Creating a New Label Format

Labels in LDMS are setup like tables. A label consists of an optional barcode, and rows and columns of fields. Everything on the barcode is center aligned. For each field, you need to select the row that it will appear in and the column (or position) in that row. You are limited to four fields per row.

Figure: Parts of a label. A typical label, showing how each field corresponds to a row and column. If a barcode is selected, it will always appear first. Every row is center aligned, so columns may not necessarily be aligned.



Creating a new label format:

  1. Select Tasks > Labels from the LDMS menu bar or click the button from the LDMS toolbar.

  2. Select a group from the Group list.

  3. If you want to base your new label on an existing label, select an existing format from the Format menu, otherwise leave the Format field blank.

  4. Click the button from the LDMS toolbar. You'll be prompted if you want to create a new label based on the label selected in the Format field (if no format was selected, LDMS will tell you that you are basing your label on ""). Select Yes or No as appropriate.

  5. Enter the name for your label as you want it to appear in LDMS Specimen Management into the text box.

Figure: Label format settings and label output. The label formatting settings used to achieve an output label.



This will create a new entry in the Format menu for the selected group. Your new label format will be blank though, so you need to configure it. This is done on the right side of the screen. To add a field, select the check box next to it, and then enter the row and col[umn] where the field should appear.

Format options:

Barcode Content

The barcode for the label; this always appears at the top of the label, if selected.

Data Item

Name of the field from LDMS to display; click the check box next to a field to display it.

Length

The length of a field (in characters). This is how much space the field needs to appear on the label.

Row

Enter the row on the label where you want the field to appear.

Col

Enter the position in the row where the item should appear (e.g. 1 for first, 2 for second, etc).

You can see a preview of how your labels will look on a given stock to make sure that there will be no issues when you print actual labels. To do this, select your label format, then select a label stock on the left side of the screen. Next click the button. This will generated labels without real data so that you can test your printer with the new label format.

Note:

The available label stock on the left will automatically reflect the label selected. Each stock is only capable of displaying so many rows (as shown in the Max Rows column). To learn more about a stock, select it and click the Label Manufacturer button.

Alignment options

Number of sample label rows

Number of labels of display.

Preview

Display the labels; this is the same thing you will see in LDMS Specimen Management when you actually generate the labels.

Show Field Names

Display the name of each field; the extra text may cause readability issues (field names will never appear on actual labels though).

Show All Positions

This will show used rows as X and unused (but available) space as O.

Once you've finished configuring your label's format, click the button from the LDMS toolbar.