Page Setup Dialog

Use the Stock tab to format your page to fit common media types. Additionally, you can configure your document for use with RFID tags and magnetic stripes.

The following mini-tabs are available.

Use the Page tab to set options for the page, including page size and orientation, the printer paper tray to use during printing (if tray options are available), and whether to use printing effects. On this tab, you can also specify whether there is a different design that needs to be printed on the back of the page, how the back page should be printed relative to the front, and whether you will use a page template to enhance your page.

The following options are available.

Page Size

• Page Size: Specifies the size of the page that is being used with your printer. The options that are listed are those that are supported by the printer that you have selected. User Defined Size is an option only if your selected printer supports user-defined page sizes.

• Width: Specifies a custom width for the page that is being used with your printer. Available when Page Size is set to User Defined Size.

• Height: Specifies a custom height for the page that is being used with your printer. Available when Page Size is set to User Defined Size.

Paper Tray

• Source: Specifies the source if multiple trays are available on the current printer. Available only for page printers.

Orientation

• Orientation: Specifies an orientation for your items. Portrait and Landscape are always available as options. Some thermal printers also provide Portrait 180 and Landscape 180 options.

Effects

Not all effects are supported by all printers. The Effects area of the Page tab is displayed only if your selected printer supports at least one of the effects, and only the supported effects are available.

• Mirror Image: Prints a mirror image of a template, in which the left and right margins are swapped. To swap the top and bottom margins, combine Mirror Image with the Landscape orientation.

• Negative: Reverses the pixels that are printed, so that printed text and barcodes are changed to white on a black background.

Template Design Options

• Separate designs for front and back of item template: Specifies that you can create two separate designs for your document. When you are printing two-sided items, use this option to print one design on the front side and another design on the back side.

• Rotate back side of item template 180: Specifies that your two-sided item is printed so that the top edge of the item's front side aligns with the bottom edge of the item's back side. When this option is not selected, two-sided items are printed so that the top edge of the item's front side aligns with the top edge of the item's back side. Not available on all printers.

• Enable page template: Specifies that you can create a page template on which you can place objects anywhere on the page, including in the margins. When you select this option, a Page Template tab is added to the bottom of the design area alongside your existing template tabs and the data entry form. If you also select the Separate designs for front and back of item template option, you can design a separate page template for each side of the item.

  For more information, refer to Creating a Page Template.

Use the Layout tab to specify how many items are printed on each page of stock. Additionally, you can specify the margins of each item and define the space between multiple items on the page.

The following options are available.

Layout

• Rows: Specifies the number of rows of items on a single page of stock.

• Columns: Specifies the number of columns of items across a single page of stock.

Margins

Margins are the spaces between the edge of the page and the edge of the items on the page. If you need to include additional data in the margins of the page (for example, a header or footer that displays the page number, current time, user, or document name), you can place this information on the page by creating a page template. To do this, click to select the Enable Page Template check box on the Page tab of the Page Setup dialog. For more information, refer to Creating a Page Template.

The following margin options are available: 

• Top: Specifies the distance between the top edge of the page and the top of the first row of items.

• Bottom: Specifies the distance between the bottom edge of the page and the bottom of the last row of items.

• Left: Specifies the distance between the left edge of the page and the left edge of the first column of items.

• Right: Specifies the distance between the right edge of the page and the right edge of the last column of items.

Template Size

• Width: Specifies the width of your items. Available when Set Manually is selected.

• Height: Specifies the height of your items. Available when Set Manually is selected.

• Set Manually: Specifies that you can manually set the height and width of your items. When this option is not selected, BarTender automatically calculates the size of your items based on your stock selection and the other settings in the Page Setup dialog.

Gap / Pitch

• Horizontal: Specifies the width of the gap between columns of items on a single page of stock. Available when Set Manually is selected.

• Vertical: Specifies the height of the gap between rows of items. Available when Set Manually is selected.

• Set Manually: Specifies that you can manually configure the size of the gaps between items on your page of stock. When this option is not selected, BarTender automatically calculates the gap size based on your stock selection and the other settings in the Page Setup dialog.

Use the Shape tab to specify the shape of the items that you print. The following options are available.

Template Shape

• Template Shape: Specifies the general shape of your items.

Options

• Print Borders: Specifies that the border around each item is printed when a print job is run.

• Line Width: Specifies the width of the border around the item. Available when Print Borders is selected.

• Line Color: Displays the currently selected color of the border around the item. To select a different color, click this option, and then use the Color Picker to select the color that you want. For more information, refer to Color Picker. Available when Print Borders is selected.

• Corner Radius: Specifies the size of the arc that is found on the corners of the item. Available when Rounded Rectangle is selected as the item shape.

• Hole: Specifies that the item has a hole in its center. Available when Ellipse is selected as the item shape.

• Hole Diameter: Specifies the size of the hole in the center of the item. Available when Ellipse is selected as the item shape.

The Media Handling tab specifies the action that is taken at the end of each page or print job. These settings enable driver-supported devices such as cutters and label taken sensors to be used in a print job. For more information, refer to Media Handling.

The following options are available.

Media Handling

• Action: Specifies the media handling action. The default setting is Use Driver's Settings. The actions that are available vary depending on the printer that is used and include the following:

  • Use Driver's Settings: No action is taken unless the printer driver itself is configured to take an action.

  • Page Break: No additional labels are printed on the current page, and any subsequent labels are printed on a new page. If the format has only one label per page, no action is taken.

  • Pause: The printer waits for user input before it prints any subsequent labels.

  • Wait for Label Taken Sensor: The printer waits until the label taken sensor is activated before it prints any subsequent labels.

  • Cut: The label stock is cut.

  • Cut and Pause: The label stock is cut, and the printer waits for user input before it prints any subsequent labels.

  • Partial Cut: The label stock is partially cut.

  • Partial Cut and Pause: The label stock is partially cut, and the printer waits for user input before it prints any subsequent labels.

• Driver Settings: Opens the printer driver's Printer Properties dialog, which you can use to select and configure media handling options.

• Occurrence: Specifies when the selected media handling action takes place. Some options are not available in all editions of BarTender. Not available if Use Driver's Settings is selected as the action.

  • At End of Print Job: The selected action is performed at the end of the print job.

  • After Every Page: The selected action is performed at the end of each page. If the document contains only one item per page, this action takes place after every item.

  • After Every Record: The selected action is performed after all items that are associated with a given database record are printed.

  • After Copies: The selected action is performed after all copies of an item are printed.

  • After Data Change: The selected action is performed after the specified data source value changes.

  • After Specified Number of Printed Items: The selected action is performed after the specified number of items are printed. The Number of Printed Items text box is available to set the value at which the selected action occurs.

• Data Item: Specifies the data source whose value is changed. Click the icon to open the Select Data Source dialog, where you can select the data source that you want. Available if After Data Change is selected as the occurrence.

• Ignore Case: Specifies that the comparison between values of the specified data item ignores differences in case. Available if After Data Change is selected as the occurrence.

The Printing Order tab specifies the order in which multiple items are printed on a single page of stock. Additionally, you can specify where to start printing if a previous print job resulted in unused stock. These options apply only when you print items that have multiple items per page, such as laser or ink-jet printer labels.

The following options are available.

Printing Order

Depending on the starting corner and direction that you specify, the preview image is updated to show the order in which the items are printed. The following options are available:

• Starting corner: Specifies which corner of the page is printed as the first item.

• Direction: Specifies the direction in which items are printed, as follows:

• Horizontal: Items are printed row by row, from either the left or the right side of the stock, depending on the starting corner.

• Vertical: Items are printed column by column, from either the top or the bottom side of the stock, depending on the starting corner.

• Horizontal (Alternating): Items are printed row by row, with the first row being printed from either the left side or the right side of the stock, depending on the starting corner, and with each subsequent row being printed from the same side on which the printing ended for the previous row. The following image shows the order in which items are printed when you select Horizontal (Alternating) with a Starting corner of Top Left.

  

• Vertical (Alternating): Items are printed column by column, with the first column being printed from either the top or the bottom side of the stock, depending on the starting corner, and with each subsequent column being printed from the same side (top or bottom) on which the printing ended for the previous column. The following image shows the order in which items are printed when you select Vertical (Alternating) with a Starting corner of Top Left.

  

• Select starting position at print-time: Specifies that the Starting Position dialog is displayed at the start of each print job. By using the Starting Position dialog, you can select which item is printed as the first item of the print job. When neither of the following two options are selected, the Starting Position dialog's preview of the stock page displays the print items in the order that they are printed based on the Starting corner and Direction options that you previously selected. By default, the first printed item is the item that is identified by the Starting corner option.

  The following options are available:

• Continue from last position of previous job: Specifies that BarTender keeps track of which item on a partially used page of stock should be used for the first printed item in the next print job. At the beginning of the print job, the Starting Position dialog opens and uses gray shading on the preview to show the items on the page that have already been printed. Based on the Starting corner and Direction options that you previously specified, BarTender determines the first item with which to begin the next print job, and that item is specified in the Starting Position dialog's Starting Position field.

• Specify by row and column number: Specifies that the preview of the stock page, on both the Page Setup dialog's Printing Order tab and the Starting Position dialog, is modified to display the print items by a combination of row number and column number.

  For more information about how to specify the starting position at print time, refer to Starting Position Dialog.

The Templates tab displays a list of all available templates in the open BarTender document. By using the Item Templates list, you can easily see how your templates are organized, reorder the templates, specify the frequency with which each template is printed, and specify conditional printing criteria for each template. For more information, refer to Using Template Selectors.

The following options are available.

Item Templates

• Start of Job Template(s): When you place a template in this folder, BarTender prints the item one time, at the beginning of the print job.

• Start of Group Template(s): When you place a template in this folder, BarTender prints the item each time the specified data source changes (as specified in the Group Field option). For templates in this folder, copy count and serialization count are ignored.

• Primary Template(s): The templates that you place in this folder can be printed multiple times, based on the copy count and/or serialization settings.

• End of Group Template(s): When you place a template in this folder, BarTender prints the item each time the specified data source changes (as specified in the Group Field option). For templates in this folder, copy count and serialization count are ignored.

• End of Job Template(s): When you place a template in this folder, BarTender prints the item one time, at the end of the print job.

Template Toolbar

The template toolbar is located below the Item Templates list. Use it to add new templates, remove existing templates, and reorder the templates in the list. The following options are available:

  Adds a new template to the list.

  Adds a new template selector to the list.

  Removes the selected template from the list.

  Renames the selected template.

  Deletes the selected template from the list and places a copy of the template on the Clipboard.

  Copies the selected template to the Clipboard.

  Pastes a copy of the template from the Clipboard into the template list.

  Moves the selected template up one position in the list.

  Moves the selected template down one position in the list.

Template Properties

• Group Field: Specifies the data source whose value is checked for changes, which prompts the printing of the template. Available only when you select a template in the Start of Group Template(s) or End of Group Template(s) folder.

Opens the Select Data Source dialog, where you can select the data source that you want.

• Print When: Specifies when BarTender prints the selected template.

Opens the When to Print dialog, which you can use to configure specific conditions that determine when the template is printed.

• Do not print template if empty: Specifies that the template is not printed if there are no printable objects on it.

Use the Background tab to configure how the background appears on your printed items. You can add effects such as a picture, color, texture, or pattern. You can also add a design guide image to the background that serves as a guide to help you position and size objects but that does not appear on printed items.

The following mini-tabs are available.