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Working with Data Sources

During printing, data from a variety of sources can be merged with your template objects to complete your print job. Most of the time, a template object uses a single data source to specify the printed data for that object, but multiple data sources can be concatenated into a single object. This would be the case when you want to place information from two or more data sources into a single barcode, encoder, or text object. By appending additional data sources to the object, you can combine them so that they are outputted as a single string (this is sometimes referred to as "string concatenation").

The Navigation Pane of the Object Properties dialog lists all of the data sources linked to the selected object. This list provides a clear, visual description of the number of data sources linked to the object, as well as the data source type used for each one. Clicking on a data source in the list opens the Data Sources property page for the selected data source and enables the data sources toolbar in the Navigation Pane.

ClosedTo view an object's data source(s) in the Object Properties dialog

  1. Double-click the object. Alternatively, select Properties from the object's context menu.

    The object's data sources are displayed in the left Navigation Pane, under Data Sources.

  2. If desired, select a data source to open the Data Sources property page, where you can modify the configuration options for the selected data source.

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