Label Designer Wizard

The Label Designer is used to create label templates to print spine and book labels as well as mailing labels for Books by Mail, and to create user and item barcode labels. You can use the Label Designer wizard to create as many label templates as needed by the library. You can design each label template to create labels in a specific format for a specific purpose.

For example, because of the different physical formats of library materials, you may want a label template for regular books, a different label template for AV materials, and a different label template for reference books. Once a label template has been created, you can use it as often as needed by one or more users, eliminating the need to set up the template more than once for routinely cataloged items.

You may need one or more labels to print for an item. The Label Designer wizard allows you to define a group of labels to print for each item; this group of labels is a label set. For example, if you need a spine label for a call number and a second label to go inside each book, these two labels would be the label set needed for each item. When defining the label set, the dimensions will include both labels in the set as they are found on the page. The sample bibliographic template SirsiDynix delivers includes a good example of a label set. Also, remember that a set can also be just one label (if only one label is required).

When creating new labels, the label design process is as follows:

•

First define your page dimensions.

•

Define the a label set within a page.

•

Then, define each label within the label set.

Before you begin creating label templates, you may want to review label configuration tips and wrapping rules. For configuration tips and wrapping rules, go to Creating Spines and Book Labels.

After you set up your label template, you must set up your label stock and document defaults for your printer. For information on setting up label stock and document defaults for your printer, go to Printing Labels.

The printer used to print custom labels must support printing graphics.

The Label Designer window is divided into three areas.

•

Label – Determines what is printed on the labels.

•

Label Set Preview (Using Label Set Preview) – Provides you with a graphical visual of the page, labels set, and label(s) you are designing and allows you to see changes immediately. You can use Label Set Preview to quickly resize multiple label sets and configure label sets using the mouse. You can also add or delete labels to your label set. The Label Designer toolbar (Using the Label Designer Toolbar) can be used to align your labels. If you don’t want to use the mouse to resize labels and configure label sets, you can use the Label, Page, and Label Set tabs.

•

Label, Page, Label Set Tabs (Using the Label Designer Tabs) – Customizes the dimensions for the label, page, and label set.

When you first open the Label Designer wizard, the Label Templates dialog box appears. The Label Templates dialog box contains a list of existing templates from which you can view, rename, modify or delete.

You can also add a new template and set the default template for printing. The Label Templates dialog box also indicates which templates are locked by another user. For more information, go to Working with Label Templates.

When modifying label templates, you cannot do the following.

•

Remove the last element of a line except by removing the line.

•

Remove the last line of a label except by removing the label.

•

Remove the last label of a template except by removing the template.

To create a label template

Click the Label Designer wizard, and the Label Templates dialog box opens.

Select the template you want to add or modify, and then click Add or Modify. If you click Add, you will need to select the type of label template you are creating.

•

If you are creating user labels, beside Type, select the User Label radio button.

•

If you creating bibliographic labels, select the Bibliographic Label radio button.

•

If you have Barcode Validation configured and are creating a barcode label template to use with the Create Valid Barcode IDs report, select the Barcode Label radio button.

Note: If you select a template that is locked by another user, the Rename, Delete, and Modify buttons will be unavailable. If you are an administrator (and the Unlock behavior property is selected), you can click the Unlock button to unlock the template.

Click the Page tab and define the page margins and page size. Select to display measurement units in inches or centimeters.

Click the Label Set tab and define the dimension of the label set, and the number of label sets that can be printed across and down the page of labels. Type the number of label sets that should be printed for each item.

Under Label Set Preview, add a new label, or if modifying a template, click the label to which you want to add information.

Note: The Label tab indicates which label you are currently editing by displaying the label number at the top of the tab, for example, “Label Number: 2."

The following are sample label designer templates that SirsiDynix delivers for you to use as examples:

•

SirsiDynixSampleBibTemplate — bibliographic template

•

SirsiDynixSampleItemBarcode — barcode template

•

SirsiDynixSamplePatronLibCard — user template

•

SirsiDynixSamplePatronMailLbl — user template

Click the Label tab and assign the position, dimensions, and text margins of the label. Note that the tools at the bottom or the cursor can also be used to define the label dimensions and size. Select the font to use for text printed on this label. Add additional labels, if needed, to this label set. Remember that labels you define must fit within the label set already defined.

To define what is printed on each label, select the label in Label Set Preview, and then under the Label section of the window, click Add Line to add a line to the selected label. Each added line appears with one of the following indicators.

–

A green check mark appears for lines that definitely display on your printed label as determined by calculation of the label size, margins, and font size.

–

A yellow arrow indicates a line may not appear in your printed label.

–

A red x indicates a line will not appear.

To delete a line, select the line you want to delete, and then click Delete Line.

Select the line to which you want to add a value. By default one empty value (< >) is assigned. If you only want one value per line, you may not need to add values.

In the Elements box, select the element. An empty value, (< >), displays in the Element box. An element is a piece of data you want to include on a line on a single label. Note that a space does not appear automatically between elements on a label. To add a space between your elements, use an empty value (< >) between element labels.

For example, if you have a line with the element <Permanent> and an element <Circulate>, it will look like the following:

PermanentCirculate

To add a space, you need the following three elements:

In this case, your label will appear as follows:

Permanent Circulate

Click Add Element to add an element to the label line. To delete an element, select the element you want to delete, and then click Delete Element. You can add a maximum of 20 elements to a label line.

In the Maximum Number of Lines box, type the maximum number of lines on the label you think this line of information may require. Keep in mind that each element can never be longer than two lines, unless the element is a call number.

With your element selected, choose the type of label element you want in the Type list. For more information on the element types, go to Configuring Elements in Label Designer.

Note: When printing multiple labels, consider selecting only elements in the list that are followed by an asterisk. These elements have been optimized for printing large numbers of item labels for one title.

In the Value list, select the value you want. The values are MARC field/subfields or a predefined field. The predefined fields that display change depending on the type of label element you select.

Under Label Set Preview, click the book label, and then repeat the above steps to add information to your book label.

Click Save to save your template.

Click Return to List to return to the list of label templates, or Close to exit the Label Designer wizard.

You can reorder lines on the label using the arrow keys.

If you modify a template and click Close or Return to List before saving the template, the wizard will display the confirmation dialog “This template has been modified. Do you want to save the changes before closing?”

Important Things to Consider When Creating Label Templates

Review the following topics for more information about creating label templates.

•

For information on how to print repeating fields and subfields on your label, go to Working with Instances.

•

For information on how to split a call number to display on more than one line, go to Splitting Call Numbers. If you are splitting call numbers, change the Maximum number of lines box for the call number element based on the way the call number is split.

•

If you obtain a font that is designed to print your barcode label type, such as Code 39.TTF (supplied by IDAutomation.com), you can use the Label Designer wizard to create a bibliographic template that can be used for reprinting of existing item barcode labels along with other bibliographic information. For more information about printing barcode labels, see FAQs: Printing Existing Item Barcode Labels Using the Label Designer Wizard.

•

If you are using the label designer to create circulation mailing labels, go to FAQs: Printing User Mailing Labels with the Label Designer Wizard.

•

If you are using a Label Designer wizard barcode template to create barcode labels for generating a sheet of barcodes following barcode validation rules, go to FAQs: Printing Barcodes Using the Create Valid Barcode IDs Report with Barcode Font.

•

For auto-printing spine and book labels as items are added or saved, see FAQs: Automatically Printing Labels When New Items Are Added.

•

To map label templates to specific library/item type combinations, see the Label Template Profiles Map Wizard topic.