Using the software

Use this software in 3 easy steps.

1. Select your data from an existing worksheet that you want printed onto sheets of labels. Each row becomes a label, with each cell on that row becoming a new line on that label.

Alternatively if all your lines are in 1 cell [eg Mr A, 1 The Street, The Town] the software will split it out on whatever you tell it ie a comma in the above example.

Any blank cells will be ignored as will hidden rows and columns.

2. Create your template to suit your labels with just a few clicks of the mouse. If you wish, this template can be saved for future use and then always be opened up with just a single click.

3. Click 'Run'.

We recommend you try the print preview first with a small sample of data.

Afterwards you can adjust the Options to suit. You may also need to tweak the template print margins, row and column sizes.

Tip: We suggest you first put borders around all the cells and print one sheet of labels onto plain paper. Then hold this sheet up against a bright light with a blank sheet of real labels held in front. This will help you see if they line up correctly, and if not, where to adjust your template. Keep re-doing this until your template lines up correctly. Finally delete unwanted borders and formats. This will save a significant cost of wasted sheets of labels.

We also recommend you open up the demo workbook supplied (from the drop-down entitled 'Select' at the lower right of the software screen) and see how the examples work there before trying your own. It should save you time.

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Options

1. Indent text in each label

However well you create your template to match your blank sheets of labels, you may still find it helpful to indent your text on each label by a further few spaces so that the text is not right up against the edge of each label. You can use this option to achieve this.

2. Inserted images position

If you insert images into your labels from image files stored on your disk (eg jpg, gif, tiff, bmp, etc - Excel will accept most standard image types), you can tell the software where to put the image within each label. These measurements are 'points' (more or less the same as pixels) from the upper left corner of each label cell. Good old fashioned trial and error will be needed to find the correct settings for your individual needs. These settings are remembered by the software (defaults are 2 for both). If you have no inserted images these settings have no effect. The software will not resize images.

3. Split cells into lines using character(s)

If your data has cells containing data you require splitting out into the rows (eg Mr A, The House, The Street - all in 1 cell, but needs splitting based on the comma into 3 lines on the label) you put the character/characters to be used for splitting into this box. Leave blank and no splitting will be done. Note: You can split using multiple characters eg double-quote - comma - double quote.

Additional printing option:

Delay each print (secs)

If you are printing a large number of sheets of labels the software may work faster than your printer and over-fill the buffer. Here you can set a delay in seconds between each sheet to allow the printer to 'keep-up"!

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Guidance on Templates

Any formatting of the source data is ignored. All the formatting for your labels needs to be done on the Templates worksheet.

The template can include any text or formulae you like - this software simply looks for the first occurrence of <> in each cell and uses that as the marker to position the label data being merged in.

You will find some template examples in the demo workbook supplied (from the drop-down entitled 'Select' at the lower right of the software screen), including one sheet demonstrating how you can leave labels blank, add colours and different formatting.

The software will create templates simply by clicking where indicated at the top of the software screen, allowing you to specify the number of rows, columns and paper size. This creates a plain unformatted template for simple labels, but you can then edit and adjust it as much as you like to make it suit your needs eg add formatting, colours, change paper size, alter margins etc - in fact use all the Excel features you wish. Any adjusting really comes down to trial and error!

For the <> being replaced with your label data, the following formatting will be preserved if it only applies to part of the cell: font face, size, bold, colour and underline. Other elements will be dropped. If <> is in the middle of a cell then the preceding text formatting as just described will be preserved, but will also be applied to any text that follows the <> after the merge.

Once you have created a template that works for you simply save that Excel workbook, or use Excel's 'Move and Copy Sheet' feature to put it in a workbook with your source data.

If you want to keep your Templates separately in a file, simply save the file where you wish and then right-click on the feature at the top of our software screen entitled 'My label templates'. The software remembers that file and its location so in future you can simply left-click and it will open up. NB It is therefore wise to keep a separate back-up of that workbook in case you accidentally alter/corrupt your master and lose all your hard-work!

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General Notes, Tips and Precautions

1. Use the software with care - we recommend you test and configure each job with a small set of data prior to running a large set, and try printing a sheet or two to plain paper before committing to relatively expensive labels, since it is not recommended to abort mid-flow (pressing Ctl-Break will abort but is clumsy and not recommended, and although it should not do any damage this cannot be guaranteed; nor can PATools take any responsibility for your use or misuse of this software).

2. Although the software is well tested and written, we would recommend as good practice that any data and template workbooks be saved and backed-up before running this software, as it is impossible to protect against every possibility of system crashes, printer problems, etc causing run-time problems that may damage your data.

3. It is not necessary for the destination sheet to be in 'Page Break Preview' view, but we find this helps when working with the template. We also prefer and find it easier to have just one sheet of labels configured on the destination worksheet, though it is possible to have the print area set to multiple pages.

4. For this, as with any software, the best way to evaluate it and make it work for you is to play with it using dummy data until you become comfortable and are ready to use it for real.

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