File e From Automation application in action Run Command File The command files are always processed in order from top to bottom of the file The first com mand in the file 1s processed first The order of appearance is important For example you need to specify the printer first and then print the label The command files are stored in a text file Unicode values are supported 168 Command File JOB File The commands available in the JOB command files are NiceCommands See the chapter of NiceCommands for more information about their syntax and method of usage Sample JOB Command File Example of NiceCommands usage in a JOB file LABEL C LABELS LABEL1 LBL SET Title Some string SET BarCode 123456789012 PRINT 10 FILECLOSE The words formatted in bold are NiceComm
113. havior should the view to Inspector s elements be expanded by default or not If the elements are expanded then all the properties for all of them are visible If they are not expanded you will have to manually expand the view of the element you are interested in AB Using Pictures from the Memory Card To select the picture from the memory card do the following 1 Open the label where you want to use the pictures from the memory card 2 Make sure the printer has inserted the memory card that contains the pictures 3 Select the command Printer Settings in the File menu 4 Go to Printer Memory tab 5 Look at the Slot where you have inserted your memory card in the printer 6 Change the Slot Type to Memory Card 7 Select the appropriate MMF file created by the application NiceMemMaster 8 Close all dialog boxes 9 Select the Picture object in toolbox then click on the label 10 Browse to the picture on the disk that you want to use Note This is the same picture as you have downloaded to the memory card You need to insert it from the disk for previewing purposes only When the label is printed the picture already stored in the memory card will be used 11 Tick the option Picture is stored on the memory card 12 Click on the OK button Designing an RFID Smart Label Overview The concept of RFID Radio Frequency IDentification can be simplified to that of an electronic barcode First emerging in t
114. he labeling software Appropriate application for viewing OLB files 1s required to be able to see the file contents Programming Samples Programming samples demonstrate how you can use the labeling software as a print engine from your applications The programming samples are not installed with the labeling software However they are available for separate install as the add one Integration Pack You can install the Integration Pack from the product CD or from the product web site The samples are available for different development platforms MS Visual Basic Borland Delphi C and other You can take a look at the ready made sample and use the similar code imme diately inside your application Refer to the documents enclosed to the Integration Pack to see how to embed the label print engine inside your application The whole programming API is doc umented in the Programming Guide It will help you start using the label print engine from your cus tom application 174 Automation with DDE DDE Communication You can use DDE connection to print the labels from your Windows applications that you develop in standard programming environments such as Microsoft Visual Basic Borland Delphi C Microsoft Access To create the DDE communication the client application must use the following DDE parameters Service Nicelabel6 Topic LINE or JOB When you are using topic JOB the content is the name of the command file which
115. he 1980s RFID was primarily used to track objects in industrial envir onments where barcodes were unable to sustain the harsh surroundings Today RFID is being used to track proprietary assets automate access control and has many more additional fields of usage Some thermal printers have the ability to program a RFID tag at the same time as they are printing the label Two different technologies and their encoding methods are joined on the same label Of course a label must have embedded a RF tag The tag is paper thin flexible and small in size which allows it to be placed inconspicuously under the label It consists of an etched antenna and a tiny chip that can store ID number or your custom data in larger quantities This contrasts with a barcode label which does not store any enhanced information but merely some code number Radio frequency identification RFID refers to technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify individual or groups of items The labeling software and NiceLabel Printer Drivers support programming and printing of RFID tags embedded in a label 44 Note You can use RFID functionality in the labeling software only if you have installed a NiceLabel Printer Driver with RFID support Make sure you install the NiceLabel Printer Driver of your RFID printer before you design and print an RFID smart label Create RFID Smart Label l Click on button in the Standard toolbar Label Setup Wizard will
116. he OK button 7 Continue from the step 4 in the chapter Link to a Database Using Database Wizard Print All Database Records By default the Database Wizards sets up the database connection to print all records in the data base The Database Wizard step Records Printing is where you can define which records are prin ted To print all records in the database table follow the steps in the chapter Link to a Database Using Database Wizard Print Selected Database Records You can define which records from the database you want to print in the Records Printing of the Database Wizard 1 Follow the steps in the chapter Link to a Database Using Database Wizard until the step 5 2 Select the option I want to select which record to print to be able to select which records are printed 137 Database Wizard Records Printing Specify how the records from the database will be printed Select which records do vou want to print O want to print all records from the table Specify how the label quantity information i defined Print one label for each record in the database One field in the table contains the label quantity information will enter label quantity for each selected record _ Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard next time You will be able to select which records are printed 3 Click on the Finish button The link to the database 1s created and text objec
117. he Toolbox 2 Click the position on the label where you want the upper left position of the object to be set 3 Drag to bottom right direction until the object size 1s as requested Note If you want to draw a square grab a handle a on one of the rectangle corners sim ultaneously press and hold Shift key then re size the rectangle A square will be drawn For more useful shortcuts available in the software refer to the chapter Shortcuts 4 To move a inverse to a different position simply select it and drag it elsewhere on the label Curved Text To place a curved text object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Curved texticon in the Toolbox 2 Click the position on the label where you wish to place the object The Curved Text dialog box will open 3 Define the contents for the object 4 Click OK to place the object Using Contents Mask Contents mask is very useful when you must display the input data differently on the label With contents mask you can simply reformat the data to suit your needs For example you must use differently formatted human interpretation text below barcode than the data is formatted in the barcode You do not want to define two variables for this purpose and enter the similar data twice The mask character will be replaced by the actual data and any other used character will be used as is If the current barcode value is AD951 and the contents mask is ARO A
118. he barcode This option is only valid for EAN barcodes 0 Edit Bar Code General Check Digit Human Readable Details Include quiet zones Intercharacter gap ODEC gt parts of the input data to c Codel 28 amie mode Manual Encoding By oe eae Encoding application expects Heras lt MODEB gt or lt M t han 123456 Enable preview Edit barcode Details tab Supported Barcode Types Barcode Barcode Types Group EAN and EAN 8 EAN 8 2 digit supplement EAN 8 5 digit supplement UPC EAN 13 EAN 13 2 digit supplement EAN 13 5 digit sup plement EAN 14 DUN 14 UPC Case Code UPC A UPC A 2 digit supplement UPC A 5 digit supplement UPC E UPC E 2 digit supplement UPC E 5 digit supplement UPC E 1 GS1 128 SSCC Bookland Addon 2 Addon 5 Linear Interleaved 2 of 5 ITF 14 ITF 16 Code 39 Code 39 Tri Optic Code 39 Full ASCII Code 32 Code 93 CODE 128 A B and C subsets Code 128 Pharmacy MSI Codabar Postnet 32 Postnet 37 Postnet 52 Postnet 62 Kix Pharmacode Plessy Anker GS1 Linear GS1 Databar symbologies Databar RSS14 RSS14 Truncated RSS14 Stacked RSS14 Stacked Omnidirectional RSS Limited RSS Expanded Composite GS1 Databar symbologies RSS14 RSS14 Truncated RSS14 Stacked RSS14 Stacked Omni directional RSS Limited RSS Expanded UPC A UPC E EAN 8 EAN 13 EAN UCC 128 amp CC A B EAN UCC 128 amp CC C Two dimen 2D Pharmacode PDF 417 DataMatrix M
119. he content hr LD Te E Z zoom 100 Arial 8 B 7 fill Rich Text Editor i kial RTF_Allergens bo Add Variab RTF_Allergens You can add additional variables or fixed text if necessary 16 Youcan use the controls available in the Rich Text Editor to format the font type size and colors 17 Click OK You can follow the similar steps for the other allergen formatting functions Syntax of Allergen formatting functions User provided list of allergens This function will accept the list of ingredients and list of allergens in two variables and create the RTF code with highlighted allergens All words from the Allergens that are matched in the Ingredients will be formatted by the Highlight specification Syntax FormatAllergens Ingredients Allergens Highlight The CSV list of ingredients The CSV list of allergens The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used Example FormatAllergens wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nuts wheat hazelnuts bold italic FormatAllergens Ingredients wheat hazelnuts bold italic Allergens from Microsoft Excel spreadsheet This function will accept the list of ingredients and location of the Microsoft Excel 155 spreadsheet The function reads the allerge
120. he page The parameter is used for label printing on sheets of paper When the part of the page is already printed you can re use the same sheet by shifting the start location of the first label The rest of the unused labels on the page can be printed with the help of this para meter The parameter identical label copies specifies how many copies of the same label should be prin ted The parameter number of label sets specifies how many times the whole printing process should be repeated If you do not need to set some of the supplementary parameters use their default values Skip 0 Identical label cop 1 ies Number of label 1 sets PRINTER PRINTER lt printer name gt Normally the PRINT command prints the label to the printer specified in the label file Using this command you can override this defined printer and print the label to some other printer If the printer name contains space characters you have to enclose it in quotation marks For printer name always use the system printer name as is displayed in the status line in the label design application System printer names are usually the same as the printer names in Printers folder from Control Panel but not always so pay attention They differ only when you are using network connected printers when you should use SERVER SHARE syntax and not a printer friendly name PRINTJIOBNAME PRINTJOBNAME lt job_name gt Specifies the print job name that wil
121. he specified database field 63 Text Wizard Database Properties First define the link to the database and then select the database field The value for the label object will come from the database field To set up database access click on the Define button Choose one of available database fields as a source for the abject content Database Field Length Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard nest time Dialog box for Text Wizard when Database option is chosen Define Click on this button to open the database wizard that will help you define the link to the database Field Choose one of the available database fields as a source for the variable field Length Define the maximum length of the string in variable If field in database contains more characters they will not be printed This option is useful if the field length in your database is not fixed for example tab delimited ASCII file or if you don t want to reserve space for all the char acters in database s field Text Wizard Prefix and Suffix The variable element can have a prefix and suffix values The prefix text is placed in front of the variable s value The suffix text is placed at the end of the variable s value _ 64 Text Wizard Prefix and Sufix Specify prefix and sufi for your object Prefix string will be placed in front of the data value Sut string will be placed after the data value To c
122. hem with other users make sure to exchange not only label files LBL but also files with last used dynamic values DDV Note If you want to use the counter that remembers last used value you must have the per missions to write in the folder with the labels This type of a counter will remember the last value that was used for it on this label If you want to share the same counter on many labels and it should progress no matter which label is printed look at the global variable It too can remember last used value and can be used on different labels Overriding Default Values When you define default values for variables in the label they are saved inside the label file or saved in the external DVV file when using remember last used value option The default val ues are used every time that you don t explicitly specify the custom values To print labels with custom values your printing application must send the values to the label variables just before the printout You can override the default values using the external file that provides new values for the vari ables The file must have the same name as the label file but with the extension defaults For example the file with new default variables for the label LABEL LBL must have name LABEL DEFAULTS and must be saved in the same folder with the label The file structure must contain field value pairs each in a newline such as VariableNamel Valuel Var
123. iableName2 Value2 In this case the variable VariableNamel will have value Valuel and variable Vari ableName2 will get value Value2 109 Global Variable Global variable is a type of variable that can be used on many different labels Once it is defined it is stored outside the current label so it is available for any other label as well Its last value is stored even after closing the label file and exiting the application It is useful when continuing of numbering from previous printing is required Values of global variables are stored in a separate file on disk GLOBALS TDB The location of the folder is C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Euro Plus d o o NiceLabel6 System Global variable is an advanced option for power users and 1s not available in the Variable wizard Global variable can only be created manually in the Variable dialog box Make sure to select Global as the Source for the variable in the General tab If you copy your label file which uses global variables to another computer you have to copy the file GLOBALS TDB to the new computer as well If you miss this step then the labeling applic ation won t find appropriate global variable and will notify you of this situation At the same time a substitute global variable will be created but last value of old variable will not be known nor will the correct variable properties be restored Check the settings of substitute global variable and chan
124. icture object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Picture object in the Toolbox 2 Click on the label where you want to place the picture The Open dialog box opens 3 Browse for the picture on the hard disk then click on the Open button Note Should you later want to edit the object select 1t then double click 1t The wizard or dialog box with properties appears 70 Defining Rectangle Object To place the rectangle object on the label do the following 1 Click on the Rectangle icon in the Toolbox 2 Click the position on the label where you want the upper left position of the object to be set 3 Drag to bottom right direction until the object size 1s as requested 4 The other method of positioning the rectangle object on the label is simply selecting the Rectangle tool and then clicking the label A default sized rectangle will appear and you can re size it using handles around the object Note If you want to draw a square grab a handle a on one of the rectangle corners sim ultaneously press and hold Shift key then re size the rectangle A square will be drawn For more useful shortcuts available in the software refer to the chapter Shortcuts 4 To move a rectangle to a different position simply select it and drag it elsewhere on the label Note Should you later want to edit the object select it then double click it The dialog box with properties appears Defining Line Object
125. ients will be formatted by the Highlight specification The last parameter provides the CSV list of sentences that must not be highlighted even if they contain the aller gen words The function requires the SQL Server Native Client ODBC driver It is installed with the SQL Server tools that you can download from Microsoft web pages Syntax FormatAllergensFromMSSQLWithExceptions Ingredi ents SQLServer dbUsername dbPassword dbName Table Field Highlight TableEx FieldEx Ingredients The CSV list of ingredients SQLServer The SQL server name and optional instance for example server instance The user name defined in the SQL server dbUsername Note This is SQL user not Windows user account The password for the SQL user name The name of the table containing the list of allergens The name of the field containing the allergens The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used The name of the table containing the list of word amp sentences to be excluded from allergen formatting 160 The name of the field containing words and sentences that will not be high lighted even if they contain allergen words Example FormatAllergensFromMSSQLWithExceptions wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nut s server sqlexpress SQLuser password tb
126. ill open 2 Open the Dithering tab 3 Change the Dithering type option to suit your needs Look at the preview on the right side how you can expect the selected type to be applied on the label 4 Click on the OK button 5 Save the label by clicking the button in the Standard toolbar or selecting the com mand Save in the File menu Defining Unprintable Area Unprintable area is the part of the label where the printer cannot print You can virtually increase the size of the label by enabling unprintable area in the printer driver The thermal printer can only print labels that are placed below the print head If you have wider labels and the print head does not completely cover the label the label part jutting out of the print head cannot be printed With unprintable area feature you can let the application know that there is unusually wide label inserted into the printer The labeling software will draw vertical red lines identifying the unprint able area The unprintable area is usually the label area left and right of the printer head The unprintable area is not a margin The label objects are not shifted on the label To define the unprintable area on the label do the following 1 Open the label in Designer Pro 2 Select File gt Printer Settings 3 Go to Options tab 4 Enter the values for Unprintable Area For example You have a printer with 10 cm 4 printer head and a 12 cm wide label You insert the lab
127. ing Select the Visual Basic Script option 6 Click on the Detailed tab to define properties for the function The variable NAME on the label provides the first and last names of the person The Visual Basic script should break them apart and use only the first name as the result of the function For the Visual Basic script enter the following code Dim Spc Spc InSt NAME if NAME lt gt then Result Mid NAME 1 Spc 1 end if The above script will search for the first space in the variable NAME and save all char acters until this space character as a result 117 7 The result from the Visual Basic Script function is automatically stored in the function generated variable VBScriptl every time the label is processed for preview or print 8 Click on the OK button 9 Click on the Close button to close the Functions dialog box Using the result of VBScript on the label To link the function generated variable VBScriptl to an object on the label do the following 1 Click on the small arrow at the right end of the Text object Click on the option Use existing variable and select the variable VBScript l Fixed Text Mew Keyboard Input 23 Mew Counter Mew Date Field Mew Time Field Use Existing Variable EH vescripti User Information Picture User Information Room User Information Position E User Information Mame User Informatio
128. int action over writes the file on the disk when it already exists If you want to append the data to the existing file make sure to use the parameter APPEND Once you use a command PORT in the JOB file it will be valid until the next PORT command or until the end of file whichever comes first If you use PRINTER command after the PORT com mand has been executed the PORT setting will overwrite the port defined for the selected printer If you want to use the actual port that 1s defined for the selected printer you have to use another PORT command with empty value like this PORT PRINT PRINT quantity skip identical label copies number of label sets Command PRINT starts printing The first parameter is the quantity of the labels that should be printed lt number gt This many labels will be printed VARIABLE Some variable contains the information how many labels should be printed It can be label defined prompted variable or a field from the database UNLIMITED If you use a database to acquire values for variable fields unlimited printing will print as many labels as there are record in the data base If you do not use a database there is not much sense to use this 180 option In this case the maximum number of labels that thermal printer internally supports will be printed The parameter skip in the command represents the number of the labels you want to omit before first printed label on t
129. int time stamp Digits and Use this format to limit the usage only to digits and capitals of Capitals English alphabet CUSTOM You can define your own data format The allowable characters can be defined in the Serialization tab 110 lt printer fam Use this formats do enable usage only of characters that are ily name gt allowed in the internal fonts of the currently selected printer FORMAT Code 39 Use this formats to enable usage only of characters that are Code 128A allowed by these barcodes standards Code 128B Code 128C Code 128 Codabar Internal Variables Internal variables are filled automatically by the software and you do not have any influence on them They cannot be edited and modified but only used in the functions and on the label Their value is updated for every printed label Internal variables are represented with the icon so they can be easily distinguished from the other types of variables The list of available internal variables ComputerName CurrentBatchQuantity DefaultPrinterName LabelFileName LabelPrinterName RequestedQuantity ShortLabeIName SystemUserName TotalQuantityPrinted UserName Contains the information about the computer name of a PC computer where labels are processed as specified from Windows system Contains information about the label quantity reached in the current label batch The value is reset at beginning at each batch in the printing pro
130. inter symbol in front of its name El To make sure you have selected the proper font the same symbol is shown in the lower right corner of the element on the label If the symbol is not there you didn t select the nght font or you do not have switched on displaying of printer ele ment In this case select Object properties in View menu and click Printer elements 5 Using downloaded graphics Click Graphics icon E Picture f and select the picture you downloaded to memory card before Click OK Inserted picture 1s used from disk and not from memory card yet To change this double click the picture and select On memory card in General tab Click Browse and select the picture from memory card To make sure you are using picture from memory card look at the picture on the label It should be framed in blue box Regular picture doesn t have any frame If you need further explanation on how NiceMemMaster works please refer to NiceMemMaster documentation Using Label Setup Wizard Using Label Setup Wizard Label Setup Wizard offers defining dimensions of the label and changing printer setup It consists of a few simple steps Click on the Related Topics button for more information Defining Label Dimensions Here you can enter the label dimensions 148 Label Setup Wizard Label Dimensions Set the label layout dimensions and select the appropriate unit of measure Label width Label height Top Margin Lett Margin Bott
131. ion in one barcode symbol This is called concatenation An Application Identifier is the field of two or more characters at the beginning of an data value Application identifiers are prefixes that uniquely identify the mean ing and the format of the data field following The data fields are either of fixed or variable length depending on the AI 74 Step 1 Choosing the application identifier A UCC EAN128 Wizard Selection of Application Identifier Select the required Application Identifier for your bar code Select the required Application Identifier Detaled Serial Shipping Container Code Seral Shipping Container Code Global Trade ltem Number GTIN GTIN of trade items contained in a logistic unit Batch or Lot number Production Date yy MMOD Due Date yy MMOD Packaging Date fy MMDD Minimum Durability Date yy MM DD Maximum Durability Date Vy MMDD Product Yariarit Seral MNumber Secondary Data For Specific Health Industry Products Lot Number Transitional Use Lancel Back Next gt GS1 128 Wizard Choosing application identifier The dialog in the first step of Wizard allows you to select the GS1 128 barcode data structure Each barcode is composed out of one or more Application Identifiers and the corresponding data Choose one of the Application Identifiers in this list You can add edit or delete Application Iden tifiers from the barcode later in the process a ds UCCIEAN128 Wizard
132. irectly in the Ricth Text Box object The function that you would use must match the data location where you keep the list of allergens such as CSV string Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Access database To format the allergens from a list in Excel do the following 1 In NiceLabel Pro select Data gt Functions 2 Click New 3 Select Visual Basic Script and type in the function Name 4 Go to Detailed tab 5 Click Build Script 6 Change the line Result 0 mto Result and position the cursor after the equal sign In the Category section expand Custom Functions and select Food allergens 8 In the Name category double click the function FormatAllergensFromExcel 9 Inthe Expression category define the function parameters for example Result FormatAllergensFromExcel Ingredients c data aller cens xise Sneert il Mi bold This will read the list of ingredients provided in the variable Ingredients read the list of allergens from Microsoft Excel file allergens x1ls in the first column in the sheet Sheet1 and apply bold formatting to all allergens within 10 Click OK 11 In Output variable name define the variable name where the formatted allergens will be saved 154 12 Click OK 13 Click Close 14 In the toolbox select the Rich Text Box object then click anywhere on the label 15 In Rich Text Editor select your variable in the list and add it into t
133. ired from some variable defined in the label Data size The currently used data is previewed here You can see the amount of space still available in the tag The occupancy of the tag 1s seen graphically with growing bar and numerically with the digit explaining the number of already used bytes Block locked If you set the block as locked the data will be permanently encoded into the tag You will not be able to erase this block to re program it with some other value Use this option with caution ISO Tags The blocks that are dimmed and inaccessible are reserved blocks that cannot be used Block Number The successive number of block in the tag Data source Select where the data block will receive the value from It can be Fixed where you will manually type in the value or can be Variable where the value is acquired from some variable defined in the label Data Type in the tag value manually if the selected data type 1s Fixed Select the vari able defined in the label if the selected data type is Variable If your variable length is greater than the block size the next block will automatically be reserved for the data Size The currently used data is previewed here You can see the amount of space still available in the tag The occupancy of the tag 1s seen graphically with growing bar and numerically with the digit explaining the number of already used bytes Data type The data can be encoded as ASCII string or as HEX enc
134. it of measure Enabling cutter functionality Note Designer Express edition can control the cutter However you cannot use the Label Setup dialog box Instead you must define the cutter parameters in the properties of the NiceLabel Printer Driver printer driver Please refer to the Designer Express user guide for instructions how to set up cutter Defining Label Batch Printing and Using Header and Tail Labels Label batch refers to a group of labels that have some property in common The purpose of identi fying label batch is to execute the actions and to enclose each label batch with header and tail label The header and tail labels are printed in front of the first label in the batch header label and after the last label in the batch tail label They can be used as page separators and can include additional information for the label operators To enable label batch printing do the fol lowing 1 Select the option Label Setup in the File menu The Label Setup Wizard will open 2 Select the option Open the advanced options dialog box and click on the button Finish The main Label Setup dialog box will open 3 Go to the tab Batch Printing 4 Click on the button Advanced in the bottom part of the dialog box The Advanced tab will open aa 5 Look at the Label Batch Definition sections If your label batch will contain 5 labels enable the option Fixed number of labels and type 5 in the combo box in the right
135. jects 2 Choose a select arrow in the Toolbox and draw a frame around all objects to select all objects 25 Selecting the objects on the label 3 In the Align toolbar on the right click on the icon to arrange the objects The selected objects will be rearranged and positioned on the horizontal center on the label Note There are also other alignment commands available in the Align Toolbar Note You can also align the objects to the label grid or the Guidelines Both Grid and Guideline options are available in the View menu Object Positioning Guidelines Guidelines are available to assist you in positioning objects on the label The functionality of guidelines is similar to grid but they allow you much more freedom regarding positioning moving and combining positioning delimiters Although the guidelines may be visible while designing the label they will not be printed on the final product regardless of whether the Display Guidelines setting is turned on or off Create Guidelines Create vertical and horizontal guidelines e Click anywhere in the ruler area and drag the line out of it the top ruler contains hori zontal and the side ruler contains vertical guidelines e Alternatively you may right click on the label and select to add a guideline to that pos ition from the Guidelines menu e Finally you can open the View menu and access the commands there Using Guidelines The guidelines are moved at any
136. jects and borders e Youcan enable the variable label sizing When some object with relative positioning overlaps the label borders the labeling software can adjust the label length and increase decrease the label dimensions e Variable label sizing takes into consideration the other side of the label as well if double sided printing is enabled e When you export the label to printer File gt Export gt Export to Printer on supported printers the links between the object break and the objects will have fixed positions e When you group objects then if the selected objects are dependent of some other objects the parent and slave objects are all grouped together e You cannot delete the parent object First remove the links to the child objects so it becomes stand alone object then remove it Rotating Label To rotate the label on the screen do the following 1 Click on the icon in the top left corner of label design area where vertical and hori zontal ruler collide 2 The label will rotate for 90 clockwise Each click on the button will rotate the label for additional 90 degrees The initial rotate position is portrait Each click will rotate the label to the next position The positions in line are portrait land scape rotated portrait rotated landscape Rotating the label on screen will help you define label easier when the objects on the label must be printed rotated but you want to be able to design the la
137. l With contents mask you can simply reformat the data to suit your needs For example you must use differently formatted human interpretation text below barcode than the data is formatted in the barcode You do not want to define two variables for this purpose and enter the similar data twice The mask character will be replaced by the actual data and any other used character will be used as is If the current barcode value is AD951 and the contents mask is MARCO Fk x 0 the resulting output will be ADC 95 1 Powerful formatting structures can be defined using Contents mask but it is only available with barcodes that allow custom formatting of the human interpretation You should also make sure to print barcodes as graphics otherwise the contents mask 1s not available Note If your data contains the asterisk character then you will have to change the default mask character to something else It should be a unique value not appearing anywhere in the data The contents mask functionality is available with Text and Barcode objects Using Expression Builder The Expression builder is a programming text editor with constant access to command reference of the script language you are currently using The Expression Builder can be used for VBScript and Python scripts as well as for the native NiceCommands The Expression Builder lets you edit your scripts and expressions with ease The Load and Save buttons all
138. l be used in print manager when using PRINT command After printing the name is returned in normal state Use this option to easier distinguish between dif ferent printing jobs in the Windows spooler If variable value contains space characters or commas you have to enclose the text in quotation marks e g PRINTJOBNAME Label for printing QUIT QUIT This command stops the labeling program after printing The application 1s closed 181 RETURN This command returns focus to the main labeling program after the printing completes SESSIONEND SESSIONEND The function closes data stream SESSIONPRINT SESSIONPRINT quantity skip You send the data stream to printer using this function You can use multiple SessionPrint com mands one after another and join them in single data stream The stream is not closed until the com mand SessionEnd occurs The meaning of quantity and skip parameters is the same as with NiceCommand PRINT SESSIONSTART SESSIONSTART All three commands SessionStart SessionPrint SessionEnd are used together If ordinary com mand SessionPrint is used every time a complete data stream for printer is sent If you want to join multiple Print commands into one data stream you can use the command SessionStart fol lowed with any number of SessionPrint commands and in the end use the command SessionEnd The stream is not closed until the command SessionEnd occurs These commands offer
139. lAllergens Allergens bold ital 161 Printing and Previewing Labels Preview and Print a Label If you want to print a label you can use the print preview to simulate a print output The label pre view shows the label on the screen Simulate printing 10 labels on the screen to check label layout and printing procedure 1 Click on icon in the Standard toolbar or select the command Print in the File menu The Print dialog box appears 2 Enter 10 for Label Quantity and click on the Preview button The software will close the dialog box and simulate the production for 10 labels on the screen Note You can select between the quantity of the labels and the quantity of the pages The page can have one or more labels and the labels are arranged on the page in columns and rows If you have eight labels on the page the quantity of ten pages will print 80 labels When you are certain that the labels will be printed correctly and the preview shows the correct values you can proceed to real printing To actually print the labels do the following l Click on Ga Print icon in the Standard toolbar The Print dialog box appears 2 Enter 10 for the Label Quantity and click on the Print button Your printer will now print 10 labels Note To manage fast and easy label printing you can print labels from the application NicePrint or the form generated with NiceForm For more information refer to the chapter Other A
140. label Change value every lt n gt labels Define the number of labels when the counter will change the value Rollover when reached Enter the value when reached will cause the counter to reset the value to the starting value 103 Variable Wizard Date Field Define the properties of the date field The variable field will get the value from a computer clock Variable Wizard Date1 Date Define the properties of the date field days months pear Dialog box for Variable Wizard when Date field option is chosen Format Select the format for your date from the list You can also enter the custom format Date offset You can add a certain numbers of days months or years to a current date and print that date instead of the current one Preview The printer will print the date as shown on the Preview field This way you can see how the selected date format will look on the label Variable Wizard Time Field Define the properties of the time field The variable field will get the value from a computer clock 104 Variable Wizard lime Time Define the properties of the time teld Format Time offset E 7 Seconds E Minutes E Preview Hours 14 20 56 Dialog box for Variable Wizard when Time field option is chosen Forma
141. label by clicking the button in the Standard toolbar or selecting the com mand Save in the File menu Printer Memory Custom Commands Import Esport settings About Options Advanced Setup Dithering Stocks No OF Copies Darkness 50 E stocks User defined Printer driver properties You can also change the printer settings right before the label is printed 1 Select the Print command in the File menu 2 Goto the Printer tab This tab allows you to change the printer just before printing begins but 1t also enables you to change common printer settings like speed darkness and print direction 51 Changing Dithering Options Dithering is a process of converting color or gray scale pictures to black and white pictures that can be printed on thermal printers Thermal printers normally cannot print color images and can either print a dot on the label or not There are no intermediate shades of gray During the dithering process all colors and shades of gray in the picture are converted to black and white dots creating the illusion of new colors and shades by varying the pattern of dots Different shades of gray are produced by varying the patterns of black and white dots There are no gray dots at all In printing dithering is usually called half toning and shades of gray are called halftones To change the dithering settings do the following 1 Go to File Printer Settings The window with the printer settings w
142. le The application identifier will be linked to the variable and have variable value on each label Select the existing variable from the list Step 3 Entering the value for the Application Identifier Entering fixed value for the application identifier aJe UCCIEAN128 Wizard Al 04 Application Identifier Value Enter the data for Application Identifier Al U1 Global Trade ltem Number GTIN Data format 1114 Enter data for the Application Identifier 1234567890123 ree 13 digits must be entered for the Application identifier Data format will be numeric Entering fixed value for the application identifier If you have selected fixed value in the previous dialog box you should enter value for the Applic ation Identifier here The Wizard will let you know about the required data format fort this AI and how long the AI value should be For some Al s the field length is fixed to certain number of digits for others only the maximum number of possible digits is stated You will also be reminded of the Al s proper field format numeric alphanumeric if you enter incorrect data Entering variable value for the application identifier 298 A UCCIEAN128 Wizard A101 ag Variable Field Properties Set prompt and properties for variable held Prompt Entes the value for Al 07 GTIN Baeza Format 2 Numeric Counter Fixed Incrementing 1 2 3 etc Decrementing 10 9 8 etc
143. lection is important when your file has multi lingual contents Unicode data If in doubt what to use first try the option Automatic detection Refer to the preview it must display to correct values 124 Text File Wizard Choose File Type Choose the file encoding type that is used in the data file File type Select the encoding of the text file Automatic detection ls recomended if your files include file tupe header used for UNICODE files If this ts not true you must define the encoding to use UNICODE data in the file File encoding Automatic detection File preview bi lusA _A5amplesiD atabasetdata txt sign and printing Data entry application design Deate detection and connectivity Database management Font and graphics download Defining the file encoding 2 Choose the data type for the selected text database The fields are aligned in columns so you must select the option Fixed Text File Wizard Choose Data Type Choose the data type that best describes pour data structure Data type Delimited Characters such as comma or tab separate each field Fixed Fields are aligned in columns with spaces between each field First row contains field names 1 Label Designer Label design and printing 2 Form Designer Data entry application design 3 Middleware Server Data detection and connectivity ld Database Manager Database management 5 Font Downloader Font and graphics
144. lergensFromMSSQOL Ingredients SQLServer dbUsername dbPass word dbName Table Field Highlight The CSV list of ingredients The SQL server name and optional instance for example server instance The user name defined in the SQL server The password for the SQL user name The name of the table containing the list of allergens The name of the field containing the allergens The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used Example FormatAllergensFromMSSQL wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nutl s server sqlexpress db password Allergens Allergens bold italic Allergens embedded within the custom tags This function will accept the list of ingredients where the allergens are marked with tag The tag is a custom character placed in front of and after the allergen The value between the two tags is highlighted as specified by Highlight Syntax FormatAllergensFromTags Ingredients Tag Highlight The list of ingredients where the allergens have been enclosed by tag characters The character that is used in front of and after the allergen Make sure to select the character that is not used anywhere else in this string 157 The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline a
145. lic coconut milk FormatAllergensWithExceptions Ingredi ents wheat hazelnuts bold italic Exclusions Allergens from Microsoft Excel spreadsheet This function will accept the list of ingredients and location of the Microsoft Excel spread sheet The function reads the allergens from the spreadsheet and creates the RTF code with highlighted allergens All words from the spreadsheet that are matched in the Ingredients will be formatted by the Highlight specification The last parameter provides the CSV list of sentences that must not be highlighted even if they contain the allergen words Syntax FormatAllergensFromExcelWithExceptions Ingredi ents ExcelFile Spreadsheet Field Highlight SpreadsheetEx FieldEx Ingredients The CSV list of ingredients 158 Excel file The full path and filename to the Microsoft Excel file containing the allergens Spreadsheet The name of the spreadsheet containing the list of allergens The name of the field column name containing the allergens You can also provide the column index number containing the list of allergens Column A must be provided as 1 column B as 2 etc The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used The name of the spreadsheet containing the list of word amp sentences to be excluded
146. low on screen instructions in the next steps Click on the Finish button 3 4 5 6 Note Should you later want to edit the object select it then double click it The wizard with properties appears Defining Text Box Object The Text Box object enables you to use free flow text inside the designed Text Box frame without being limited to a one line text To create a Text Box object do the following _ 68 1 Click on the EE 12 button in the Toolbox The text box cursor appears on the screen 2 Move the cursor to the location on the label where you want to place the text box object and click on the mouse button The properties of the object will open 3 Open the Value tab and type in the text content Value Gile Detaled Appearance Status Contents Select how the contents for the object vel be defined F peed i LA family of professional label design software Entering value for Text Box object 4 Click on the OK button The Text Box object is placed on the label 5 Double click the Text Box to open its properties 6 Go to the Detailed tab and select the option Best fit TEXT OBJECT a family of professional labeling software products TEXT BOX OBJECT a family of professional labeling software products RICH TEXT BOX OBJECT sa a e e T a E o a family of professional labeling software products All three text objects are available in the labeling software
147. m Application Identifiers selected In this field all selected application identifiers for the barcode are listed in the order of creation You can change the order with the arrow buttons Add Edit or Delete buttons Use these buttons to add additional application identifiers and edit or delete existing ones Input Application identifier delimiter Define left and right separator among different application identifiers The default setting is to use round parenthesis Preview A sample barcode content based on your application identifier selection is shown here Click the Finish button to exit the wizard 80 Selecting Barcode Type Settings for Advanced Barcodes GS1 128 Barcode This barcode is combined from one or more input values and standard Al Application Identifiers Each AI must be followed by the standard values These values can be fixed or variable When the GS1 128 barcode is selected the Barcode data field in the Barcode Wizard dialog box 1s disabled To define the contents of the barcode click the Next button From the list of available Application Identifiers select the first identifier It will be written in bracket bellow the barcode When the Application Identifier includes also check digits you have to define whether it will be calculated or entered together with data Next define how you will set the values for the selected identifier You may enter fixed value or define variable value Fixed
148. m factor lt SHIFT gt scrolls label left or right Double click the form name in the status bar starts NiceForm and opens form that is attached to the label Double click on printer s name in status bar opens printer properties dialog box in which you can set various options regarding currently selected printer If you hold lt CTRL gt while double clicking printer setup dialog box is opened in which you can select different printer You can quickly move objects from one open label to another by simply dragging desired object to another window while holding lt ALT gt If you want to copy objects instead hold both lt ALT gt and lt CTRL gt Note that you must have both label windows visible to do that Different objects on label can be selected using the lt TAB gt and lt SHIFT gt lt TAB gt keys Pressing cursor keys while holding lt Ctrl gt key can move currently selected object This can be used to fine tune position of the object Holding lt SHIFT gt while pressing cursor keys will resize the object You can use the right mouse button almost anywhere on label to access most common options for that area object For example if you click an object with right mouse button a pop up menu is dis played that contains options and actions that can be performed on selected object Similarly click ing the other parts of label produces pop up menu with options for that part of label Multiple objects can be selected by holding
149. m support e NiceLabel Tutorials www nicelabel com Learning center Tutorials e NiceLabel Forums forums nicelabel com 186
150. menu Label Rotation Click this button to rotate the label in 90 degrees steps clockwise The action will only rotate the label on the screen the label will print in the direction specified in the label setup You can use this option to make label design easier Your label can always be rotated in a way to have all object placed horizontal Modified Shows whether the current label has been modified since the last save command has been executed Object Description Shows description of selected object Ruler This is ruler that shows the available area for label white and page gray Scroll bar You can use this scroll bar to scroll the label if everything is not visible Spe Selected printer Shows currently selected printer Double clicking it executes the Printer setup command Mouse Wheel support If you have mouse that has a wheel in place of the middle button you can use it to speed up zoom ing and scrolling a lot e Turning the wheel scrolls the label up or down e Holding lt SHIFT gt and turning the wheel scrolls the label left or right e Holding lt CTRL gt and turning the wheel zooms the label in or out Using the Keyboard and Mouse Effectively When selecting objects you can use lt CTRL gt key to adjust object s anchoring point by clicking the object placeholders If you have a Wheel Mouse you can use the wheel to scroll label up and down Holding lt CTRL gt when rotating the wheel adjusts zoo
151. must be run When you are using topic LINE the content is one of the commands When you want to use DDE communication to manage the labeling software it is probably the best when the user doesn t know for the background running of this application For this purpose you can use this command parameter NLABEL6 EXE lt label_ name gt s The parameter s silent prevents that the software will show on the screen It is run in the min imized form Integration to SAP R3 Integration to SAP R3 The labeling software can be used to design labels that should be printed to thermal printers from SAP system Two possible methods can be implemented Printing Using this option the labels are designed with the labeling soft directly ware on a PC computer and are then exported to SAP format from Export procedure will generate ITF native file with description SAP R3 of the label This ITF file is then uploaded to SAP system and users can print labels directly from SAP R3 The advantage with this approach is that no PC is required for label printing Once the label is created you do not need the label designer any more However there are several disadvantages First of all every label printer is not suitable for label printing directly from SAP R3 sys tem SAP has certain limitations that the printer has comply to There is also limited support for graphics elements Variable graphics cannot be used at all And only some printer models sup
152. n ID Selecting the function generated variable VBScriptl 2 Click on the label where you want to place the text object The text object 1s linked to the new variable VB Script Every time the label is processed for preview or print the Visual Basic script will re calculate the result and store it in the function generated variable VBScriptl Using custom VBScript functions Some useful predefine Python scripts are included with the software In Expression Builder expand Custom Functions in the Category window and select the func tion Working with Databases Using Database Wizard Using Database Wizard Process of defining a new Database access function consists of four steps pages On those pages you enter the data required by Wizard You can go to the next step page by clicking Next button or return to previous with Previous button 118 When all data needed has been entered Finish button will become available allowing you to com plete the process of defining a new Database access function Note that some options have pre defined values so you don t really need to go through all the steps of a wizard Selecting Database File Database Wizard Database and Table Select the type of database and table you want to use on the label Select the type of the database O All installed database drivers ODBC OLE DB BOE Browse for the database table you want to use T able EA TIEL
153. n design Td 15 a Middleware Server j3 Data detection and connectivil MIA o Database Manager Database management MA o Font Downloader Font and graphics download TO Printer Drivers 6 True Windows thermal transfer gt Records selected 2 Row 3 of 6 Record selection dialog box 128 5 Click on the OK button You will return to the Print dialog box 6 Click on the Preview button Now you can preview the labels on the screen Note that the text objects on the label change for each new record i Pause FIRK Form Designer pre 2 Data entry application design Mayi Preview of the second label in the series 7 Click on the Next button in the command window to advance to the next label in the series After you see the last label in the preview series the labeling software will re open the Print dialog box 8 Click on the Close button to close the Print dialog box Print a Label When you are certain that the label design is correct and label preview shows the correct values from the database you can start sending the labels to the printer To print a label do the following 1 Click on the print icon Ga Print y in the Standard Toolbar The Print dialog box will open same as the print preview dialog box 2 Click on the button Select Records and select the records you want to print and specify the label quantity for each record FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELDS O Label Designer 1 La
154. nd or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used Example FormatAllergensFromTags wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nucg m ram i Bold italio Syntax of Allergen formatting functions with support for exclusions User provided list of allergens This function will accept the list of ingredients and list of allergens in two variables and create the RTF code with highlighted allergens All words from the Allergens that are matched in the Ingredients will be formatted by the Highlight specification The last parameter provides the CSV list of sentences that must not be highlighted even if they contain the aller gen words Syntax FormatAllergensWithExceptions Ingredi ents Allergens Highlight Exclusions The CSV list of ingredients The CSV list of allergens The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used The CSV list of words amp sentences that will not be highlighted even if they con tain allergen words For example Milk is an allergen so the word milk must be highlighted but not when used in context coconut milk In this case coconut milk must be defined as exception Example FormatAllergensWithExceptions wheat flour salt veg fat hazelnuts coconut milk wheat hazelnuts milk bold ita
155. nd size in the relevant fields The origin of the coordinate system on the label is upper left corner of the label This dialog box should be used for fine tuning the placement and dimensions of the element Another method of fine tuning is using Label Inspector functionality Keep aspect ratio Locks the ratio of the element When you change the height width is auto matically adjusted so that the element is not distorted and vice versa Rotation It is possible to set the rotation of the objects in steps of 90 degrees anti clockwise to fit the appropriate position Anchoring point Set the corner of object bounding box that is used for positioning the object on the label This is the corner where the element is pinned on the label For example if you select the upper left button here then upper left corner of the object will be placed to position that is set above If the object 1s variable 1t will enlarge to the right side of the anchoring point If you want the object to enlarge on the left side set the anchoring point to the right side Using GS1 128 Wizard Using GS1 128 Wizard This wizard allows you to define the data structure for GS1 128 barcode This kind of barcode has different areas of application that include trade items logistic units assets and locations The GS1 128 barcode is an extremely flexible symbology It allows representation of data of vari able length and makes it possible to encode several pieces of informat
156. ndles are small rectangles surrounding the object when it 1s selected SAMPLE MN 1234567890 El Label with text and barcode objects Insert Pictures The labeling software works with BMP PCX GIF WMF JPEG and many other popular graphic formats 1 To insert the picture click on the button in the Toolbox 2 Move the cursor to the desired position on the label and click on the mouse button 3 The Open dialog box will open allowing you to browse for your picture on your hard drive Go to the folder Sample Graphics and select the picture LEISURE WME Click on the Open button _ 24 SAMPLE TN 234567890 Label with text barcode and picture objects Save a Label Always save your label during the design process To save a label do the following l Select the 2 Type in the name of the label For example enter label for the name of the label 3 The name of the label is visible in the program caption Label Designer label bl Name of the label in the program caption Use Alignment Tools You have placed the objects on the label Now you want to make sure they are aligned on the hori zontal center of the label You can align objects on the label by using the Align toolbar on the right side of the working window To align objects on the label do the following 1 Select all objects on the label Note The first object you select determines the alignment orientation for all selected ob
157. ned 1t does not have to be loaded and thus the label processing can be performed quickly LOGIN LOGIN lt username gt Performs login procedure into the labeling software This 1s necessary when login 1s required Note This is a DDE command and should not be used in batch command JOB files 179 MESSAGEBOX MESSAGEBOX message caption Displays the message in the message box The second parameter is used to define the title of the message dialog box If the variable value contains space characters or commas you have to enclose the text in quo tation marks e g MESSAGEBOX Insert labels in printer Warning OEMTOANSI OEMTOANSI ON OFF This command works in conjunction with command SET It puts the text that follows the command SET in proper codepage so that variable is assigned the proper value Use it to put the values following SET command to the proper codepage so correct characters will be transferred to labeling application at print time PORT PORT lt file name gt APPEND This command overrides the printer s port name This command is used to redirect print output to a file lt file_ Specify the name of the filename to which you want to redirect the name gt printer file You can also include the path in front of the filename If the file path or filename contain space characters enclose the whole string in double quotes APPEND The parameter APPEND is optional By default the pr
158. next step Label Setup Wizard Select Stock Predetined label formats stocks can speed up label design Select the label stock IF you will define label dimensions on your own skip this step and proceed with Next button Stock type koe p Stock name 4 Label linked to stock Stock information aa Label setup Wizard selecting Label Stock Selecting Label Layout Orientation Select the label orientation Look at the screen and printer layouts for suggestion how the label will really be printed from the printer Print directions Tick the option Rotated to rotate the label for 180 degrees when printed Click on the Next button to continue with the next step 150 Label Setup Wizard ag Select a layout that siutes you most A4 2100297m 5 FARRAR La Label Layout Orientation Print direction n Risa Fi bh O Landscape Screen layout Printer layout ABCD AL This printer does not support print direction settings Selecting label layout Defining the Page Size Select the page size for your labels This step is only necessary for the office printers Automatic Sizing Tick this option if you are using thermal printer with NiceLabel Printer Drivers The labeling software and NiceLabel Printer Drivers will negotiate about the label dimen sions Click on the Next button to continue with the next step 151 Label Setup Wizard Page Size Select the pa
159. nition of the permission granted by the profile 6 Go to Members tab and add the user to the profile Select the user you have created in previous steps 16 A General Permissions Members Members Select Members Add the user NiceLabel User to the profile My Profile 7 Close the applications 8 Start NiceLabel Designer Pro log on with the new user and see how the access per missions are applied to him Login The labeling software supports different access permissions to various parts of the applications Your administrator might have set up different access profiles so you must log in to validate your credentials Your username and password defines your permissions In order to use the labeling software the proper user name and password must be entered Dif ferent users have different privileges for usage of the program For example the access can be granted on print only design only view only level or full administrative access level The purpose of log in is the ability to distribute different tasks among different users and mainly to have ability to protect the data from unauthorized access Usually the group of label designers con sists out of different people than the group of label print operators The print operators should not have the access to label design System Folder The labeling application uses its system folder for storing files needed to run the program The loc ation of the fol
160. nly graphic fonts truetype opentype typel bitmap Windows fonts or only thermal printer resident fonts Click on the two icons next to the list of fonts 4 To change the size of the text click on the list with font sizes and select appropriate size You can also click on the buttons and that will enlarge reduce the size of the font to the next step Note You can change the fonts size also directly on the label by resizing the text element with a mouse 5 To format the text bold italic or underline click on the appropriate formatting buttons Formats the selected text in bold style Formats the selected text in italic style Formats the selected text in underline style 6 To change the alignment of the text object click on the appropriate alignment buttons Note These buttons are accessible only for multi line text objects Aligns text to the left edge Aligns text to the horizontal cen ter Aligns text to the right edge _ 55 Using Toolbox To use the toolbox do the following 1 Click on the icon in the toolbox to select the object 2 Move the mouse over the label See how the cursors has changed 3 Click on the label where you want to place the selected object Some objects have additional shortcut on the right side of the icon Using this shortcut you can quickly create a new object with fixed content create a new variable and connect it to the selected object or connect the object to one al
161. nly accessible if you have defined to select which records should be printed Prior printing you will be able to select which records will 121 be printed in the selection dialog box At the same time you will be able to type in the exact label copy for each selected record Selecting Variable Quantity from the Database Field Select a field in the database that contains the label quantity information The database record will be printed on as many consecutive labels as the selected field contains Note Make sure to select the field that has been formatted with the numeric data Adding the Fields to the Label Database Wizard Field Usage Speci the usage of selected fields from the database Define how you want the selected database fields to be used on the label O will ink the database fields to the objects myself later Each database field ls represented as a variable on the label The wizard can connect all selected database fielde with text objects on the label or leave the linking up to you Database wizard Adding fields to the label On this page you specify if you want the wizard to generate text objects on the label that are already linked to the corresponding fields in table Text objects are created in upper left corner of a label but you can later move them to another position Finishing the Process with Database Wizard The summary of tasks you have completed will be shown in the last step of the Wiz
162. nnot be retrieved but the default option assumes that the tag setting should remain unchanged Lock The RFID tag is locked and further changes to it are prevented Unlock The RFID tag is unlocked so that it can be changed Relock The RFID tag is unlocked the changes are applied and the tag is locked immediately after 48 Permanent lock unlock Checking this box will apply your selection above permanently and pre vent later changes to it This setting cannot be undone Support for RFID Tags With the labeling software you can program RFID tags of different manufacturers It is important to use NiceLabel Printer Driver printer driver for your thermal printer You cannot program RFID tags if you do not use NiceLabel Printer Driver NiceLabel Printer Driver will let the labeling software know which types of RFID tags the printer Supports Not all tag types are always available It depends on each printer model what kind of RFID tags can be used with it There are generally two types of tags e ISO tags Taglt 1Code ISO These are block oriented tags The data can be encoded in multiple blocks e UHF tags EPC The data is encoded in one block of data You can input content for RFID tags using different methods dependent on the tag type UHF or ISO UHF Tags e Data type Data type of the selected tag can be specified here Data source Incoming data that is encoded in the tag can be fixed value or acqu
163. ns All words from the spreadsheet that are matched in the Ingredients will be formatted by the Highlight specification Syntax FormatAllergensFromAccess Ingredi ents AccessDb Table Field Highlight The CSV list of ingredients The full path and filename to the Microsoft Access file containing the allergens The name of the table containing the list of allergens 156 The name of the field containing the allergens The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used Example FormatAllergensFromAccess wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nuts c data db mdb Allergens Allergens bold italic FormatAllergensFromAccess Ingredi ents c data db mdb Allergens Allergens bold italic Allergens from Microsoft SQL database This function will accept the list of ingredients and location of the Microsoft SQL database The function reads all records from the selected field in the specified table and creates the RTF code with highlighted allergens All words from the spreadsheet that are matched in the Ingredients will be formatted by the Highlight specification The function requires the SQL Server Native Client ODBC driver It is installed with the SQL Server tools that you can download from Microsoft web pages Syntax FormatAl
164. ns from the spreadsheet and creates the RTF code with highlighted allergens All words from the spreadsheet that are matched in the Ingredi ents will be formatted by the Highlight specification Syntax FormatAllergensFromExcel Ingredi ents ExcelFile Spreadsheet Column Highlight The CSV list of ingredients The full path and filename to the Microsoft Excel file containing the allergens Spreadsheet The name of the spreadsheet containing the list of allergens The name of the field column name containing the allergens You can also provide the column index number containing the list of allergens Column A must be provided as 1 column B as 2 etc The CSV list of formatting switches you want to apply to the allergen You can use bold italic underline and or caps This is optional parameter If provided as empty value bold formatis used Allergen almonds barley brazil nuts cashews celery crustaceans EBB eggs Wo synn E i Example FormatAllergensFromExcel wheat flour salt veg fat hazel nute cr ftiles data xlex Sheetl 1 bold italic FormatAllergensFromExcel Ingredi ents c files data xlsx Sheet1 1 bold italic Allergens from Microsoft Access database This function will accept the list of ingredients and location of the Microsoft Access database The function reads the allergens from the specified table and creates the RTF code with high lighted allerge
165. nt database TEXTQUALIFIER TEXTOUALIFIER Text qualifier is the character that embeds a data value that is assigned to a variable If the data value includes space characters it must be included in the text qualifier Otherwise only the data until the first encountered space character is assigned to the variable The default delimiter for the command SET 1s double quote character Because the double quote character is used as shortcut for inch unit of measure sometimes it is difficult to pass the data with inch marks in the JOB files The work around 1s to use the double double quote character instead of just one but in this case already the incoming data stream needed to be changed You can leave the incoming data stream as is and change the delimiter you want to use For example TEXTQUALIFIER SET Varli EPAK WRP BD 12 X10 7 32 3 The command TEXTQUALIFIER set the delimiter to percent sign The command SET can then use new delimiter character for specifying the value to the variable Varl 184 Note The command TEXTQUALIFIER is persistent during single program session If your JOB file sets the TEXTQUALIFIER to some value it will be used until set to another value Command Line Parameters You can use the command line parameters to pass advanced commands to the label designer when the application starts The following command line options can be used when starting the main labeling application
166. ntained m a logistic unit Batch or Lot number Production Date yy MMOD Due Date yy MMOD Packaging Date fy MMDD Minimum Durability Date yy MM DD Maximum Durability Cate MMOD Product Warant Seral Number Secondary Data For Specific Health Industry Products Lot Number Transitional Use Lancel Back Next gt Selecting Application Identifier from the list 2 Click on the Next button 3 Select Fixed and click on the Next button 4 5 Click on the Next button A dialog box showing all AI contained in this barcode will Enter the sample data for example 12345 open Click on the Add button to start adding a new AI For example select AI 21 Serial Number Repeat steps from 1 to 5 above e UCC EAN1 26 Wizard Application Identifiers Construct the list of Application Identifiers that will be encoded in the bar code Application Identifiers selected Batch or Lot number Serial Number Input Application identifier delimiter Left Prever Two Application Identifiers are defined 7 When you are satisfied with the designed Al and their positions within the barcode click on the Finish button The GS1 128 barcode is placed on the label Edit Barcode GS1 128 W 10 12345 21 12345 The designed label with GS1 128 bar code To define the GS1 128 barcode you first select this barcode type and assign a value to it 1 Click on the small arrow button next to the E Bar
167. objects When you group two or more objects into a group the objects behave as one single object on the label In some cases the grouping feature will make the label design easier To group objects on the label do the following 1 Select two or more objects on the label 2 Select the Group from Transformations menu The individual objects will be grouped into one group Note To ungroup the objects in a group you must use the command Ungroup from Trans formations menu _ 94 Clipart Galleries The distribution of labeling software includes a library of frequently used clipart images that you can use on your labels Images are stored in bitmap GIF JPG and vector WMF file formats Clipart Galleries incorporate useful images from retail logistics chemical automotive and other industries Subset of these galleries 1s included within the two Font files but for the whole col lection of available symbols you should browse the galleries Font Files Along with the labeling application you have also got two fonts with graphical symbols You can use them on your labels They contain frequently used care symbols used in textile industry sym bols for handling dangerous materials used in chemical industry and many other useful industry symbols The fonts are not automatically installed on your system but should you require them they are stored on your CD ROM They are accessible from the folder X Utility Fonts where X re
168. oded in a MaxiCode symbol but it may require reduced error cor rection protection e Purchase order number e Customer reference e Invoice number The labeling software supports two Maxicode modes e Mode 2 Used for numeric postal codes primary use is US domestic destinations e Mode 3 Used for alphanumeric postal codes primary use 1s international destinations You can define the values for individual data fields The values can be fixed just type in the value You can also link the Maxicode fields with some of the variable defined in your label template oR Edit Barcode Dialog Box This dialog box is displayed when you click the Define button on the Barcode dialog box In this dialog box you specify the type of barcode you want to use on the label and all barcode prop erties How the barcode should be generated Automatic or manual check digit calculation Position of the human readable m Other options dependent on the barcode type Click the option Enable preview to preview the barcode The barcode symbol was displayed on the right side of the dialog box Click the OK button to confirm the changes you made Click the Cancel button to discard the changes General Tab On this tab you can select the barcode type you want to use and the properties of the barcode Edit Bar Code og General Check Digit Human Readable Details Available bar codes E EAN UPC Symbol height ASS 2D 4 Ex
169. oded string Locked If you set the block as locked the data will be permanently encoded into the tag You will not be able to erase this block to re program it with some other value Use this option with caution 49 RFID Read and Store Data Here you can define which RFID data fields from the RFID tag will be stored in the selected stor age type Put the tick mark next to the data field you want to store The list of available data fields might change with the selected RFID tag type Once you have selected the RFID data fields you can select the storage type that matches your requirements Some of the storage plug ins ship with the software So you can select the database and text storage plug in Note If no storage plug in is selected the selected RFID Data Fields will still be stored into the regular log file Database Storage Plug in The RFID database storage plug in defines how the RFID data is stored in the selected database The printer driver receives the RFID data from the RFID reader embedded in printer The data base plug in defines into which database field the RFID data should be stored Storage Database tab Here you can create a link to the database and its table where you want to store the RFID data You can use direct database access to open the supported database or use the connection using ODBC OLE DB and BDE drivers Note You must select a true database that is accessible using S
170. ommand is implemented to automate the Export to printer command You can manually access the command using File gt Export gt Export to printer The label 1s exported directly to the printer and stored in the memory for off line printing The user can recall the label with keyboard on the printer or sending a command file to the printer ExportFileName The parameter is mandatory and defines the filename of a gen erated print stream for exporting label to the printer ExportV ariant Some printers support multiple export variants When manually exporting the user can select the export variant in the dialog With the EXPORTLABEL command you must specify which export variant you want to use The first variant has the value 0 The second variant has the value 1 etc If you do not specify the variant type value 0 is used as default CreateLV XFile The parameter has two possible values TRUE or FALSE If you set the value to TRUE besides the generated print stream also the LVX file will be created The LVX file contains information about the variables used in the label 178 For more information about exporting labels and LVX files refer to the white paper section on the Web site IGNOREERROR IGNOREERROR ON OFF Whenever the error occurs in the JOB file the printing process will terminate and the printing application will report errors back from the print engine for example e Incorrect variable is used in JOB file e Incorre
171. omplete the Wizard click Finish Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard nest time Setting Prefix and Suffix string for the variable text element Note If you leave the edit fields empty the prefix suffix will not be used Prefix and suffix can be used in situations where they are required only if the variable has set some value If the variable is empty the prefix suffix will not be printed as well 65 Using Barcode Wizard Barcode Wizard Bar Code Wizard Bar Code Object Define the contents and style of the bar code object Bar code data Fixed bar code data O Variable bar code data Bar code type Code128 Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard nest time First page of barcode Wizard Barcode Wizard guides you to define all parameters for the barcode object Fixed barcode data Select this option if you would like to have a fixed non changeable content of the object If you select this option you can enter the text directly in this dialog box Variable text Select this option if you would like to have variable content of the object Defining the content 1s defined in the next step Use the following syntax for entering values for RSS composite barcodes The pipe character is used to distinguish between the components The syntax lt linear part gt lt composite part gt The example 12345 description Barcode Wizard Choosing Va
172. on the label XML Command File Structure XML Command File Structure Explained Below is the description of the command file structure There are several elements that contain attributes Some attributes are required other are optional Some attributes can occupy pre defined values only for other you can specify the custom values Nice Commands Is root element with two attributes e login Performs login procedure into the program Not required e quit Closes the print engine when the actions execute Will remove the print engine from the memory Is required Label The element that opens the label in the print engine If the label is already opened it will be re used You can use this element several times within the command file e name Attribute contains the label name It 1s recommended to include label path and filename Note You can provide label name only but be sure that print engine will try locate the label in the correct folder Is required e close The attribute instructs the print engine if the label should close after printing or it should remain open Possible values true false Is required Print_Job The element that unions the commands for printing labels You can use this element several times within the command file e printer Use this attribute to override the printer defined on the label Print the label to some other printer The other printer must be accessible from this computer Use the printer n
173. or color selection Color palette color selection dialog box and label setup dialog box all display only the available colors from the printer Each label element can then easily be assigned some of the available colors The element is then printed using that color More than one color cannot be used with a single label element When you use color images on the label their appearance on the label changes They cannot be printed in more colors than supported by the printer The images are not displayed in full color Each image is converted to monochrome graphics and previewed on the label as such Conversion from color to monochrome graphics is done using dithering setting in the driver You can assign the image one color and thus the print head where the image will be printed The colors on the label identify which printer head will be used for printing the elements Setting up Stock Manager to List Commonly Used Labels When you create a new label you can base the new label on some predesigned label format referred to as stock or you can design the new label from the scratch The labeling software comes with a library of predefined stocks based on the labels from different manufacturers You can also add the definition of your own labels into the library by using the Stock Management To open Stock Management do the following 1 Select the option Stock Management in the File menu A new window will open show ing all defined stocks list
174. ormats In this field you define how the date will look You can select some of the predefined date formats or enter you own When defining the formats the following notation is used D Number of the day in a month Can occupy one or two characters DD Number of the day in a month Always occupies two characters leading zeros will be added as necessary M M is number of the month Can occupy one or two characters MM MM is number of the month Always occupies two characters YY or The year as 2 or 4 digits number YYYY DDD Abbreviation of the day of week name DDDD The full day of week name MMMM The full name of the month MMM The abbreviation of the name of month J The number of days since 1 January Can occupy from one to three char acters JJJ The number of days since 1 January Always occupies three characters W The week number in current year Can occupy one or two characters WW The week number in current year Always occupies two characters N The weekday The value range is 1 7 where 1 represents Monday and 7 represents Sunday characters Any other sequence of characters will be displayed unchanged This way you can insert dots commas and other characters needed to properly write the date The examples Format How the date will look D M YYYY 10 3 2005 DD MM YY 10 03 05 DDDD D MMMM YYYY Thursday 10 March 2005 JJJWW Y Y Y Y 069102005 Available Time Formats The time can be printed in vario
175. orn Margin Right largiri A gap Y gap Unit of measure Open the advanced options dialog box Help Cancel Label setup Wizard defining the label format Width height Define the label dimensions Margins Define the label margins Rows columns Define the number of labels in horizontal and vertical directions This option is commonly used with office printers laser and ink jet printers Gaps Define the gaps between the labels Note Define gaps only if you have changed rows and columns option If you have rolls of labels the gaps between the labels are auto identified by the gap sensor in the printer Unit of measure Change the unit of measure you want to use When you are satisfied with the label dimensions click on the Finish button to close the Label setup wizard Stock If you use one of the standard predefined label formats you can specify it here Stock Type Select the type of stock Stock name Select the stock from the list Stock information The information about label dimensions printer settings background images as defined by the selected stock Label linked to stock If you enable this option you cannot change the dimensions of the label because the stocks locks the dimensions Note Using predefined stocks simplifies the process of label creation as you do not have to define the label dimensions manually 149 Click on the Next button to continue with the
176. ot available for all printers and drivers If your RFID Tag Settings do not include EAS Settings you may need to update your printer driver or select a different printer For more information see your printer and driver documentation Preserve original EAS setting The original EAS setting cannot be retrieved but the default option assumes that the tag setting should remain unchanged Enable EAS Enable Electronic Article Surveillance in the RFID tag If this was the original setting the tag will remain unchanged Disable EAS Disable Electronic Article Surveillance in the RFID tag If this was the ori ginal setting the tag will remain unchanged Permanently lock EAS tag setting Checking this box will permanently lock the chosen set ting for the EAS This lock cannot be undone RFID Tag Locking Tag locking is not available for all tag types printers and drivers If the Locking Settings button is not displayed in the RFID tag dialog window you may be using an unsupported RFID tag type printer or driver The locking settings are available for some GEN2 tag types For more inform ation see your printer and driver documentation RFID tag locking enables the user to lock the RFID tag so that no changes can be made to it without unlocking the tag first If the tag is permanently locked it is not possible to unlock it and the RFID tag can never be changed Preserve original locking setting The original locking setting ca
177. ow exact number of labels for printing Using this variable you can enter the number of labels to print during printing itself The example You have a label of a product Already defined variables are Name and Price We want to print labels as follows e Enter Name and Price values e Enter quantity for this product o Print e Start with new product Do the following 1 Create new variable named Quantity 2 Tick the option The variable value is used as label quantity in the General tab 3 Edit variables Name and Price Go to the Prompting tab assuming the variables are already defined as prompted variables 4 Change the Prompt setting to Based on variable quantity When you start printing labels the quantity parameter in the print dialog is already set to Variable quantity defined from label variable Working with Functions Defining a Function Define a Function Functions allow you to modify the data received into the label For example you get the current day from the system and must calculate the expiry date for a product Another example you have to implement the specific proprietary check digit algorithm Each function has input and output The input are one or more variables which variables the func tion will use The output result of a function is a new function generated variable that you can use on the label linked with some object When you want to define the first function the list of
178. ow you to work with the external scripts The working window is divided into four parts Category This section contains the groups of available commands functions and operators Similar objects have been grouped together for _A easier identification and faster search Some predefined custom functions have been provided in the VBScript and Python syntax See Custom Functions in the Cat egory list Name This section will display the contents of the selected group in the Category section All available commands functions operators etc will be listed here If you select one of them its properties will be displayed in the Description section If you want to insert the selected operands into the Expression field double click its name or click the Insert button Expression This section is the main workplace of the Expression Builder Use it to write and modify the script your are working on Description This section displays the name sample use and description of the currently selected operand in Name section You will get an idea how the current operand should be used Script Help button will open the help file with the detailed reference of the currently used script Visual Basic Script or NiceCommands Click it to find out more about the command you are working with Keyboard Shortcuts Shortcut Description Cursors Standard positioning of the cursor Ctrl F Find some text Ctrl R Find amp replace some text
179. pansion factor Ratio Base object width mils el Tool 1 100 inch 123456 Print bar code az a graphic Enable preview Edit barcode dialog box General tab Type of barcode The required barcode symbology is selected from the tree list of available bar codes Symbol height The height dimension of a barcode can be specified either by entering a value here or by resizing the barcode symbol directly on the label _ 84 Narrow bar width The width of the narrowest bar in the barcode This is the base bar width The widths for all wider bars are calculated by the formula narrow bar width ratio The result of the formula must be a whole number it represents number of pixels Ratio This is the ratio between narrowest and widest bar in the barcode The ratio is locked for majority of barcodes and you cannot change it However for some barcodes you can change it and adjust the barcode size to your needs Space correction Enable this option to insert additional white pixels for each white space in the barcode The option is useful for Ink Jet printers where the ink can spill out and you need an extra space between bars for the reader to decode the barcode properly Base object width Shows the width of a narrowest bar in the barcode Print barcode as graphics Select this option to convert the barcode object into the image and sent to the printer as image If not selected the barcode will p
180. ped in using combinations of Alternate and Control keys The problem usually does not appear with your language specific characters a i n s A etc you can enter them directly on the keyboard or using Alt lt key code gt combination alternatively Windows utility Character Map can be used to find appropriate character and paste it to the label You might have problems using other kind of special characters Sometimes there is a need to include a character with ASCII code below 32 These are so called control characters They can not be normally entered to labeling or any other application There is an alternative method of enter ing such characters explained later in this topic There are several methods how special characters can be typed in to the labeling software Entering characters with lt hex_code gt syntax Another method of entering special characters is using the syntax lt hex code gt The hex code stands for a two character mark in hexadecimal numerical system The appropriate values go from 0 decimal 0 to FF decimal 255 For example lt BC gt decimal 188 would be the same as lt FNC1 gt as they both would encode the character with ASCII code 0188 Entering characters with Alt lt ASCII_code gt This method is valid only for characters that are above ASCII code 32 A typical example would be FNC codes that are used to encode GS1 128 barcode data The labeling software will encode this type of barcode
181. per size that best matches your needs Define the page size for pour labels When using thermal printers always select the first option to automatically set the page size based on the label dimension Label dimensions are then set in the following steps Automatically set from label dimensions default 2 Select page size Page size User defined width hoo em Height 7 0 cm Label setup Wizard choosing Label Dimensions Selecting Printer Select desired printer and optionally click Properties button if you want to set the printer para meters Print setup dialog box is shown allowing you to set the printer parameters such as print speed print darkness and print direction Note that this is standard Widows printer setup dialog box and its options may differ from printer to printer as it is based on the printer driver If the check box Always use default printer is checked the default window s printer and its set tings will be used always when opening this label Click the Next button to continue with the next step 152 Label Setup Wizard Select Printer Select the printer you want to use with this label Choose the printer from the list of installed printers The label will be optimized for this printer Always use default printer Tou can change the printer specific settings by clicking the Properties button Do not use the wizard nest time Label setup Wizard
182. pplic ations Store and Recall Printing Mode Store and Recall printing mode is the method of optimized label printing In this mode the software does not send the data for each label individually to the printer a process that used in standard printing mode Instead for each print action label recall command is sent to the printer The obvious benefit is reduction of data sent to the printer Typically a few bytes of data is sent to the printer compared to a few kilobytes with normal printing Store and recall printing method is a perfect solution for label printers where high response and high throughput is required Usually with embedded and integration systems Once you have defined the store and recall printing mode in the label designer the same benefits are available from the form designer and middleware integration module Instead the label printing process is broken into two processes e Store label During this process the software creates a description of the label template formatted in 162 the printer command language of the selected printer The software then sends the cre ated command file to the printer memory and stores it there Once the label has been stored in the printer it remains there until you format the printer memory or switch off the printer There are various memory locations in the printer and some of them are non volatile and you can lose the contents when the printer switches off Recall la
183. presents the letter of CD ROM drive in your system The fonts are in standard TrueType format and can be installed using Fonts utility in Control Panel They are accompanied with two document files that include all symbols from the fonts in a easily scanned formatted table L iz H da EA da 2A WY Ey Y BE e E Character map of Care Symbols Font CARESYM TTF 95 ork y WOW ih amp T 8 AiD ki eE pim a jt Hi lt E I El SE El ao DONES INE USER Za a gt RT Character map of EP Symbols Font EPSY M TTF Supported Graphics Formats The following graphical formats are supported File extension BMP DIB RLE GIF JPG JPEGM JPE TIFE TIF FAX G3N G3F PNG WMF EMF ICO CUR TGA TARGA VDA ICB VST PIX PXM PPM PGM PBM JP2 J2K JPC PCX PSD PDF Graphics type Windows Bitmap CompuServer Bitmap JPEG Bitmap TIFF Bitmap Portable Network Graphics Windows Metafile Enhanced Windows Metafile Windows Icon Windows Cursor Targa Bitmap Portable Pixmap GreyMap BitMap JPEG2000 JPEG2000 Code Stream Paintbrush Adobe Photoshop Adobe Portable Document Format 96 Working with Text Objects There are two modes of operation which can be set by setting program preferences The first default is On screen edit This means you can enter text directly on the label similar to a word processor program When you ha
184. print button Visually check the label preview if the selected label is really the correct one oo oe A Select which label or labels you want to reprint from the print job Put a tick mark in the selection box before the line You can reprint the currently selected label all labels from the beginning of the print job all labels until the end of the print job or select individual labels 6 Select the printer to which you want to reprint the labels 165 Note You can select any available printer not the original printer only because the software will process the label again not just send the same print job to the printer 6 Click OK 7 Click Close Use Custom Edit Forms If you have a lot of prompted variables on a label you can use custom forms that allow user friendly data entry Do the following 1 Open your label 2 Select Label Setup from the File menu 3 Goto Printing tab Note If Printing tab 1s not visible click on the button Advanced at the bottom of the dialog box 4 Type in the name of the form file you want to use for printing 5 Ifthe form does not exist click on the button Define to create it 6 Click on the OK button When you will select the Print command the form will start and replace the standard Print dialog box in the labeling software NicePrint NicePrint is a standalone application that enables fast and easy label printing You can start it from labeling softwar
185. prompt with the following syntax NLABEL6 EXE lt full path to your JOB file gt For example NLABEL6 EXE c My Labels PRINT JOB You can find the file NLABEL6 EXE in the Bin folder in the Program Files folder struc ture Using JOB Files JOB file is one option to automate label printing When you do not want the user to interact dir ectly with label designer to print labels using JOB file can help The print operator does not need to be confronted with the label designer and see all design options not really important during the print out Instead a JOB file drives the printing process JOB file is a plain text file that contains commands The text can have Unicode formatting The commands instruct the label print engine what actions must be executed to successfully print the label The commands are executed in order from top to bottom The order of commands is import ant The JOB files are commonly used to automate label printing process Here are some ideas where to use JOB files e Command line option in the labeling software The software will open the JOB file and process the commands within If last command is QUIT the software will close when printing completes For example c Program Files EuroPlus NiceLabel 6 bin NLABEL6 EXE c MyJOB FILE01 JOB Action Run Command File in applications NiceForm application generator and auto mation module Note When working with job files make sure to remember that the n se
186. quence is understood as the newline character If you have the folder names beginning with n you have to put an extra backslash character in front of the sequence You must encode the path and filename c NewJob s Print JOB as c NewJobs Print JOB Command File CSV File The commands available in the CSV command files are a subset from NiceCommands You can use the following commands Label Set Port Print and Printer Of course the syntax of the com mands differs a little bit when used in CSV file CSV Command File Structure The CSV stands for Comma Separated Values This is the text file where field values are delim ited by the comma character The text file can contain Unicode value important for multi lan guage data Each line in the CSV file contains the commands for one label printing 170 The first row in the CSV command file must contain the column names This is important for the labeling software to know what is the order of appearance of fields and how is the data organ ized Several column names are pre defined Column Name Label Printer Quantity Skip IdenticalCopies Number OfSets Port Other fields Description The name of the label to use It is recommended to include label path and filename Note You can provide label name only but be sure that print engine will try locate the label in the correct folder Is required Use this field to override the printer
187. r on the list refer to chapter Install Printer Driver for installation instructions Label Setup Wizard Select Printer Select the printer you want to use with this label Choose the printer from the list of installed printers The label will be optimized for this printer Avery AP 5 4 3000P1 a Always use default printer You can change the printer pecific settings by clicking the Properties button Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard next time Selecting a printer 2 Click on the Next button Define Label and Page Dimensions If you want to use the label stock select your choices in the window Select Stock 2 Click on the Next button A new window will open to define the label dimensions manu ally 3 Leave the option Page Size on User defined default and check Automatic Sizing 4 Click the Next button A new window will open Select label orientation and print direction 20 Label Setup Wizard Select a layout that suites you most Ad 2 109297 E 5 ia Label Layout Orientation Print direction gt Landscape Screen layout Printer layout This printer does not support print direction settings Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard nest time Selecting label layout 6 Click on the Next button A new window will open Enter 10 for label width and 7 for label height Note Dialo
188. re also capable of changing other properties of the counter prompt for value before printing maximum number of digits step of incrementing decrementing and much more The other method of creating counter is by creating a new variable directly not using the Wizard and then setting its parameters appropriately 1 Click on the button New variable on variable toolbar or 2 Click command Variables in menu Data and press New button 3 Name the variable e g Counter Set the length of the variable Go to the Serialization tab of the dialog and set the parameters e Incremental decremental counter e Step value of the variable will be increased in steps e Change value after the number of labels If you want to make counter filled in with leading zeroes do the following 1 Go to the Data Processing tab 2 Set Position relative to the variable value to On left 3 Type 0 for the Character If you want the variable to have a default value do the following 1 Go to the Prompting tab 2 Enter the value into the Default value field Note If you do not want to be prompted for variable value at print time change the option Prompt to Do not prompt for value The counter will always start counting from the default value Press on the OK button and link the variable to text or barcode Make a Counter that Preserves Last used Value Counter which preserves last used value is applicable in cases when continuing of numbering from
189. ready defined variable Using Variable Toolbar 9 08 FB BD Functions The list box contains the variables available on the label If you have selected some variable object the list box displays variable linked to that object If no object is selected selecting a vari able then clicking on the label places new text object and links 1t to the variable prompti Create new variable using the Variable wizard If you click on the small arrow you can specify the type of the new variable Create new variable manually Qs Y Edit the properties of the selected variable Note If you select the variable object the variable linked to the object will be automatically listed in the list Delete the selected variable E Note If you want to delete the variable you must not use it on the label linked to label objects or used in functions Disconnects the variable from the object The object becomes fixed but will preserve the formatting Sy The number of the characters in the object will be equal to the length of the variable This might be useful when you are changing the data base on the label and want to conserve current position and format of the objects When you re connect the other database you can simply link the objects to new variables E Functions Access to the labeling software Functions dialog box If you click on the small arrow you can select which new function you want to cre ate
190. rease by one on each label 5 Click on the Finish button 6 Click on the label where the counter should be placed The new variable is linked to the text object on the label Create Date and Time Variable Fields Content of the variable field can be filled automatically with the date or time stamp from the com puter clock or printer clock for supported printer models 1 Click on the small arrow next to the Att py icon in the Toolbox to display a list of available variable types 2 Select New Date Field from the list A dialog box with date properties opens Fixed Text ta Mew Keyboard Input 123 Mew Counter i Mew Date Field 2 New Time Field Creating new date variable field 3 Leave everything as default and the date will be used on the label using the format as defined in your Windows operating system To place a time stamp on the label do the following _ 29 1 Click on the small arrow next to the Att py icon in the Toolbox to display a list of available variable types 2 Select New Time Field from the list 3 Click on the Finish button 4 Click on the label where the counter should be placed The new variable 1s linked to the text object on the label The date and time fields are updated when you preview or print the label In this example the val ues will come from the system clock of your computer Use Prefix or Suffix Options You can add a prefix and suffix to each variabl
191. riable Barcode Select the type of the variable field you want to use Variable name Type in the name of the variable that will be linked to the barcode object and will provide the value for it The next page of the wizard depends on your selection here 66 Barcode Wizard Keyboard Input Use this variable type when you want the operator to enter a value of the variable from the key board before printing the specified numbers of labels Prompt text for this variable field Fill in the message that will be shown to the user when he will enter the values for the variable field Format Select the format of data you allow to be entered for the variable field Set maximum number of characters Define the maximum length of characters that can be entered for the variable field Barcode Wizard Counter On this page of the wizard you define the counter variable Starting Value Set the starting value for the counter The counter will increment or decrement from the starting value Note You can enter only digits for the starting value Prompt for value before print Tick this option to enable entering the starting value of the counter when you start printing labels Enter the text that will be shown to the user before printing The message will be shown on the screen each time when the label is to be printed Set maximum number of digits Define the maximum length of digits the counter can occupy Increment or
192. riable Wizard Time Field 20000 0 000020 e eee eee 104 Available Data Types gt ii A OS 105 Avatlable Date Formails 0 ota te del ee Grid o 106 Ay arlable Time Formats id a italia 106 Changing the Order of Entering Prompted Variables _ _ 2 2 22 2 22 2 2 107 Creatine a Prompted Variable sii ld eet oc etwasees 107 Creating a Serial Number Counter occ 108 Make a Counter that Preserves Last used Value oococococococccococcccccccccocnccco 108 Overriding Default Values 00000 E A IA es deed 109 Global Variable pi a dd E 110 Groups of Allowable Characters o ocococcccccccccococococo coco 110 laternat Variables eeren raro diia iacta platica 111 Typ s of VA a ai 112 Using Printer Internal Increment Counter ccoo 112 Using Variable Quantity occa ci ts a is is dc 113 Working with Functions oooccooccccocccccccc ccoo 113 Detmmo a PUBCaoN tiesa taste cd aii 113 Define a Function _ 2 22 22 cee eee cee cece cece eee eee eee eeeeceees 113 Function Py peseta titi idol 114 Using Functions to Manipulate Label Data _ 2 0 0020 222222222 114 Using Functions to Manipulate Label Data _ 2 2 2 0000 020200222 114 Using Concatenate Function occ 115 Using VBScript Visual Basic Scripting Edition Function _ 2 116 Working with Databases 0 00000 c cece cece cece cece cece eee eeeeeeees 118 sine Database Wizard ise 5 eects heed i dada
193. rint as printer internal object Print ing barcodes as internal printer objects will speed up label printing because less data must be transferred to the printer Note To disable the option Print barcode as graphics you must use the printer drivers that ship with the software NiceLabel Printer Drivers Enable preview Enable this option to see the preview of the selected barcode type The preview will show on the right side of the dialog box Check Digit Tab This tab is used to specify if you want to use the check digit in the barcode or not This option can only be modified for the barcodes that allow you to enable and disable the check digit Some barcode standards include the check digit by the definition and it cannot be omitted An example of such barcodes are EAN and UPC barcodes where check digit cannot be disabled at all But some codes allow you to freely enable disable check digit Note It is always recommended to include the check digit character in the barcode It will increase the scanning reliability _ 85 Edit Bar Code General Check Digt Human Readable Details Include check digit Auto generate check digit Verify the provided check digit Enable custom check digit algorithm O TESTA Edit barcode dialog box Check digit tab You can choose whether you want to input the check digit value or let the program calculate 1t for you Auto generate ch
194. s The content of a prompted field can be different for every print job Before you print the label you enter the value for the field 1 Click on the small arrow next to the icon in the Toolbox to display a list of available variable types 2 Select New Keyboard Input from the list and click on the label where you want to pos ition the object A dialog box with the Variable Wizard will open l Fixed Text ey New Keyboard Input New Counter New Date Field G New Time Field Creating new keyboard input variable field 3 Type Enter product name for the option Display this text to the print operator 4 Click on the Finish button The cursor changes its shape to an arrow with a text object 5 Click on the label where you want to position the prompted field The text object is placed on the label and linked to the new variable Create Serialized Data Variable Fields Counters Now create a counter field on the label The value of that variable field will automatically increase by one on every label _ 28 1 Click on the small arrow next to the icon in the Toolbox to display a list of available variable types 2 Select New Counter from the list 3 A dialog box with counter properties opens New Counter EL New Date Field New Keyboard Input New Time Field Creating new counter variable field 4 Leave everything as default so that the counter will always start from 1 and inc
195. s 1 cm gap from the bottom label bor der and the last object on the label barcode in this case The text object is a multi line object If _ 35 you enter more data for the text object the label height must increase to accommodate for the lar ger text object line 123 Variable label sizing feature increases the label height on demand To take full advantage of the variable label sizing you must enable the object relative positioning In this case the objects will not always be placed on the same spot on the label Their placement will change accordingly to the placement of parent objects Controlling Cutter in the Printer If you have a thermal printer equipped with the cutter you can control the cutter action from the labeling software You must use NiceLabel Printer Driver for your thermal printer if you want to control the installed cutter To set up the cutter control do the following 1 Select the option Label Setup in the File menu 2 Go to the Cutter Settings tab 3 Select the option Enable cutter Ts Label Setup Printer Paper layout Stocks Dimensions Cutter Settings Cutter Definition Control the cutter behaviour of the printer Configure when the cutter must cut the media Define the cutter when to cut the labels After the last printed label After fived number of labels Based on the variable value change Based on the variable quantity Quantity Un
196. se a custom defined one You can also select the Delimiter character that is used when separator character is used in the text field itself The delimiter should be used to enclose such field Text between two delimiter characters is treated as one field although 1t contains the field separator character The data preview in the bottom part of the dialog box will let you know if your choice of a sep arator character is a correct one Fields will be separated with vertical lines if a separator is valid 131 Text File Wizard Set Column Breaks Set the feld widths column breaks To CREATE a break line click at the desired position To DELETE a break line double click on the line To MOVE a break line click and drag it Data preview abel Designer Label design and printing orm Designer Data entry application design iddlenare Serv E Data detection and connectivity Database Manager Database management Font Downloader Font and graphics dowmload Database Wizard Setting column breaks If you have selected that your data is formatted with fixed widths the second step of the Wizard will be slightly different Instead of selecting character for field separation you will have to define field widths The Wizard makes is as simple as possible Use a mouse and draw a vertical line to the start positions of the fields Lines will indicate where the new field starts 132 Formatting the Fields Text File Wizard Set Fi
197. separate label Using ODBC Databases To be able to use ODBC databases you first have to setup your ODBC drivers properly You can do this in advanced by starting ODBC setup program in Control Panel and modifying Data Source 142 Names DSN to suit your database file locations Or you can do the same thing from the labeling software Connection to already defined ODBC data sources can be done using the Database Wizard If data source is not defined in the system yet you will have to use direct connection method and by pass the Wizard 1 Open Database Access dialog box then click the Define button in General tab 2 In the list of database connection types first find the OLE DB drivers then ODBC Data sources 3 In the right side of the dialog box select already prepared data connection or create a new one 4 Once you have the ODBC data connection prepared select it and close the dialog 5 The fields from the selected database can now be used on the label Creating Custom Check Digit Creating Custom Check Digit You can add new or edit and delete existing algorithms by clicking appropriate buttons Algorithm s parameters are defined in Edit algorithm dialog box which has following options Edit Algorithm Algorithm name Algorithm description EAN 3 check digit algorithm Modulus 7 0 Wi eights 11 3 Sum Determination 2 Sum of the products One digit only O Sum of the digits Result complemented
198. separately scroll the label in up down and left right direction but just grab it and move it to proper position Main Window The main window has many parts and functions You can click specific parts of the screen shot image to see the description SAMPLE LBL File Edit View eet Data Transformations Tools Window Help y A Print y Zoom W View W Variables W Database W E 7 y lala EE Decrease Ea Size E acia Text Box Y t1 Rich Text Box SAMPLE Bar Code Picture e Rectangle a Line Ellipse y RFID Tag v x 5 54 Y 0 72 Avery AP 5 4 300DPI RF Main window als Main Window Attached form Shows the name of the form that is attached to label In front there is also an indication which side of label is currently active Coordinates Shows X and Y coordinates of the pointer on the label in selected measurement units Label Tabs Label tabs allow you to quickly switch between different label designs stored within the same label template LBL file like front back side for dual side printing or header main tail label for batch printing Label area This area shows the current page of labels If more labels are on one page only to top leftmost 1s active and you can edit it The red lines mark the printable area of selected printer Note that if you put objects on or beyond the red line they will normally not be printed You can however override that in Preferences
199. t Select the format for the time from the list You can also enter the custom format Preview The printer will print the time as shown on the Preview field This way you can see how the selected date format will look on the label Available Data Types Here you can define the input format and output format of the variable Supported format types are None Date Time Floating Point Money Pick List Binary This format is used when you don t need any special format This format is used to insert the date Input and output pictures can be set Allowed values for input are shown in drop down list More on date inputting can be found in section Variable Wizard Date This format is used to insert the time and is similar to date inserting More on time inputting can be found in section Variable Wizard Time Field This format is used to insert large numbers This type enables you to put comma and points in the right places This format lets you choose the currency unit and put it on the cor rect place This format enables you to define a list of values for the input values Entered entries in the pick list are available to the user in the combo box that is displayed when the label is printed The user can select one of the predefined values This format enables the insertion of a binary value on the input The 105 output is ASCII character Available Date Formats The date fields can be printed in various f
200. t counts labels internally The printer only receives the first value of the counter and then auto matically increments the counter in steps of 1 on the subsequent labels Using this option reduces the amount of data transferred between computer and printer as only start value is sent to printer This can significantly speed up label production 1 Create a new variable Counter Instructions for this step can be found in the topic Create a serial number counter 2 To use counter as internal printer element please pay attention to the following settings e The variable s maximum length is limited by you printer You should find this value in your printer s Owner Manuals If you can not find this value experiment e The variable length has to be set to Fixed e The variable format has to be set to Numeric e The text object linked to the variable must be formatted in the internal printer font e Tick the option Use printer internal counter in the Value tab of the Text object s Properties dialog window This option is available only if the counter variable has been set up properly 3 There should be two symbols mace in the lower right corner of text box The first one tells that this text will be printed in internal printer font The second one tells that this counters is internal printer increment counter 112 Using Variable Quantity Variable Quantity is a special variable in the label You use this variable when you do not kn
201. t on the label it will be highlighted in the list of elements within Label Inspector and its properties will be displayed in the bottom part of the Inspector Properties section Label Inspector can be used to change the current view of the label elements variables functions and databases The following views are available the first on being the default one e View by Objects All label elements are listed alphabetically by their type First listed are text elements then paragraph barcode graphics rectangle and line elements You have probably noted this is the same order of elements as they appear in the Toolbox When you select one or more elements in the upper part of the Inspector its their properties are displayed in the bottom part of Inspector You can interactively change them and changes will be reflec ted automatically on the label You can right click any element and quickly access fre quently used commands from the drop down menu You can find out to which variable some element is connected to by clicking the plus sign in front of the element s name If it is not fixed the view will be expanded and variable name displayed e View by Variables All variables used on the label are listed here They can be either prompt their value 1s typed in by the user at print time database acquired from database fields or function generated variables If you click the plus sign in front of variable s name the view will be expanded
202. t or barcode objects on the label The data is never returned to the labeling software but is handled internally in the printer Note The text or barcode objects to which you assign the value from the RFID tag must be formatted as printer internal objects Format the text object with some internal printer font Select the barcode object to print as internal printer object not as graphics For on screen previewing purposes you can enter some data into the Preview edit field Working with Variables Using Variable Wizard Variable wizard The variable wizard simplifies and speeds up the creation of the most common types of variables You cannot however set the advanced options in variables These can only be set in a Variable 100 dialog box Variable Wizard Prompt1 Variable Type Select the type of variable you need Wizard will create a new variable field that can be linked to test bar code picture or other objects on the label Select the type of variable field 2 Keyboard input Prompted before print Counter lan Date Field 26 11 2007 Time Field 14 15 38 Yarable name Prompt Variable Wizard Choosing the type of variable First you must type in the variable name and select the type of variable You can chose among Keyboard The value of the variable will be typed in before print input ing Counter The variable will automatically increment when the labels are printed Da
203. tabases Click on the small arrow for more com mands Open the help file Using Database Toolbar User Information First field shows the list of currently active databases It allows you to browse through the attached databases 53 User Information w e El E 0000 List box lists the links to the databases that are available in the label Define a link to new database using Database wizard The Data base wizard will guide you through the necessary steps to link data base on the label The result will be database fields available as variables Define new link to the database manually Edit the properties of the selected link to the database You can change the database driver select which records will be printed and define if quantity of the labels comes from the database Delete the selected link to the database Note Make sure that database fields are not used anywhere on the label linked to objects or used in the functions Otherwise the link cannot be removed If you are not sure where the database fields are used use the Label Inspector to find that out Click on this button to open the database table in database man agement application NiceData Database navigator buttons can be used to move through the records in the database Use these buttons to see how data from dif ferent records will be used on the label You can quickly verify if the objects fit on the label Note The buttons
204. tdt aa 62 Text Wizard Time Field a ee 62 Text Wizard Database timido e e o StS Seok ae La 63 Text Wizard Prefix and Suffix 0 A A A Sat eee esceas eens 64 Using Barcode Wizard occ coco 66 Barcode Wizard 2 es Da sa vaa da nilo bus E ent e Naas dys 66 Barcode Wizard Choosing Variable Barcode _ 2 2 2 22222222 0202 ee eee 66 Barcode Wizard Keyboard Input occ 67 Barcode Wizard Counter _ 2 0 0 02 22 oe eee ce ce eee ce ce ee eee eee eens 67 Text Wizard Counter Continuation occ 67 Barcode Wizard Date Field coccion 67 Barcode Wizard Time Field 0 0 00 00 022 eee eee eee 67 Barcode Wizard Database occ 68 Barcode Wizard Prefix and Suffix 0 0 0 000020 68 Detinino Objects unicos castes bess dile dorsal 68 Denne Text Object osiocana suit del ea dt doce tre tostadas 68 Defining Text Box Object nasa dd e a e UD 68 Defining Rich Text Box RTF Object oooocococccccccocccoccccccccncncncn cocoa 70 Defining Barcode Objeto oe de eee eee ce 70 DehninePrenire ODOC ce pede tos ado estas acia arsed ourehes adi s oasis 70 Defining Rectangle Object 2 2 3242 6 ont ace ub a e is ties 71 Defining Line ODJECt escri ER arcas 71 Defining Ellipse Opie Ct coe eee o ode do le tn ne a 71 Dehnine Inverse Object acu s cc cal e poy den Guat nti Gates ene ls e ae eau add 72 Curved Tex ot 23s hao teente teat Bri A A a O 72 Using GS1 128 Wizard cc 74 Using GS1 128 Wizard e e a ao ed o
205. te field The value for the variable will be current date option ally with offset Time The value for the variable will be current time field Generic variable name based on the type of a variable field selected will be auto generated but you should change it to a more descriptive name Use the name that will clearly on first sight determine the contents of this variable When all data that wizard needs are provided you click the Finish button the text with variable content will be inserted at the specified point of the label You can later edit the text object and variable itself just as any other text and variable on the label See Text command and Variable dia log box above for further information Variable Wizard Keyboard input Use this variable type when you want the operator to enter a value of the variable from the key board before printing the specified numbers of labels 101 Variable Wizard Prompt Prompt Text Define the properties of the prompt keyboard input Display this text to the print operator Allowable characters for the All characters Digits Alphanumeric characters Set maximum number of characters IU Dialog box for Variable Wizard when Keyboard input option is chosen Prompt text for this variable field Fill in the message that will be shown to the user when he will enter the values for the variable field Format Select the format of data you allow to
206. ter another so make sure you enable duplex functionality in the printer driver _ 38 When printing to thermal printer printer driver NiceLabel Printer Driver will take care of proper label processing and printing You need to use the appropriate NiceLabel Printer Driver to enable double sided functionality Designing Labels for Mobile Devices The labeling software has support for mobile label printing from Windows Mobile devices You can design the label with the desktop labeling software and then export it to the Mobile device The pocket edition of labeling software is not as powerful as desktop edition and does not support some features that are available in the desktop edition You must be careful when designing the label for Mobile device If you select some unsupported feature the label export is not possible Some examples of unsupported features Majority of complex functions are not supported Visual Basic scripting User defined check digit algorithms HIBC Lookup table Link to file etc but some are Con catenate Global variables are not supported Variable graphics are not supported Databases are not supported but databases are supported on the form created in NiceForm Variable text objects formatted in Truetype fonts are not supported you can use variable Truetype fonts if you download them to the memory card in the printer Advanced variable features are not available prefix suffix advanced serializa
207. tes a new label with default settings bypassing wizards Rotate 90 counter clockwise Align Cut Copy Paste Undo Redo New Open Save Print Print Preview Snap to grid Display guidelines Exit Parallel moving of the object by main axes only Object snaps to grid even if it is off Toggles object snapping to guidelines if they are dis played Fine tuning the position of the object Fine tuning the dimensions of the object resize width and height in very small steps Dialog box for Text pops up Dialog box for Graphics pops up Variable Quantity is automatically connected with text object and placed on the label 10 Select variable from the list in tool bar click Graph ics icon Pal Picture in ToolBox inca click on the label Right clicking the object Enter or F2 F2 Space left click and dragging Variable Picture is automatically connected with graphics object and placed on the label This is a great shortcut for using variable graphics where file names for pictures are received from database Opens pop up menu with shortcuts to commands The content of the pop up menu greatly depends on where you clicked your mouse button and what was selected at that time Dialog box with element s properties will open On screen edit is enabled for text elements Freely move the label within the working window If you want to change the view on the label you do not need to
208. the rectangle to the lower nght corner of the picture 5 To change the thickness of the vertical and horizontal line double click on the rectangle object to open its properties Select the thickness you want and click on the Finish but ton 6 To edit the drawing object double click on the line or rectangle to open the dialog box with its properties The label should show the following SAMPLE JUANA 1234567830 Label with fixed objects Add Variable Fields Overview You may want to print the label on which the data changes for each label The labeling software offers different variable fields counters date time fields operator s input from the keyboard that you can use with text graphics and barcode objects For this example a new label was created The following steps explain how to create a label that contains a prompted field a counter and date time fields The captions in the following screenshots were added separately ye y r oss r PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT POP TT ere ee Orange Orange COLEMTER COUNTER COUNTER PPP TET 1 2 DATE DATE DATE 24 2 2005 24 2 2005 24 2 2005 TIME TIME TIME E Ags 1 47 52 1 48 34 1 48 34 PRODUCT WEIGHT WITH SUFFIX PRODUCT WEIGHT WITH SUFFER PRODUCT WEIGHT WITH SUF FEE Peer rrrer kg 10 kg 10 kg The left label shows design mode the right two labels are two consecutive labels from print pre view Create Keyboard Entry Variable Field
209. the text object You can also define the offset between the object See the scheme below The barcode changes 1ts vertical placement The vertical distance between the text and barcode object is always 1 cm no matter the number of lines in the text object line 1 line 1 line 2 VM i 123 Variable positioning of the barcode object linked to the bottom of the text object The placement of each label object can be variable You can define the placement based on the label border or based on the distance from some other label object In each case you can define the offset from the border or other object Of course you can define object horizontal and vertical relative positions independently of each other To enable the relative positioning of the object do the following 1 Open the object s properties 2 Go to the Appearance tab 3 Click the Advanced button in the Anchoring Point section 4 Define the appropriate horizontal and vertical relative position 5 Click OK when ready 9 When defining the relative object positions you might also want to enable the variable label sizing The length of the label can also adapt to the size of the objects Rules for Relative Positioning e Object positions can be relative to another object borders e Object positions can be relative to another label borders e Object vertical positions can be relative to the objects on the back side e You can define offsets between ob
210. thod of label printing from outside of labeling application It requires some other application to be able to open exported label format parse it and then print it There are 176 numerous other possibilities to integrate label printing to existing systems More information is available on the product web site Commands NiceCommands The printing with the software can be automatic There are two ways for automation The first one is with the use of the command files JOB file which is used with Automatic print command from File menu The second way is with the help of any other Windows application which enables DDE communication between the programs In the both ways you can use the same commands When you are using the automatic print the commands must be written one per line in the command file JOB file With the DDE com munication the commands are send through the DDE channel List of Commands See COMMENT on page 178 See CREATEFILE on page 178 See DELETEFILE on page 178 See EXPORTLABEL on page 178 See TGNOREERROR on page 179 See LABEL on page 179 See LABELCLOSE on page 179 See LOGIN on page 179 See MESSAGEBOX on page 180 See OEMTOANSI on page 180 See PORT on page 180 See PRINT on page 180 See PRINTER on page 181 See PRINTJOBNAME on page 181 See QUIT on page 181 See RETURN on page 182 See SESSIONEND on page 182 See SESSIONPRINT on page 182 See SESSIONSTART on page 182 See SET on
211. time with the drag of a mouse If they are drug back to the ruler area they are deleted It is possible to toggle between displaying and hiding the guidelines either by using the menu or right clicking them The guidelines can be hidden with the Ctr H shortcut key combination and when they are hid den the Snap to Guideline functionality is also disabled The menu also includes a Delete all Guidelines command which removes all the guidelines on the label Holding down the SHIFT key while dragging objects allows you to temporarily turn on the Snap to Guidelines function Guideline Properties Double click a guideline or right click a guideline and choose Edit Guideline Properties to open the Guideline Properties dialog window The dialog allows you to enter the numeric positioning value choose the horizontal or vertical guideline type or remove the individual guideline Use Drawing Tools Now you will insert a line to separate a text object from other objects and a rectangle around the picture object Ds 1 Select the icon from Toolbox and move the cursor to the required start ing point of the line 2 Press and hold down the mouse button while drawing the line Move the mouse to the end position of the line and release the button The Line object is placed on the label 3 Click on the icon in the Toolbox and point the mouse to the upper left corner of the picture 4 Click and hold the mouse button while you stretch
212. tion remembering the last value used formatting the date time stamps etc etc To find out if your label is compliant with the export limitations do the following 1 Save the label Select the command File gt Export gt Export to Pocket PC 3 If your label complies with the limitations the label is exported The files with extensions PNL and LVX will appear in the same folder where your label is stored You can copy them to the Mobile device with the Microsoft ActiveSync If your label does not comply with the limitations you will see the error dialog box that will explain which unsupported feature you use on the label Remove that feature and try to export the label again For more information about the label design for Mobile devices refer to the white papers available online Multicolor Printing Some thermal printers support multicolor printing They use multiple heads each head for a ribbon of a different color The colors for each printer head are customizable and can be defined in the printer driver Each print head is assigned a color that matches the used ribbon The same colors become available in the labeling software For multicolor printing to work you need to use the appropriate NiceLabel Printer Driver 305 Color palette synchronizes the available colors with settings in the printer driver All colors you have defined in the printer driver are retrieved in the labeling software and made available f
213. tion and NiceLabel will not highlight the word milk when used in combination coconut milk For samples and additional how to documentation see NiceLabel Com EU Food Allergen Label ing Regulation Prerequisites The Food Allergens functions connect to the provided data source and read the allergens within 153 In order to open the data source the appropriate database drivers ODBC drivers must be installed on the computer e For Excel and Access data sources If you have Microsoft Office installed on the same machine you already have the database drivers If not install the drivers sep arately Visit Microsoft Download Center then download and install Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable or Microsoft Access 2013 Runtime e For MS SQL data sources The ODBC driver has been released within the Microsoft SQL Server Feature Pack Visit Microsoft Download Center and down load the driver Note If you plan using the Food Allergen functions from NiceLabel Automation software on 64 bit machine make sure to install 64 bit database drivers as well Automation Service runs as 64 bit process on 64 bit machine Applying formatting to the allergens To format allergens in the list of ingredients you have to execute the formatting function and provide the input parameters The formatting functions are executed as VBScript function and will provide the result in the output variable which can be used d
214. ts linked to the variables are positioned on the label 4 Click on k Print E to open Print dialog box The button Select Records becomes available 5 Click on the button Select Records The Record Selection dialog box opens 6 Tick the records you want to print You can select individual records or group of records by selecting the first record press and hold the Shift key and then select the last record in the series 138 Database identity mdb Table User Information Bp IE Exact search Drag a column header here to group by that column Name alll Position o all Room v w Picture CHA Linda Hudson System Analyst BD 8 Cindy Grey General Manager DOn i Lo 3pennifer Jones era en Selecting records for printing Query and Create a Database Filter The labeling software allows you to perform queries on the database table to extract only the records matching some condition Please note that you have to enable record selection in the data base properties to be able to query the database To enable database filter do the following 1 Refer to the chapter Link to a Database Using Database Wizard Follow the steps from 1 to 6 2 Select the option I want to select which record to print Click on the Finish button The link to the database is created and database fields are linked to text objects on the label 4 Click on the f y button or select the command Print in the File menu Cli
215. tware remembers the path and file name of the picture that you place on the label Each time you open the label the labeling software checks if the pictures is accessible and then uses it on the label If the picture is missing you will see a warning dialog box You can e Ignore the error and temporarily design the label without the needed picture e Discard the missing picture and permanently remove it from the label e Browse to the missing picture if you have changed the picture folder location or file name Designing Objects with Relative Positions During the regular label design process you put the objects on the certain spot on the label and they occupy that space whenever the label prints If you link object with variables the objects become variable object If linked variables contain more data the objects will usually increase their size and occupy more space You must be careful to anticipate the maximum variable length and design your objects accordingly so the objects do not overlap each other or exceed the label boundaries However in some cases you need the object to change its placement on the label For example You have a multi line text object and barcode on the label The barcode must always print below the text object To solve the problem you must link the objects together The text object is a parent object the barcode is linked to is as a child object You can lock the vertical position of the barcode to the bottom of
216. u have a field name Product in the database table DBPROD the resulting label variable will be named DBPROD Product The labeling software supports all types database The only condition is that you have the appro priate database driver installed in the Windows system The labeling software can work with OLE DB ODBC BDE and other database drivers For connectivity to modern multi lingual Unicode databases the OLE DB provider is available Using this technology the Unicode values can be used on the label These are the data values in dif ferent codepages You can use the tables with different language settings on the same label Changing the Order of Database Records You can change the order in which the labeling software prints the records from the database table By default the records are printed from the first one to the last one in order as they appear in the table if you do not enable record selection feature To order records by one field from the database do the following 1 Connect the database table to the label 2 Make sure the Database toolbar is visible then click on the Edit button The Database Access dialog box opens with General tab displayed Note If the Database toolbar is not visible select Toolbars from the View menu then click Database 3 In the Order dialog box select the field by which you want to sort the records When you will print or preview the label the records are ordered by the select
217. u will see all the objects on the screen Note To be able to zoom into the label at custom zoom factor you can click on the button and the draw a frame on the section of the label you want to zoom in 57 Working with Objects Using Text Wizard Text Wizard Text Wizard ag Text Object Define the contents and style of the text object Contents 2 Fixed text O Variable text Product code Font aOR Inverse Help Cancel Back First screen of Text Wizard Text Wizard guides you to define all parameters for the text object Fixed text Select this option if you would like to have a fixed non changeable content of the object If you select this option you can enter the text directly in this dialog box Variable text Select this option if you would like to have variable content of the object Defining the content is defined in the next step Font Currently selected font type is shown in this field e Inverse Enable this option to use the text in inverse Note The option is not available for all printers e Select button You can select different font type for this text object among available fonts in the system _ 58 Text Wizard Choosing Variable Text Text Wizard Variable Field Select the type of variable held for the object Wizard will create new variable text or bar code object on the label Select the type of variable held Prompted before print Counter Tee
218. ues will be sent to the printer When ready for printing select File gt Print Go to the Store Label Template tab Make sure the Store location points to the correct memory location in the printer Type in or select the values for variable objects that are not formatted as internal printer objects These variables will have the same value on each label they will behave as they are objects with fixed value Click on Store button to create the command file with label template description and send it to the printer Go to the General Tab Type in the values for prompted variables on the label These variables link to the internal printer objects on the label that s why you can set their values to different value with every print Click on Recall button to send the variable values and recall label command to your label printer 163 14 You can preview the data that is sent to the printer using the Store and Recall function In the Print dialog window select Analyze Stream on the Advanced tab A Print Stream Analysis window will open displaying the stored data in the Store Stream frame The Recall Frame will display the data that is sent to the printer during sub sequent printing of a stored label Previewing Pictures When you place a picture on the label in design mode it is always shown in color depth as defined in the picture However when previewing the labels on screen the preview of the pictures depends on th
219. us formats In this field you define how the time will look Y ou can select some of the predefined time formats or enter you own When defining the formats the following notation is used h Hours in 12 hour format AM PM will be added if they follow the time Can occupy one or two characters hh Hours in 12 hour format AM PM will be added if they follow the time Always occupies two characters leading zeros will be added as necessary 106 H Hours in 24 hour format Can occupy one or two characters HH Hours in 24 hour format Always occupies two characters mm Used for minutes SS Used for seconds The examples Format How the time will look h mm 8 25PM AM PM H mm 20 25 hh mm ss 08 25 36 Changing the Order of Entering Prompted Variables When you are using variables value has to be assigned to them before printing And one way of doing this is by using prompted variables other are counters functions databases You are asked for the value of every prompted variable before every printing Then you fill in the values The order in which you are entering the values may or may not be the order you want If it is not it s probably the best solution to change it The order can be changed in Variables dialog box l Click Variables in Data menu to display a dialog box All variables you are using are lis ted here alphabetically Click the button 1 2 3 in the lower right part of the dialog box
220. uts 74 Step 1 Choosing the application identifier __ 0 000 000 02 eee eee 75 Step 2 Application Identifier Input Type occ ccoo 77 Step 3 Entering the value for the Application Identifier _ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 77 Calculating Check DI e ee ete de 79 Defining New Variable coco ccoo coco 79 Step 4 List of selected application identifiers oooococococococcciccccccccccccncn eee eee eee 80 Selectino Barcode Type disuadir ds 81 Settings for Advanced Barcodes occ 81 CSTE ZS Barcode a hep se sea earns ae eee traida 81 PIE AT 2 Ode occ et Poet dal lo a ee Oe ie ROS ne ot Chest Ak hls 81 DataMatrix Barcode assi tt eda See Se esheets aes e ea 82 MaC OC core rtaranar alasi ice rr peca a bt irc al acto o acecha res Dont clio bc e dojo delesca trad sole cal cada to as 83 Edit Barcode Driator Bo O aa ees 84 General TaD ice etoile erie bois dto ad et ee oe al o eo ein a ALONE e 84 Check Ditt Lab nados t o tdt eae SU do lalala 85 Human Readable Vai 22223 beet sio uta ds ui dl ate teal eG Dl ai ll a td 86 Deis Paba rs is TN o 87 Supported Barcode Types 0 2 0 2 2 eee ee ee ee eee ee ee eee eee 88 Working with Images e dd 89 Place Images on the Label cocaina ds assi doit oun 89 Use Varia ble Images hac ss st ee ee ee SO Ss en oe it ide 89 Using Transparent Images 2 022 2 22 ee eee eee 90 Using Variable Pictures from Blob Fields 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 222 eee eee eee ee 9
221. variable can be linked to label objects or used in other functions There are many functions available such as Concatenate for linked fields Subset Date addition FACT HIBC and VBScript VBScript is a powerful function allowing you to perform advanced data manipulation 114 Using Concatenate Function The concatenate function merges two or more variables into one new variable To create a con catenate function do the following 1 Click on the button in the Standard toolbar or select Open in the File menu Select the label file ID CARD LBL from the sample folder The label has a link to the database so you see how the concatenate function operates on a set of records Y Select the command Functions in the Data menu 3 There is already one function defined in the label Ignore it and click on the New button The dialog box with the properties of the new function will open In the General tab type My Concatenate function for the name for the function Select the Concatenate function from the list of functions 6 Click on the Detailed tab to define details for the function Look at the top of the dialog box The left side contains the available variables defined on the label 7 Select the variables ID and NAME Note that they have appeared in the right list box N 8 The name of the output variable is Concatenate and delimiter is set to None Click on the OK button Function General Detailed
222. ve typed the contents you can cancel typing by pressing lt ESC gt key or confirm it by pressing lt CTRL ENTER gt The text object is created The second mode immediately opens the dialog box for the text where you can enter the contents and set all other properties of the text This dialog box can also be opened any time by double click ing the text object or by right clicking the object and selecting Edit from menu Working with Variable Data Dynamic Data Overview You may want to print labels on which data changes for each label for example counters serial numbers date and time weight article pictures To accommodate the changing data the labeling application can easily be used to format labels using variable data special functions on variables and databases There are several types of variables you can choose and functions which you define to best suit your needs Data that must be printed as a variable is prepared at the time of printing and can be entered in the program from different sources 1 e keyboard databases system clock etc The vari able data can be the same for a quantity of labels or and specific for one label only To understand how variable data is handled a few terms must be explained variables functions and database access Variables Variables in this labeling application are much like ordinary variables they simply don t have constant value The basic idea of variables was to allow
223. when reached Enter the value when reached will cause the counter to reset the value to the starting value 61 Text Wizard Date Field Define the properties of the date field The variable field will get the value from a computer clock Text Wizard Date Define the properties of the date held Format Y Date offset 0 days fi a months 0 a years Preview foams Dialog box for Text Wizard when Date field option is chosen Format Select the format for your date from the list You can also enter the custom format Date offset You can add a certain numbers of days months or years to a current date and print that date instead of the current one Preview The printer will print the date as shown on the Preview field This way you can see how the selected date format will look on the label Text Wizard Time Field Define the properties of the time field The variable field will get the value from a computer clock _ 62 Text Wizard Time Define the properties of the time held Format Preview ieee Dialog box for Text Wizard when Time field option is chosen Format Select the format for the time from the list You can also enter the custom format Preview The printer will print the time as shown on the Preview field This way you can see how the selected time format will look on the label Text Wizard Database Variable field linked to the database gets the value from t
224. wing 1 Select the option Configure Log File in the Tools menu 2 Select the option Enable logging 3 Click on the OK button To view at the log of printed labels do the following 1 Select the option View Log File in the Tools menu The table with the printing actions is displayed 2 Browse the table sort the records filter the records in the Advanced mode and generate report file 14 Define User Passwords and Permissions If you want to define access permissions for the users working with the labeling software you can enable user management feature in the software If your computer is part of a domain you can define permissions for domain users If you do not use domain you must define the application users To enable user management and assign the permissions do the following 1 Start NiceLabel Designer Pro 2 Select Tools gt Options 3 4 Click on User configuration button Configure Users AE Click on User Rights and Access in the left pane i He Action lew Help i 3 Add profle Adduser BB Add group 2 w Authentication Mode Authentication Mode is set to E Users BT Groups Mixed Windows and Application authentication Set authentication mode Dialog box for defining users and their permissions in the software Ze Select the Configure Users option in the left pane 3 Click on the option Set authentication mode in the right pane The Authentication Mode dialog box
225. x x 0 the resulting output will be aJ ADC 95 1 Powerful formatting structures can be defined using Contents mask but it is only available with barcodes that allow custom formatting of the human interpretation You should also make sure to print barcodes as graphics otherwise the contents mask 1s not available Note If your data contains the asterisk character then you will have to change the default mask character to something else It should be a unique value not appearing anywhere in the data The contents mask functionality 1s available with Text and Barcode objects Style Tab In the Style tab the appearance of the object can be set Font Click on the button Select to open Windows dialog box for selecting font for the object Note If the currently selected printer is a thermal printer there will be some additional fonts avallable in the list They are printer internal built in fonts identified by printer icon in front of their names Effects Define the effects for the object e Inverse If selected text 1s printed in reverse This option is available mainly for truetype fonts Only a few thermal printers support this option with internal fonts e Mirror If selected text is printed mirrored Most thermal printers do not support this option so you will have to use truetype fonts to print mirror text e Stacked text If selected the character will not be aligned in left right order next to
226. xt objects Every field from the database is linked with the text object on the label Use Print Preview to Select Data and View a Label Now you will simulate label printing using print preview 1 Click on the print icon in the Standard Toolbar 2 The Print dialog box opens with the Quantity of labels set to Variable quantity entered for each database record This setting corresponds to your selection in the Database Wizard when you have selected the options I want to select which record to print and I will enter label quantity for each selected record Only the records you select will be printed in the defined quantity 127 HEX lt oe General Printer Database Initialization Database connection w Table data Number of selected records to be printed 1 Select Records Quantity Oates Pages All selected records from database 2 Variable quantity entered for each database record Print Print preview dialog box 3 To choose which records to print from the database click on the Select Records button The Record Selection dialog box will open 4 Select the records from the database you want to print and enter the number of labels you want to print for each selected record Drag a column header here to group by that column le fro FIELD2 FIELDS El MA o Label Designer Label design and printing 1 Form Designer 2 Data entry applicatio
227. y time of printing printer name and similar data but also advanced information like the values of variable fields on the label status of counters printed quantity and label job status Because all information about the printed label 1s remembered you can reprint the whole print jobs or individual labels from the job The reprint feature is available as long as the information about the printer job is stored in the log database You can use the reprint feature to print the label with the same information on the same printer as originally used or to any other available printer Note The reprint feature works with the same data on the label but not with the same job files The software recreates the print jobs on the fly using the information of variables fields from the log file Before each reprint action the software checks the status of the printed label as follows Label Ver Version of the label file is checked against the label version information sion in the log database If the label version on the disk is greater than the Change version of the printed label you will need to confirm printing of changed label Printer Each label file remembers to which printer the label must be sent If Availability the printer in not accessible you can select some other printer driver To reprint labels do the following Select Tools gt View Log File Select the log entry in the table that you want to reprint Click on the Re
228. you want to use on the label For multiple field selection press and hold Ctrl key then click desired fields Name Position Room Picture _ Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard next time All fields defined in the database table are displayed 5 Leave the default settings and click on the Next button A next step Records Printing of the Database Wizard will open 6 Leave everything on a default settings in this dialog box What this means is that all records from the database will be printed and each record is used on one label 135 Database Wizard Records Printing Specify how the records from the database will be printed Select which records do vou want to print want to select which record to print Specify how the label quantity information i defined Print one label for each record in the database One field in the table contains the label quantity information _ Open the advanced options dialog box Do not use the wizard next time Select how the records from the database will be used on the label Click on the Next button A next step Fields Usage of the Database Wizard will open 7 Leave everything on the default settings The wizard will automatically connect all database fields to the text objects on the label 8 Click on the Finish button The Database Wizard will connect to the database obtain the fields and make them avail able on the lab

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