DOCUMENT #761
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One at a Time Labels
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PRODUCT: R:BASE VERSION: 3.1 or Higher
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CATALOG: Forms, Reports & Labels AREA : Reports
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From: Fran Hart, Police Department, Town of Burlington, Burlington, MA
01803 reprinted with permission of R:BASE Today
Here at the Burlington Police Department, we use R:BASE for nearly every
function that we perform. Booking prisoners, entering calls for service,
analyzing accident statistics, keeping track of evidence - it's all done
through R:BASE.
One of the things we didn't have much use for was printing labels. We used
them once in a great while, but since we don't do mass mailings, there was
seldom a need. Recently we made changes in our booking procedure. We had
always used a COM-10 envelope (4 1/8" x 9 1/2") to store the paperwork that
goes to court. By using the envelope printing capabilities of our printer,
we were able to print the desired information on the envelope and we could
then store the various forms inside. After a while, the envelope started
to outlive its usefulness. It was limited in what it could hold and it was
small. So we switched over to a very large, heavy cardboard "jacket style"
envelope. It is sturdy and roomy. However, it does not go through the
printer. Being able to produce labels suddenly became very important!
R:BASE has a good label printing routine and supports many of the standard
size labels available today. It's great for mailing lists. What made our
task more difficult was that we generally needed to print only one label at
a time, for the defendant being booked. If we used a laser printer and fed
it a sheet of labels, we'd be wasting 29 labels to print one. A dot matrix
printer produces less waste, but you always need to check the alignment.
And sooner or later, someone will roll the labels backwards, causing them
to get stuck inside.
I made a trip to the local computer superstore and found the answer --
Seiko's Smart Label Printer Plus (SLP Plus). I had noticed it previously,
but dismissed it as not having a place in our environment. It seemed a
luxury, since all it did was print labels. Now we needed labels printed on
demand, one at a time, and it was no longer a luxury. If there was some way
to get it working with the data I had in R:BASE, it would solve the
problem.
The software program that comes with the printer is very interesting. When
the program is activated, a "capture frame" appears. This is nothing more
than a rectangle that appears on the screen. One way to use it is to set
this frame to automatically find the first text block containing a postal
code, the so called "smart capture" mode. This is ideal if you want to
produce a mailing label for a particular letter.
You can also use this frame manually, which is the way we use it. You
specify the "capture column" and "capture row" --- the column and row on
the screen which defines the location of the top left corner of the frame.
Manual mode is perfect for routinely capturing text that appears on the
screen in the same location each time it is displayed. In our arrest
program, we retrieve the data using a CHOOSE command. A series of SET
VARIABLE commands concatenates the data the way we need it. Next, SHOW
VARIABLE commands using the AT option display the variables precisely on
the screen. The display location matches the location of the "capture
frame. We then activate SLP Plus using a "hot-key", which is user
definable. The program takes us out of R:BASE temporarily and presents the
SLP Plus menu screen. The data that we captured from R:BASE is right there
on the screen, displayed in a 3-D replica of the label, so that you can see
how it will look. We usually just press ENTER and print out the label.
However, you could do other things beforehand, such as edit the label,
change the fonts, convert to a bar code, etc. After pressing ENTER,
printing is immediate. The printing is extremely quiet. When it's done,
pressing the "Esc" key brings us back into R:BASE.
During the software setup, you can customize the program to run the way you
want. You can select the COM port. You can make it a standalone application
or a TSR. You can implement "swapping." There are three "swapping"
settings: None, Disk and EMS. We found that using no swapping worked best
with our setup. On our machine, the entire program runs in conventional
memory and uses about 150KB of RAM. You can also define a hot-key. The
default is "ALT-S", which we did not need to change.
Text printing capabilities are quite impressive. There are 31 fonts from
which to choose. There are also a number of borders and about 100 graphic
symbols. You can set the format of your label in many ways. You can print
in a single font or you can mix fonts on the same label. You can print
centered, flush top or flush bottom. You can print in a vertical or
horizontal folder format, which mirrors the text appropriately so that you
can see the label from either side of the folder. You can create custom
setups to print on things like diskette labels, cassettes, packages, etc.
Print darkness and number of copies can also be selected. You can also
import address lists from most databases and word processors and save them
as a "mail list" in SLP Plus. You can save these lists and call them up
anytime. Besides text, the software can also print bar codes. It supports
Code 39, EAN-13, UPC-A and USS-I 2/5.
The hardware itself is quite amazing. The whole printer weighs less than a
pound and occupies a space about as big as a large coffee mug. There are no
ribbons or cartridges to change as it is a thermal printer. It connects to
the computer through an available serial port (COM1 - COM4). The labels
come on a small spool that is installed easily. There are 130 labels to a
roll and their size is 1 1/8" x 3 1/2". You can get either white or clear
labels.
To get it set up right the first time took a little tinkering and a few
calls to the SLP Plus support line, but ever since the program has run like
a charm. I have seen no evidence of problems or conflicts. The combination
of R:BASE, Novell 3.11 and the SLP Plus software works great. The machine
we use is a PC clone 386/33 with 4 MB of RAM. If SLP Plus is installed as a
resident program, it should be loaded after any disk caching programs,
network programs such as IPX and NETX, mouse drivers, print spoolers and
most other TSRs. Our AUTOEXEC.BAT file looks something like this:
PATH, PROMPT, SET, ETC. Commands
CD \NET
IPX
NETX
C:\SLP\SLP /R
REM where SLP is the directory and the /R switch makes it a TSR
F:
LOGIN
This approach is an ideal solution for those of you who either print a
small number of labels or need to print a single label on demand. It can
also handle larger mailing lists, but it is not cost effective for such
large volumes. The box of labels, which contains two rolls of 130 labels
per roll, costs about $9.00. At over 3 cents per label, it is not a good
way to do large lists. Seiko has also released a slightly larger version of
the SLP Plus called SLP Pro. It prints on larger labels and there are
several sizes to pick from. We have just purchased one of these to use for
tagging our evidence. There are several other palm-sized printers on the
market besides Seiko's. I haven't tried them, but I do know that the SLP
Plus really works well with R:BASE and solved our printing problem nicely.
Maybe it could solve one of your printing problems too!
Smart Label Printer Plus is trademark of and available from Seiko
Instruments USA, Inc., 1130 Ringwood Court, San Jose, CA 95131,
800-553-5312
One at a Time Labels From: Fran Hart, Police Department, Town of
Burlington, Burlington, MA 01803 reprinted with permission.