SSRS and labels

  • I have a program in VB I have created to print labels. Currently I can print to a label printer (Intermec) where the label is 2" x .5" without issue. It is when I need to print to a Datamax printer (or Intermec for that matter) with labels the size of 1" x .5" 3 across is where I am having issue. When I print and tell it to print 3 copies, it prints 3copies in the first column only when it should print 3 copies across. Any help would be appreciated. Adding columns does not work or at least I most likely don't know what I am doing.

  • bswhipp - Monday, March 26, 2018 7:30 AM

    I have a program in VB I have created to print labels. Currently I can print to a label printer (Intermec) where the label is 2" x .5" without issue. It is when I need to print to a Datamax printer (or Intermec for that matter) with labels the size of 1" x .5" 3 across is where I am having issue. When I print and tell it to print 3 copies, it prints 3copies in the first column only when it should print 3 copies across. Any help would be appreciated. Adding columns does not work or at least I most likely don't know what I am doing.

    Unfortunately, you will never be able to do that without changing your program to give you a prompt of some kind as to the number of labels across.   When you print to a printer, label or otherwise, those printers are only "label-smart" to the extent that they handle that kind of combination of sticky labels on their backing paper from a physical point of view, and NOT from a logical "label" point of view.   They don't just automatically look at your print data and say "Hey, that's a label, and I can do 3 of those across!"   They simply print what they get three times, and what they see is your print data as print lines, which they then dutifully print the entire set 3 times without worrying about where that data gets printed, which means if you print in such a way that data appears off either edge of the label, or above or below it, that's "your problem".   You can't even just tell it to print 3 across.   These devices just aren't that smart.   They expect you to format the entire line of print, which means that you have to extend your print line and properly figure out spacing.   It's almost always easier to use MS Word's label printing ability than almost anything else, but you have to then set up your document based on the number of labels across.   Sorry, dude (or dudette) !

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • sgmunson - Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6:22 AM

    bswhipp - Monday, March 26, 2018 7:30 AM

    I have a program in VB I have created to print labels. Currently I can print to a label printer (Intermec) where the label is 2" x .5" without issue. It is when I need to print to a Datamax printer (or Intermec for that matter) with labels the size of 1" x .5" 3 across is where I am having issue. When I print and tell it to print 3 copies, it prints 3copies in the first column only when it should print 3 copies across. Any help would be appreciated. Adding columns does not work or at least I most likely don't know what I am doing.

    Unfortunately, you will never be able to do that without changing your program to give you a prompt of some kind as to the number of labels across.   When you print to a printer, label or otherwise, those printers are only "label-smart" to the extent that they handle that kind of combination of sticky labels on their backing paper from a physical point of view, and NOT from a logical "label" point of view.   They don't just automatically look at your print data and say "Hey, that's a label, and I can do 3 of those across!"   They simply print what they get three times, and what they see is your print data as print lines, which they then dutifully print the entire set 3 times without worrying about where that data gets printed, which means if you print in such a way that data appears off either edge of the label, or above or below it, that's "your problem".   You can't even just tell it to print 3 across.   These devices just aren't that smart.   They expect you to format the entire line of print, which means that you have to extend your print line and properly figure out spacing.   It's almost always easier to use MS Word's label printing ability than almost anything else, but you have to then set up your document based on the number of labels across.   Sorry, dude (or dudette) !

    Was easy in VFP. Created a report with the correct label size and when printed, it printed correctly. Why would Microsoft remove capabilities from VFP to VB or C#. Sometimes they make no sense. I don't mind doing the leg work because I need to get this program converted. VFP does not work well on Windows 2012 Terminal Server but I need to know how. Can you point me in a direction?

  • bswhipp - Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6:57 AM

    sgmunson - Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6:22 AM

    bswhipp - Monday, March 26, 2018 7:30 AM

    I have a program in VB I have created to print labels. Currently I can print to a label printer (Intermec) where the label is 2" x .5" without issue. It is when I need to print to a Datamax printer (or Intermec for that matter) with labels the size of 1" x .5" 3 across is where I am having issue. When I print and tell it to print 3 copies, it prints 3copies in the first column only when it should print 3 copies across. Any help would be appreciated. Adding columns does not work or at least I most likely don't know what I am doing.

    Unfortunately, you will never be able to do that without changing your program to give you a prompt of some kind as to the number of labels across.   When you print to a printer, label or otherwise, those printers are only "label-smart" to the extent that they handle that kind of combination of sticky labels on their backing paper from a physical point of view, and NOT from a logical "label" point of view.   They don't just automatically look at your print data and say "Hey, that's a label, and I can do 3 of those across!"   They simply print what they get three times, and what they see is your print data as print lines, which they then dutifully print the entire set 3 times without worrying about where that data gets printed, which means if you print in such a way that data appears off either edge of the label, or above or below it, that's "your problem".   You can't even just tell it to print 3 across.   These devices just aren't that smart.   They expect you to format the entire line of print, which means that you have to extend your print line and properly figure out spacing.   It's almost always easier to use MS Word's label printing ability than almost anything else, but you have to then set up your document based on the number of labels across.   Sorry, dude (or dudette) !

    Was easy in VFP. Created a report with the correct label size and when printed, it printed correctly. Why would Microsoft remove capabilities from VFP to VB or C#. Sometimes they make no sense. I don't mind doing the leg work because I need to get this program converted. VFP does not work well on Windows 2012 Terminal Server but I need to know how. Can you point me in a direction?

    There was no "removal of features" involved.  VB and C# were separate products with separate objectives from those of VFP.  Depending on which might take you more time, I see two way to solve the problem, but neither of them allows you to not know the nature of the printer in advance of the printing action.   You can either modify your VB program to "figure out" the line spacing based on some kind of input value that tells you how many labels across there are, and thus figure out exactly how much space needs to appear on your print line between the labels within your program (of course, you'll need to know how many copies of each label to print if you want the same label printed consecutively across the page, and then NOT use the copies option when you finally do the print), or you can install MS Word on the machine, and then figure out how to use the object model to format the MS Word document for the number of labels across as well as their size, and then to accomplish getting your data into the document, and finally; printing the document, and then disposing of the objects and exiting.  Depending on your OOP skills with the MS Word object model, you might well find it easier to write your own code to figure all that stuff out.

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • sgmunson - Tuesday, March 27, 2018 10:33 AM

    bswhipp - Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6:57 AM

    sgmunson - Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6:22 AM

    bswhipp - Monday, March 26, 2018 7:30 AM

    I have a program in VB I have created to print labels. Currently I can print to a label printer (Intermec) where the label is 2" x .5" without issue. It is when I need to print to a Datamax printer (or Intermec for that matter) with labels the size of 1" x .5" 3 across is where I am having issue. When I print and tell it to print 3 copies, it prints 3copies in the first column only when it should print 3 copies across. Any help would be appreciated. Adding columns does not work or at least I most likely don't know what I am doing.

    Unfortunately, you will never be able to do that without changing your program to give you a prompt of some kind as to the number of labels across.   When you print to a printer, label or otherwise, those printers are only "label-smart" to the extent that they handle that kind of combination of sticky labels on their backing paper from a physical point of view, and NOT from a logical "label" point of view.   They don't just automatically look at your print data and say "Hey, that's a label, and I can do 3 of those across!"   They simply print what they get three times, and what they see is your print data as print lines, which they then dutifully print the entire set 3 times without worrying about where that data gets printed, which means if you print in such a way that data appears off either edge of the label, or above or below it, that's "your problem".   You can't even just tell it to print 3 across.   These devices just aren't that smart.   They expect you to format the entire line of print, which means that you have to extend your print line and properly figure out spacing.   It's almost always easier to use MS Word's label printing ability than almost anything else, but you have to then set up your document based on the number of labels across.   Sorry, dude (or dudette) !

    Was easy in VFP. Created a report with the correct label size and when printed, it printed correctly. Why would Microsoft remove capabilities from VFP to VB or C#. Sometimes they make no sense. I don't mind doing the leg work because I need to get this program converted. VFP does not work well on Windows 2012 Terminal Server but I need to know how. Can you point me in a direction?

    There was no "removal of features" involved.  VB and C# were separate products with separate objectives from those of VFP.  Depending on which might take you more time, I see two way to solve the problem, but neither of them allows you to not know the nature of the printer in advance of the printing action.   You can either modify your VB program to "figure out" the line spacing based on some kind of input value that tells you how many labels across there are, and thus figure out exactly how much space needs to appear on your print line between the labels within your program (of course, you'll need to know how many copies of each label to print if you want the same label printed consecutively across the page, and then NOT use the copies option when you finally do the print), or you can install MS Word on the machine, and then figure out how to use the object model to format the MS Word document for the number of labels across as well as their size, and then to accomplish getting your data into the document, and finally; printing the document, and then disposing of the objects and exiting.  Depending on your OOP skills with the MS Word object model, you might well find it easier to write your own code to figure all that stuff out.

    Steve, thanks. I might be able to do something with the Datamax SDK from Honeywell. I will see what I can do.

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