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Spine Label Printing

Spine or spine/pocket labels can be printed either directly from Evergreen to a continuous feed label printer, directly to a laser printer using sheets of labels, or by exporting data to a third party program.

Spine and pocket label printing from Evergreen is functional on both Chrome and Firefox, but there are several unresolved issues surrounding label printing and Hatch.

At this time, we do not recommend you use Hatch for printing if you are printing labels.

Once you set up a spine label print template(s) that suits your label stock and printing needs, be sure to Export the template(s) to a backup location in case you ever need to restore it. Be sure to keep the exported templates up to date.

Spine and pocket labels can be printed from several places in Evergreen, depending on the needs of your workflow. See Open the label printing interface for the areas where you can access printing labels.

Old Instructions (Prior to 2/27/19)

Printing to a Label Printer

Spine label printing from Evergreen is functional on both Chrome and Firefox, but there are several unresolved issues surrounding label printers and Hatch, so at this time we do not recommend you use Hatch for printing if you are printing labels. (Using Hatch to store local preferences does not appear to create any conflicts, though.) Once you set up a spine label print template that suits your label stock, be sure to Export the template to a backup location in case you ever need to restore it.

Label Printer Settings

Open up your label printer's preferences (in Windows, go to Devices and Printers, then right-click on the printer name and select Printing Preferences). Each variety of label printer has its own printer drivers, so the configuration screen will vary.

Example: TSC TPP-247

On the Page Setup tab, click New and define a new type of label stock. The label stock in this example is 4 inches wide and 1.5 inches tall. Click OK to Save the stock, then click Apply. After applying, exit (x) out of the dialog box.

Disable Margins, Headers, and Footers

In Firefox:

  1. File > Page Setup
  2. Format & Options tab: Make sure that “Shrink to Fit Page Width” is not checked.
  3. Margins & Header/Footer tab: Set Margins to 0 and all Headers/Footers to blank.
  4. Click OK.

firefox-print-setup.jpg

In Chrome:

  1. Menu (three vertical dots in upper-right corner of browser window) > Print
  2. Select the label printer.
  3. Click More Settings.
  4. Check the Paper Size. (For the TSC TPP-247, this will be the name of the custom stock you created.)
  5. Set Margins to None.
  6. Set Scale to 100.
  7. If present, uncheck Headers and footers.
  8. click Cancel.

Open the Label Printing Interface

There are three different places you can print labels from:

From Item Status

  1. Go to the Item Status List View (Circulation > Item Status).
  2. Scan or enter one or more barcodes.
  3. Select the items you wish to print labels for.
  4. Under the Actions menu, go to Show > Print Labels.

From Copy Buckets

  1. Go to the Copy Buckets page (Cataloging > Copy Buckets).
  2. Open a bucket.
  3. Select the items you wish to print labels for.
  4. Under the Actions menu, go to Show > Print Labels.

From Holdings

  1. Go to the Holdings View for a title.
  2. Select the items you wish to print labels for.
  3. Under the Actions menu, go to Show > Print Labels.

About the Interface

Template Bar: You may print labels on the fly by using or modifying the default template, you may create and save your own templates, or you may import templates created by another person.

Call Number Template Tab: Use this section to modify the general format in which the text will appear on spine labels. This will determine which fields and free text will appear on the spine label, and where the line breaks will appear by default.

Call Numbers Tab: Use this section to more finely control how each spine label prints. For example, if you have a long call number with a skinny book, you may type directly in the relevant field to adjust that individual spine label without affecting the other spine labels.

Settings Tab: Use this section to define the size of your spine label and your pocket label. Recommendations are listed below for some fields, but you may wish to adjust them due to the different label stock. This assumes that you are using label stock that has a spine label on the left and a pocket label on the right. If you are using label stock that only has spine labels, you can set up a template that doesn't print the pocket label section.

  • Item Print Label Font Family: Recommended fonts are either monospace or Arial.
  • Item Print Label Font Size: Recommended size is 10pt.
  • Item Print Label Font Weight: 10pt.
  • Item Print Label - Left margin for Left Label: Recommend leaving this blank if your label starts on the left side of the paper. Adjust if your label is set farther in.
  • Item Print Label - Left Margin for Right Label: Enter the amount of space between your spine label and your pocket label (unless you are only using spine labels, in which case leave blank). For example: .125in
  • Item Print Label - Height for Left Label: Your actual label height for your spine label. For example: 1.25in
  • Item Print Label - Width for Left Label: The actual width of your spine label. For example: 1in
  • Item Print Label - Height for Right Label: Your actual label height for your pocket label. (Usually the same height as your spine label. Leave blank if only using spine labels and not pocket labels.)
  • Item Print Label - Width for Right Label: The actual width of your pocket label.
  • (Leave the rest of the fields blank unless needed.)

Creating Your Own Templates

From the default settings…

  1. Adjust the settings in the Call Number Template tab, the Settings tab, and the Label Template tab until they are set the way you prefer. (Be sure to test printing, and do not just rely on the Label Preview.)
  2. Type a name in the Template field.
  3. Click Save.

If you wish to modify an existing template…

  1. Select the original template from the Template dropdown.
  2. Click Apply.
  3. Make your changes. These changes could include adding additional fields, removing fields, adjusting the order the fields display in, etc.
  4. Click Save to overwrite the original template. (To create a new template and leave the original intact, type in a new template name and click Save.)

Printing Spine Labels Only

The code in this version defaults to spine and pocket labels. If you are only printing spine labels, you will need to delete the pocket label code. (In the next version, this will be a clickable setting so that you will not need to modify the code.)

  1. Go to the Label Template tab and scroll to the bottom.
  2. Delete everything in the pocket label section from <td>...</td> (shown below) and then save.

<td>
<!-- Pocket Label contents -->
<pre class="pocket" style="border:none" ng-show="true">
{{copy.barcode}}
{{copy['call_number.label']}}
{{get_bib_for(copy).author }}
{{get_bib_for(copy).title | wrap:28:'once':' '}}
</pre>
</td>

Available Fields

Common fields:

  • Barcode: {{copy.barcode}}
  • Call Number: {{copy['call_number.label']}}
  • Author: {{get_bib_for(copy).author }}
  • Author limited to 30 characters: {{get_bib_for(copy).author | limitTo:30}}
  • Shelving Location: {{copy['location.name']}}
  • Title: {{get_bib_for(copy).title}}
  • Title limited to 30 characters: {{get_bib_for(copy).title | limitTo:30}}
  • Title wrapping to two lines, limiting to 30 characters per line: {{get_bib_for(copy).title | wrap:30:once:' '}}
  • Publication Date: {{copy['call_number.record.simple_record.pubdate']}}
  • Library Policy (Short) Name: {{copy['call_number.owning_lib.shortname']}}

Importing and Exporting Templates

After you create your template(s), it is a good idea to save a backup copy of it in case you need to switch computers or in case you lose your current settings. You may also want to share your templates with other staff.

  1. Click the Export button.
  2. Save it to the location of your choosing.
  3. You may change the name of the file, but do not change the file extension.

To load saved templates, click Import and select the template file.

This zipped file contains a few templates for label stock that you can use as a starting point: spine-label-templates.zip

Printing to Sheets of Labels

Exporting a CSV File

  1. Create a list of items (either in an Item Status List or a Copy Bucket).
  2. Use the column picker to make sure that all of the data you need to export is visible.
  3. Select all of the items you wish to print labels for.
  4. Click the dropdown arrow to the right of the page navigator (the same arrow you use to choose your columns).
  5. Click Download Full CSV.
  6. Name the file whatever you like, and save it to a location that is easy to access.

At this point, you can use Bartender or another third party software along with the CSV file you saved following your standard procedures, or you can use Microsoft Word's Mail Merge function to create your labels.

If you are going to use Mail Merge, you may need to open up the CSV file in Microsoft Excel and use the Text To Columns functionality in order to split the Call Number up into multiple parts. This will allow you to have better control over placing different elements of the call number on different lines.

Using Mail Merge

The instructions here are for Microsoft Word 2016. They should be similar for other versions of Word.

  1. Open a blank document in Microsoft Word.
  2. Navigate to the Mailings tab.
  3. Click the Start Mail Merge button.
  4. Select Labels.
  5. Choose the appropriate label stock and click OK.
  6. Click the Select Recipients button.
  7. Select Use an Existing List.
  8. Choose the CSV file and click OK.
  9. Click the Address block button.
  10. Click the Match Fields button.
  11. Select the fields you wish to appear on the label using the Match Fields interface (see example below) and click OK.
  12. Click OK again to close the Insert Address Block window.
  13. Click the Update Labels button.
  14. Click the Finish & Merge button.
  15. Choose Print Documents.
  16. On the popup, click Select All and click OK.

cat/spine-label-printing.1550680723.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/02/20 16:38 by tlittle