Managing sets

managing sets

Labeljoy defines set as a collection of labels that are replicated one or more times. Normally you will be working with jobs containing one set only, but Labeljoy can manage multiple sets in a single job.

The management of a single set takes place inside a properties dialog box, accessible by double clicking an empty label space, or by selecting the Advanced icon in the Home tab.

The Set properties dialog box enables you to:

Define a background color: Click the Background tab to define a back color that applies to the whole label.
Define a frame: select the Frame tab to define color, size, style and compound of the frame drawn around the label. Select a value greater than zero to enable color definition controls or leave at zero to leave the label with no frame.

The Data source tab enables you to manage the data source and its advanced features:

Data source: Runs the Data source wizard to connect to an external file or database.
Update data: Re-loads the data from the data source.
Filter: Opens the filter view to manage data sorting and filtering.
Remove data source: Disconnects the data source.
Update data when this file is loaded or printed: When activated, will automatically re-load the data from the data source, after the file is loaded and before printing or exporting. Optionally it enables you to configure and external program to be run prior to updating the data source. This feature is particularly useful when you need to run an external tool to pull new data into the data source before it gets updated.

Note:
To configure a program to run prior to data update, select the type of action you want to perform from the drop-down menu:

Do not run any program: Default option, does not run any program and perform data update only.
Run program and don't wait: Runs a program, does not wait for its execution to terminate and immediately performs data update.
Run a program and wait for it to finish: Runs a program and waits for its termination before performing data update. Does not check for the exit code.
Run a program and wait for success: Runs a program, waits for its termination and performs data update only if the program exit code signals success (Exit code = 0).

The following text box enables you to select the executable program to run. Click the 3 dots to search and select the program to run.
Optionally, in the following text box you can define the command line arguments to pass to the program.
And finally, you can instruct Labeljoy to ask for confirmation before running the program, by selecting the Ask before running the program check box.

In the Advanced tab you will the following fields:

Define quantity: The number of labels in the set, or the number of replicas for data source connected label sets, see note in the next image below.
Define the set name: Enter a name that will be displayed when the mouse hovers over it.

Note:
When a set is not connected to a data source, the option Define quantity before printing or exporting enables you to activate a feature that will instruct Labeljoy to ask for the quantity of labels to be printed or exported, before each operation.

Note:
When a set is connected to a data source, the value specified in the Copies field will define the number of repetitions for each record in the data source.
For example, if you link a set to an Excel file that contains 100 records, and then enter 2 in the Copies field, you will obtain a set with 200 labels. In such cases, the Collate combo box becomes visible enabling you to define if the repetitions must be adjacent (record 1, record 1, record 2, record 2, etc.) or repeat the entire series one after the other (record 1 ..., record 100, record 1 ..., record 100).