Printing Multiple Labels per Sheet (A2K)

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I checked the Forum and other sources and couldn

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In scenario 2, will the data for the labels from different users

a) be stored in a single backend table, or
stored in different tables, or
c) not stored in a table at all

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Hans,

All will be stored in a single backend table. They like to share.

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You could add a Yes/No field ysnPrinted to the table, and base the report on a query that selects the first ten records for which ysnPrinted = No.
In the code used to open the report, check whether there are enough records in the query, and issue a warning if there aren’t.
After the report has been opened, offer the option to set ysnPrinted to Yes.

See the attached crude demo.

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Hans,

Thanks again. I’ll try your version and also attempt to do one where there is no need for the user to say yes or no, but “AUTOMATICALLY” print when it reaches 10. Manual intervention would only be necessary at the end of the whole session when everyone is finished or when the application is closed.

As a point of interest and a bit of forewarning. This is going to be done on a two-drawer printer where one drawer will be selected for labels and the other one for one page Warranty Reports which will be ‘AUTOMATICALLY” printed when generated by pre-determined conditions. Hoo Haw!

Stay tuned.

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Hans,

Let the games continue.

The records that are being created are based on a query, [qry CNMstr].

The size of the file is continually be incremented by the number of records added, and is currently sitting at 3094.

Based on your code and using my labels:

Private Sub cmdLabels_Click()
Dim intCount As Integer
Dim strSQL As String
intCount = DCount(“*”, “qry CNMstr”)
If intCount = 0 Then
MsgBox “There are no labels to be printed.”, vbInformation
Exit Sub
ElseIf intCount < 10 Then
If MsgBox("There are fewer than ten labels to be printed." & vbCrLf & _
"Do you want to print them anyway?", _
vbQuestion + vbYesNo + vbDefaultButton2) = vbNo Then
Exit Sub
End If
End If
DoCmd.OpenReport "rpt LogIn – Label", acViewPreview
If MsgBox("Do you want to mark the labels as printed?", _
vbQuestion + vbYesNo) = vbYes Then
strSQL = "UPDATE [qry CNMstr] SET ysnPrinted = True"
DoCmd.RunSQL strSQL, True
End If
End Sub

Had I said Yes,

I would have printed out 3094 labels.

Where did I go wrong?

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See my previous reply. You’d need to add a yes/no field to the table, and modify the query to select only the first 10 records for which the yes/no field is false.

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Thanks Hans, I’ll have a go at this tomorrow and let you know the results,

Cheers,

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Sorry to butt in, but I have had this same issue. I solved it with a Dymo thermal label printer. Set the label report page setup property to print to “specific printer” (meaning the Dymo) and leave the warranty sheet as the LaserJet default printer. This way no 1 person would have to wait for several other people to get their work done before they could get their output. The printers are cheap (especially on eBay). I just replaced one for $80, including shipping. The one I replaced had been in service for 3 years. Pro is never changing ink/toner. Only con I can think of is that the labels do come in a roll – print one and tear it off with the little metal teeth (just like with aluminum foil). If several labels come out in quick succession you actually have to tear or cut the backing paper OR just peel off the label you need.

Hope that helps – sure solved my dilemna years ago!
Kathi

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Kathi!

Thanks kindly for “butting” in. Having been there and done that and solved your similar problem, I appreciate your helping me out. Suggestions and clues like yours are never considered to be “butting” in. I really appreciate your insights. If only I could comment further with respect to these great straight lines thrown my way…..

Seriously, thanks again and cheers,

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You need to have a frontend table (assuming everyone has a separate copy of frontend, which they should have anyway). Your data entry form would automatically print labels whenever it detects there are 10 labels in the table. Just add a manual “Print Now” button to form.

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Mark,

Thanks for the input. Yes, all and sundry have their little front ends ( on the computer ) and all have a button which currently would print one label at at time. All I need do with this little fella is add the “Are you up to 10 yet?” logic. That sounded simple, didn’t it?

Worse case scenario in all of this is some type of label printer that prints out 1 label at a time whenever their record is saved. Certainly not continuous form dot-matrix which is right up their with punched cards, but a laser-like quality printer. Know of any?

Cheers,

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Actually, I was thinking of a button that would manually print all labels. That is, if they enterred 8 labels and had no more, they would then click the “Print Now” button and all 8 would print-out. They wouldn’t have to do anything when the 10th label was input, the system would automatically print a sheet of labels.

There are are specialty label printers out there that would allow you to economically print 1 label at a time. Labels come on a roll.

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Sorry Mark,

Once more have I miscontrued you folks due to minimal description. I should have mentioned that I assumed it would be labels on a roll, but providing laser printer-like quality. Sorry about that.

As you can gather by my response to Hans, that the thick is plottening. It would have to be the last labels Not Printed since the last print job. This means of course that I should have put a ” Gee, I’ve already been printed” indicator on my file. I’ve done that somewhere in my distant past, so I’d best go looking for it.

Unless of course you have an easier more logical suggestion.

Thanks again,

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The specialty printers are often thermal printers, not lasers, but the print quality is very good.

Unless you have some need to keep a history of labels printed, I’d just use a temporary table and after printing I’d just delete all records in it.

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Thanks Mark,

I’ll check out thermal printers. With respect to the idea of creating temporary tables and deleting records after the fact would seem to necessitate user involvement and capability. I don’t even want to think about it.

Thanks again for the thermal clue,

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No! No! No! When I say a temporary table, I mean a table who contents are temporary. The user has no involvement in this at all. As info for each label is entered, an record is added into the table. Each time an entry is written to this table, you merely have to do a DCount to find out how many records are there. If there are 10, then print labels and Delete contents of table (just pop a msgbox asking user something like “Did labels print OK?” before you actually delete the records).

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Hi Mark,

Panic easily, don’t I.

It sounds close to an ideal solution. That’s the good news. The bad news is, and I have no problem in admitting this, as this is another of countless areas I’ve never dealt with in using Access, I have absolutely no clue as to how to do this based on some of the code reflected above that I’m dealing with. If it’s not too much to ask, a small bit of code or sample database would be more than appreciated. Sorry about the imposition,

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