Printing folder and box labels for archival materials

3.1. The basics

This section of the documentation contains a generalized outline of the steps you could take to produce a set of folder and box labels. This section is followed by examples to further illustrate the use of the program. All of the steps needed to use the program are described in even more detail elsewhere in this document.

• Before you start the program you need to know the source of the data the program will use to prepare box and folder labels. This can be an ArchivesSpace resource record; a file that you prepare in advance; or (if the program is just producing box labels) the range of box numbers of interest

• Before you can use the progrm to produce labels, you must have defined a theme that produces labels that meet your requirements

• Start the program: either from the Windows Start menu (it’s in the Northwestern University Library folder), or via a shortcut you have created on your desktop.

  The program's main panel looks something like the following illustration. The first time you run the program, the list of themes in the large list will contain only the Default theme. (You can create as many different themese as you need.)

  

• Select an existing theme, or create a new theme, to define the contents and formatting of this set of labels.

• Inspect each of the program's tabs for your selected theme, and adjust the settings as necessary. While every piece of information on each tab is important, having the right values on the Get started tab is essential; and the values on that tab are the ones you will probably need to adjust for each new set of labels.

• Click the Produce labels button. The program reads ArchivesSpace, or your source file, and produces one or more files of folder labels, and one or more files of box labels. (How long this takes, depends on the data source and the number of labels.) When the program has finished its work, the program goes away.⁶

• Inspect the folder and box labels in the program's output files. If the labels are not to your liking, start the program again, adjust the settings (or correct the underlying data), and try again. Repeat this process until your labels have the desired appearance.

• When the box and folder labels are to your liking, send the label files to a printer.

3.2. Produce labels from ArchivesSpace data

The following example illustrates the use of this program, when the program is reading data directly from ArchivesSpace. This example uses a previously-defined theme and a set of template files known to reflect your preferences. Once you have defined themes and template files that match your requirements, much of your work with this program may be just as easy as it appears to be from this description.

We'll imagine that you're creating labels for the Mr. Smith papers, a resource record in ArchivesSpace. This resource has the EAD identifier "II-3", and the internal ArchivesSpace numeric identifier 1926.

Start the labels program. As always the program starts at the Themes tab. You know that the theme called Generic regular from AS #2 generates labels with the desired appearance, so that's the one you select.

Move to the Get started tab (shown below). The Read directly from ArchivesSpace radio button is already selected. You supply any one of these pieces of information:

• The full URL for the ArchivesSpace resource record or

• The ArchivesSpace numeric identifier for the resource (it's in the URL for the resource) or

• The EAD identifier for the resource

If you have established more than one connection to ArchivesSpace, click the Connection to AS button to make sure that the program is set to read from the correct connection. (The program displays the name of the currently-selected connection just below this button.)

Move next to the Data mapping tab (shown below). (The program is going to be reading from ArchivesSpace, so many elements on this tab are hidden. Definitions for elements are written directly into the program's code, and you can't change them.) No changes are needed here.

Everything on the Folder labels tab is also correct as it stands. Note again that the program will supply the resource title from data it pulls from ArchivesSpace.

Finally, everything on the Box labels tab is correct as it stands. (The "%T%" on line 7 tells the program where to insert the resource title.)

Having set up the program to produce your labels, you click the Produce labels button. The program establishes a connection to your ArchivesSpace database, reads data from it, and produces files of box and folder labels. The program writes these files to the folder named in the Folder for output files box on the Get started tab.

When the program is done, the folder you identified on the Get started tab contains the program's output files of folder and box labels. The names of these files begin "ArchivesSpaceData", followed by the internal ArchivesSpace numeric identifier for the resource. This basic name continues with either "Box" or "Folder", plus a numeric sequence number. You will check these files to make sure that everything is just as it should be, and then (if they're OK) send the files to a printer. (One way to send a group of files to a printer is to select the files in the listing, right-click on the selected group, and choose Print from the pop-up context menu; but this only works if all of the default print settings are appropriate for box and folder labels. Beware of printers that print on both sides of a page by default!)

3.3. Produce labels from an ArchivesSpace load spreadsheet

The following example illustrates the use of this program, using a source file (a spreadsheet) in a special format: the format expected by the ArchivesSpace plug-in. (The layout of this spreadsheet has become more elaborate with successive versions of the plug-in; the labels program understands them all.) This example uses a previously-defined theme and a set of template files known to reflect your preferences. Once you have defined themes and template files that match your requirements, much of your work with this program may be just as easy as it appears to be from this description.

Here's a small part of the spreadsheet that you prepared as you were processing this collection. The layout of this spreadsheet is set by the needs of the ArchivesSpace plug-in that will load the data.

You start the labels program, and as always the program lands on the Themes tab. You know that the theme called Elle band spreadsheet generates labels in the correct format for this repository and is set to read from a source file, so that's the one you select.

You move to the Get started tab (shown below), and change three things. The rest of the configuration on this tab is OK as it stands.

• Use the Browse button next to the Source file box to find the spreadsheet. After you identify the spreadsheet file, the program opens it to find out about it. (While it is inspecting your file, the program may appear to be frozen.) Eventually, the program shows you (in the Worksheets list) the names of all of the worksheets contained in this spreadsheet. Since this is an Excel spreadsheet designed for use by the ArchivesSpace plug-in, you want to select the worksheet called Data. (The program should already have selected this worksheet for you.)

• Type the name of the collection into the Collection name box

• The program copied the EAD identifier that it found in the spreadsheet into the Series number box. Adjust this number as necessary.

You move next to the Data mapping tab (shown below). The labels program has recognized your spreadsheet as being of this special type, so it displays the names of data elements (from row 4 of the spreadsheet), instead of allowing you to pick column names. No changes are needed here.

On the Folder labels tab (shown below), you verify that the program has copied the collection name correctly into the Collection name box, and you verify that the label format is the correct one. Everything here is already correct.

Finally, on the Box labels tab (shown below), you check that the program is set to echo the collection name correctly into the appropriate line, and that the correct label format is selected. Everything here is already as it should be.

Having set up the program to produce your labels, you click the Produce labels button. The program reads the source spreadsheet file and produces files of box and folder labels, writing them to the folder named in the Folder for output files box on the Get started tab.

When the program is done, the folder you identified on the Get started tab contains the program's output files of folder and box labels. You will check these files to make sure that everything is just as it should be, and then (if they're OK) send the files to a printer. (One way to send a group of files to a printer is to select the files in a listing such as this one, right-click on the selected group, and choose Print from the pop-up context menu; but this only works if all of the default print settings are appropriate for box and folder labels. Beware of printers that print on both sides of a page by default!)

3.4. Produce labels from a spreadsheet (locally-defined format; simple example)

The following example illustrates the use of this program, using a source file (a spreadsheet) prepared in a straightforward manner, and employing a previously-defined theme and an set of template files known to reflect your preferences. Once you have defined themes and template files that match your requirements, and have settled on a layout for source files that suits your needs, much of your work with this program may be just as easy as it appears to be from this description.

We'll imagine that you're creating labels for the Mr. Smith papers, which are held by the Music Library.

Here's a part of the spreadsheet that you prepared as you were processing this collection. There are columns for the box and folder numbers, a column for the folder caption, and a column for a date associated with the folder. The captions for the primary containers (Box and Folder) are in the first row of the spreadsheet.

You start the labels program, and as always the program lands on the Themes tab. You know that the theme called Music library generates labels in the correct format for this repository and matches your spreadsheet layout, so that's the one you select.

You move to the Get started tab (shown below), and change three things. The rest of the configuration on this tab is OK as it stands.

• Use the Browse button next to the Source file box to find the spreadsheet that contains the box and folder information. After you identify the spreadsheet file, the program opens it to find out about it (during this work the program may appear to have frozen). Eventually, the program shows you (in the Worksheets list) the names of all of the worksheets contained in this spreadsheet. Select one or more of the worksheets, to tell the program which one(s) to usefor labels.

• Type the name of the collection into the Collection name box

• Type the series number into the Series number box.

You move next to the Data mapping tab (shown below). You're using the same spreadsheet layout for this project as you used for the last one: the box number is in column A, the folder number is in column B, and the two parts of the title are in columns C and D. No changes are needed here.

On the Folder labels tab (shown below), you verify that the program has copied the collection name correctly into the Collection name box, and you verify that the label format is the correct one. Everything here is already correct.

Finally, on the Box labels tab (shown below), you check that the program is set to echo the collection name into the appropriate line, and that the correct label format is selected. Everything here is already correct.

Having set up the program to produce your labels, you click the Produce labels button. The program reads the source spreadsheet and produces files of box and folder labels, writing them to the folder named on the Get started tab.

When the program is done, the folder you identified as the Folder for output files on the Get started tab contains the program's output files of folder and box labels. (The musical Mr. Smith left us a large body of papers: about 100 linear feet, so there are lots of folders and boxes to be labeled.) You will check these files to make sure that everything is just as it should be, and then (if they're OK) send the files to a printer. (One way to send a group of files to a printer is to select the files in a listing such as this one, right-click on the selected group, and choose Print from the pop-up context menu; but this only works if all of the default print settings are appropriate for box and folder labels. Beware of printers that print on both sides of a page by default!)

3.5. Produce labels from a spreadsheet (locally-defined format; more elaborate example)

The following example illustrates the use of this program, using a more elaborate source file than in the preceding example, and calling for the creation of a new theme.

We'll imagine that you're creating labels for the Jerry Mahoney papers, which are held by the Transportation Library. This collection is subject to access restrictions: it's closed to users until 2023.

Here's the entire spreadsheet that you prepared as you were processing this collection. (This is a small collection.) You developed a new layout for this spreadsheet, which means that you need to do some work before you can print your labels. This spreadsheet has columns for box and folder numbers, but in this case the numbers are paired with their captions. There are separate columns for folder titles and associated dates. Finally, there is a column (column E) for titles that you want to put onto the box labels. (Box 3 has a mixture of things in it, so it doesn't have an individual title.)

You start the labels program. You know that the theme called Transportation Library has many of the features that you want to use for the Mahoney labels, but the existing theme uses a different spreadsheet layout. Instead of modifying the existing theme (you may need it in the future for some other collection), you are going to create a new theme. You select the Transportation Library theme, and then click the New from "Transportation Library" button. The program asks you for the name of the new theme. (You have decided to call the new theme Transportation Library 5 columns.)

The program makes a copy of the existing theme under the new name. (Later, you might want to re-name the existing theme to make the difference between the two themes clearer. You might also want to change the order of the themes, so that the two Transportation Library themes are next to each other.) You're now ready to set up the new theme so you can print the Mahoney labels.

You move to the Get started tab (shown below), and use the Browse button next to the Source file box to find the spreadsheet that contains the box and folder information for the Mahoney collection. This spreadsheet only contains one worksheet (called Sheet1) so that must be the right one. You type the name of the collection in the Collection name box, and the series number in the Series number box. The rest of the configuration on this tab is OK as it stands.

You move next to the Data mapping tab. When you arrive here (shown below), the tab still reflects the spreadsheet layout of the original theme, so you're going to need to make some changes: the box and folder numbers have a different configuration, there's an additional column for folder dates, and there's a column for box titles.

Here's the same tab, now changed to match the layout of this collection's spreadsheet. Column A contains the pre-assembled box number and caption; column B contains the pre-assembled folder number and caption; columns C and D contain the title and an associated date. Finally, column E contains a title that you want to use on box labels. You've identified this last item in the Box title 1 area; you'll need to remember this when you come to the Box labels tab.

On the Folder labels tab (shown below), you verify that the program has copied the collection name correctly into the Collection name box, you verify that the label format is the correct one, and everything else appears correct. Not much to do here, because the label layout for this repository doesn't change from one collection to the next.

On the Box labels tab (shown below), you see that the program is set to echo the collection name into the appropriate line on this tab, the correct label format is selected, and everything else here appears correct. (Again, no major changes are called for, because the theme from which we derived this theme already represented this repository's choices.) You need to tell the program where to put the title from column E of the spreadsheet, which you defined as Box title 1. You do this by giving the code "%1%" on the line where you want this title to be printed. (And you've chosen to display this title in bold.) For this repository, you've chosen to use line 8 for the box title; but you could instead have used any other line that wasn't already in use.

Finally, because this collection currently has access restrictions, you type the appropriate text in the Warning box, and use the Color button next to this box to tell the program to print the warning in red.

Having set up the program to produce your labels, you click the Produce labels button. The program reads the source spreadsheet and produces files of box and folder labels. When the program is done, the folder you identified as the Folder for output files on the Get started tab contains the program's output files of folder and box labels. You will check these files to make sure that everything is just as it should be, and then send the files to a printer. Because the box labels have a warning message to be printed in red, the file of box labels needs to be sent to a color printer, and the name of the file of box labels reminds you of this.

Just for fun, here's one of the box labels, with the box title inserted from the spreadsheet, and the restriction warning in red.

6.1. Introduction

The labels program produces two kinds of output files: files of folder labels, and files of box labels. The program writes these files to the output folder you identify on the program's Get started tab. The program constructs the names of its output files from several elements:

• The first element identifies the source of the data used to print the labels.
  • If the program is reading directly from ArchivesSpace, the file names begin "ArchivesSpaceData." plus the ArchivesSpace numeric identifier for the resource

  • If the program is reading from an Excel spreadsheet, the file names begin with the name of the spreadsheet file, plus the name of the worksheet (this means that if you tell the program to produce labels from more than one worksheet in a spreadsheet, there will be multiple sets of label files, one for each worksheet)

  • If the program is reading from a tab-delimited text file, the file names begin with the file name, minus the ".txt" extension

  • If the program is generating a sequentially-numbered set of box files, the file names begin "BoxLabelsOnly"

• The word Folder or Box to identify the kind of label in the file

• If you ask the program to print the Warning line on box labels in any color other than black, and if the Warning line contains some text, the names of the box label files will include the word Color following Box. This should help remind you to send these labels to a color printer.

• A sequential number (the program uses separate sequences for box and folder labels)⁸

• The extension .rtf

The .rtf extension used for the program's output files files identifies them as being in the rich text format. This is a special encoding understood by Microsoft Word (and perhaps other programs). In your configuration of Microsoft Windows, files with the .rtf extension should be assigned to Microsoft Word. (This is probably already the default setting for files with the .rtf extension.) You can use Word to inspect and adjust the contents of these files, and to send them to a printer to produce the finished labels.

The following sections describe the program’s output files in a bit more detail.

6.2. Folder label files

The program provides three areas for data on its folder labels. You select the contents to be printed in these three areas from a list of four data elements. You can choose to place these elements onto your folder labels in any order.

• The name of the resource
• The caption for an individual folder
• The series identifier, and the box/folder identifiers
• The repository that owns the resource

In its default behavior, the program prepares a folder label by placing text you supply into each area.

• The name of the collection comes from the Collection name box on the Folder labels tab
• The title or caption for an individual folder comes from the data in your source file
• The series number comes from the Series caption and Series number areas on the Get started tab. The box number and folder number come from the data in your source file.
• The name of the repository comes either from the Repository name box on the Folder labels tab (if the program is reading a source file); or from ArchivesSpace itself (if the program is reading from ArchivesSpace).

The above shows the program's default behavior. If you wish, you can tell the program to change the relative positions of the three elements of a folder label (collection name, folder caption, series/box/folder numbers).

The texts for the collection name, repository name, and series/box/folder areas must be short enough to fit onto a single line of the label. The folder caption can occupy one or more lines. If a folder caption is too long to fit into the available space, the program will truncate it, and add the mark of omission (…) to the remainder. The setting for Folder window size affects the manner in which the program splits a folder caption into lines.

When the program is reading from ArchivesSpace, it creates one folder label for each object to which an instance is attached. When the program is reading from a source file, it creates one folder label for each row of data in the source file. (However, when reading from a source file, the program does not produce a folder label if a row of data does not have a folder caption.¹⁰)

6.3. Box label files

The program recognizes three areas on its box labels. A box label contains several lines of text, a special Warning line (optional), and a line for the series and box identifiers.

The program prepares a box label by placing text you supply into each area.

• Up to fifteen lines of text to identify the custodial institution and the archival collection. (The precise number of lines available depends on information in the program's configuration file, and the template files that are used to produce the labels.) You define these pieces of text in the numbered Line boxes on the Box labels tab.
• An optional line of text, called Warning (and printed by default by the program in a larger font size). This line is intended to hold special text when the contents of a box have some feature that needs to be brought to someone's attention. For example, if the contents of a box have access restrictions, you might want to print the text RESTRICTED on the warning line. Most box labels will probably have a blank space instead of a warning message. The warning line can be printed in a color, if you wish.¹¹
• The series number (composed of the Series caption and Series number areas on the Get started tab) and the box number (from your source file).

The program creates one box label for each distinct top container (top container type plus top container identifier) that the program discovers in ArchivesSpace, or that is present in your source file.

7.1. Introduction

The labels program does not have a group of settings that are common to all of the labels produced by the program. Instead, each them defined to the program contains a complete set of instructions (called a theme) that the program can use to produce labels.

The program's settings for each theme are distributed over a series of tabs. The program saves the complete suite of settings for each theme you create. Each time you use the program to print labels, you need to visit each of the program's tabs that define the characteristics of your chosen theme and adjust settings as needed. When the settings reflect your wishes, you can ask the program to produce folder and box label files. The program preserves your settings from one run to the next; so after you have a theme set to your liking you should only need to worry about those settings that apply to a particular set of labels (series number, collection name, source file, and so on). The program's Themes tab is described elsewhere, together with a discussion of the concept of the theme itself; the remaining tabs on the label program's main panel are discussed in the following sections.

The following paragraphs describe features that are common to the label program's tabs.

Lines of text that are too long

Work areas that contain text to be used in folder and box labels have a feature that will help you know that the text will fit into the available space. If the program believes that your text will not fit into the avialable space, the program will reverse the foreground and background colors of the text box. (The program's calculation takes into effect the current font selection, bold and italic properties, and the defined maximum line length for the type of label.)

Bold and italic

The program's boxes that allow you to supply a piece of text, and also some of the program's drop-down lists, have two associated check-boxes. These check-boxes have the column captions of Bold and Italic. These check-boxes tell the program whether the text defined by the text box or drop-down list should be displayed in bold, italic, or both.

Saving settings

Whenever you ask the program to save the current theme it will do so, in whatever state the settings may be in. If you ask the program to save a theme that the program believes to be incomplete or contradictory, it will show you messages that describe these conditions in the box in the program's lower left-hand corner, and then write the settings to a file. Although you can save a theme that does not satisfy all of the program's tests, the program will not allow you to use a theme to produce labels if the program believes that the theme is not defined correctly.

Twips

Unless stated otherwise, the unit of measurement used on the program's tabs to set lengths and distances is the twip. One twip is a twentieth of a point (hence the name), which works out to 1/1400 of an inch, or 0.01763888889 mm. (To convert inches to twips, multiply by 1400; to convert millimeters to twips, multiply by 56.69.) A twip is s a very small distance indeed, so a change of just a few numbers will usually not produce a visible result.

7.2. The Get started tab

The Get started tab gives the program basic information that it will use in the production of box and folder labels. This information applies generally to both box and folder labels. Some of the elements defined here have check-boxes that you can use to tell the program to print them in bold, italic, or both.

• Folder containing template files: This is the name of the folder that contains the template files that tell the program how to format its output labels, as well as the program's configuration file. (A default set of template files and a default configuration file are in the Configuration.zip file that you should unpack as part of the installation of the labels program.) The configuration files can be anywhere that the Windows Explorer can "see"—on the local workstation, or on a mapped network drive. Windows permissions on this folder must be set to allow the program to open and read files.

  If this text box is empty, the program will assume that the template files are in the program's own folder, which is probably not correct. (The label just below this box shows the location of the program's own folder.)

• Folder for output files: This is the folder into which the program will write the output files that it creates for you. The folder for output files can be anywhere that the Windows Explorer can "see"—on the local workstation, or on a mapped network drive. Windows permissions on this folder must be set to allow the program to create, open, write and save files.

  If this text box is empty, the program will send its output files to your My Documents folder. (The label just below this box shows the location of your My Documents folder.)

• Behavior: your choices in this frame tells the program how to go about its work. There are three basic possibilities, represented by three radio buttons. The program presents different sets of options within this frame, depending on the radio button you select.
  • Read from source file: This radio button tells the program that you want it to draw on data found in some existing file. When you select this radio button, the program presents additional items within the frame:
    • Source file: The name of the file that enumerates the boxes and folders of an archival collection. The program will use information in this file to generate folder and box labels. This file can be located in any folder that the program can "see" from your workstation.

      Use the Browse button to find the source file. If your file is an Excel spreadsheet, the program will pause to open the spreadsheet and see what it contains. This takes the program a few seconds, during which it will appear to be frozen.

    • Worksheets: If your source file is an Excel spreadsheet, the program lists in this box each of the file's worksheets. (If your source file is not an Excel spreadsheet, the program hides the "Worksheets" area.)

      The labels program will only look into worksheets that are highlighted in this box. If the program recognizes your spreadsheet as one prepared for loading into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in, it will highlight only the "Data" worksheet by default, and this is the only one that the program should use; if your spreadsheet is of any other type, the program will highlight all worksheets by default, and you should un-select any that are not appropriate for the program to use.

      All of the worksheets you select in this list must have the same column layout, as identified on the Data mapping tab.

    • Only these top containers: By default, the program will produce a set of box and folder labels for everything it finds in your source file. If you wish to limit the program's output to only certain top containers, list the "indicators" for those top containers here.

      List each top container separately, or as a range separated by hyphens (such as "15-19"). Separate each top container identifier or range from its neighbors with a space. The program will find, and include in the output, all top containers of any type that have the requested identifier. (For example, if you ask for top container "3", the program will include both "Box 3" and "Volume 3" in its output.)

      If you supply a limiting list of top containers, the program will compare the number of top containers needed, to the total number of top containers used to house the resource, and then decide on a course of action. (The program is attempting to do its work in the most efficient manner possible.) If the ratio of containers requested to total containers is small, the program will request the contents of the containers of interest, and work upwards through the hierarchy of objects to construct folder captions. ¹³ If, on the other hand, the ratio is above the program's threshold, the program will proceed in its usual manner (reading the entire hierarchy of the resource), but will discard information about those items not held in the top containers of interest.

      This feature will probably not work correctly if your top container identifiers contain internal spaces or hyphens.¹⁴

  • Produce only sequential box labels: This radio button tells the program that you are only interested in producing a set of sequentially-numbered box labels, and no folder labels. (Choosing this radio button is only one of several ways to produce only box labels.) When you select this radio button, the program presents additional items with this frame:
    • Caption: the term the program should use with the box numbers themselves. (Box and Carton are two of the many possibilities.)

    • From box # and To box #: Use the up and down arrows to give the program the numbers of the first and last boxes whose labels you want to print. The "x1" arrows change the box numbers one unit at a time; the "x10" arrows change the box numbers 10 units at a time. The available box number ranges are 1-500. The From box # value cannot be higher than the To box # value.

    • Reset: The Reset button under the From box sets that counter to "1". The Reset button under the To box sets that counter to a number higher than the value of the From box.

  • Read directly from ArchivesSpace: This radio button tells the label program to pull the data for folder and box labels directly from ArchivesSpace. (The program knows a lot about the structure of data in ArchivesSpace. If you select this option, the program hides some of the options on other tabs because it already knows what values to use.) When you select this radio button, the program presents additional items within this frame:
    • EITHER the full URL for the resource, or its AS numerical identifier: and OR the EAD identifier for the resource: You need to identify to the labels program the resource for which you wish to produce folder and box labels. There are three possibilities: if you have the URL for the resource as displayed in ArchivesSpace, you can copy the URL into the Either the full URL ... box; if you know ArchivesSpace's internal numeric identifier for the resource (it's displayed as part of the URL), you can type just that much into the Either the full URL ... box instead; or you can type the resource's EAD identifier into the OR the EAD ... box.¹⁵

    • Only these top containers: By default, the program will produce a set of box and folder labels for everything it finds in your source file. If you wish to limit the program's output to only certain top containers, list the "indicators" for those top containers here.

      List each top container separately, or as a range separated by hyphens (such as "15-19"). Separate each top container identifier or range from its neighbors with a space. The program will find, and include in the output, all top containers of any type that have the requested identifier. (For example, if you ask for top container "3", the program will include both "Box 3" and "Volume 3" in its output.)

      If you supply a limiting list of top containers, the program will compare the number of top containers needed, to the total number of top containers used to house the resource, and then decide on a course of action. (The program is attempting to do its work in the most efficient manner possible.) If the ratio of containers requested to total containers is small, the program will request the contents of the containers of interest, and work upwards through the hierarchy of objects to construct folder captions. ¹⁶ If, on the other hand, the ratio is above the program's threshold, the program will proceed in its usual manner (reading the entire hierarchy of the resource), but will discard information about those items not held in the top containers of interest.

      This feature will probably not work correctly if your top container identifiers contain internal spaces or hyphens.¹⁷

    • Connection to AS: Before you can ask the labels program to pull data from ArchivesSpace, you need to have all the proper software parts installed and configured. (The labels program makes the connection to ArchivesSpace by using a standard method called Online DataBase Connectivity, or ODBC. This has to be installed and configured before you can print labels from ArchivesSpace data.) Once you've done all that, you still aren't done: you need to tell the program about the ODBC connection(s) you've defined; the program can't figure this out on its own. To identify the ODBC connection that the program should use, click the Connection to AS button. The program displays the name of the currently-selected ODBC connection immediately underneath this button.

      When you click the Connection to AS button, the program displays a separate panel. You use this panel to define up to 3 different ODBC connections, and to select from among the various ODBC connections the one the program should use for the current set of labels. The following illustration shows this special panel, with two ODBC connections defined; the first connection has been selected by the operator for use to produce a set of labels.¹⁸

      

      To define a connection to the program, supply the connection name as defined in the 32-bit ODBC data source administrator, and the read-only signon and password. To tell the labels program which connection to use, check the "Use this one" box for that connection.

• Collection name: The display name of the archival collection. The program prints this text (or some version of it) on both folder and box labels. (If you've told the program to read directly from ArchivesSpace, you can't type into this box; the program will use the name of the resource that it finds in ArchivesSpace.¹⁹) Because folder and box labels have different space available for the collection name (folder labels have only a single line), the program echoes the name you give on the Get started tab, in a similar box on the Folder labels tab. If this name is too long to fit on a folder label (there will be a warning message to this effect), you can go to the Folder labels tab and abbreviate the name as you deem appropriate. (This does not affect the name used on box labels.) Whenever you change the collection name in this box on the Get Started tab, the program automatically changes the collection name on the Folder labels tab to match. Give the name correctly and in full on this tab; if this is too long to fit on a folder label, change it for folder labels only. (The full name will appear on box labels, where it is especially important, and in abbreviated form on folder labels.)
  

  The collection name may contain special characters, such as letters with diacritical marks, and non-roman characters.

  If the text you supply is too long to fit into a line on the folder or box label, the program will display a warning message.

  

• Series caption: The program uses this piece of text as a prefix for the series number (the EAD identifier). Pick the label that corresponds to the type of series number (the number itself is identified in an adjacent box); select NONE if you don't want any prefix at all. The items present in this list (other than the NONE item) can be defined locally, by changing the contents of a configuration file.

• Series number: Give the series number, accession number, resource identifier, EAD identifier, call number or other expression that is used at your institution to differentiate one archival collection from another. (If you've told the program to read directly from ArchivesSpace, you can't type into this box; the program will use the EAD identifier it finds in ArchivesSpace.) The program adds this to the value of the Series caption box when it is printing box and folder labels. The program does not enforce any constraints on the contents of this box: it will use whatever you type.

7.3. The Data mapping tab

This tab tells the program about the contents of your source file, and how you want it to display it on labels.

The program changes the display on this tab to match the selection you make in the Behavior box on the Get started tab: the program includes different elements when the program will be reading directly from ArchivesSpace, when it will be reading from a spreadsheet prepared for loading into ArchivesSpace, and when it will be reading from a spreadhseet in a locally-defined format. (If you're creating box folders using the "box folders only" selection, nothing on this tab is relevant.) The comments in this section of this documentation describe everything that might appear on this tab, regardless of the way the program will be working. If something described here does not show up when you're working with the program, that's because it is something that the program can figure out on its own, or because it doesn't have any relevance for the way the program will be working under conditions as defined.

Many of the options on this panel allow you to indicate that a data element should be printed in bold, italic, or both.

• TOP LEVEL; CHILD; GRANDCHILD: These three areas describe the source of information about containers, and how the information should be used. Each area contains an identical set of data elements. (If the program will be reading from an Excel spreadsheet formatted for loading into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in, the program replaces the drop-down lists in these areas with the texts used in spreadsheet row 4 to identify the corresonding data elements.)
  • Container type: The spreadsheet column that contains the name for the type of top-level, child or grandchild container ("box," "folder", "item" and so on). The program puts this together with the container identifier to produce its labels. (If the spreadsheet doesn't identify container types, select "NONE", and give the container type in the Default type box.)

  • Default type: The text that the program should use as the name for the type of container, when it's not stated explicitly in the input file. (The program does not need this when it is reading directly from ArchivesSpace.)

  • Identifier: The spreadsheet column that contains the identifier (box number, folder number, and so on) for the container.

  • Blank container number: If there is a check-mark in this box, and if a row in the spreadsheet does not contain an indicator for the container, the program will print just the container type.

  • Uppercase 1st letter: If there is a check-mark in this box, the program will force the first character in the container type to uppercase.

  • ... caption plus number: The spreadsheet column that contains a pre-coordinated unit consisting of the container type plus the container identifier. (The program attempts to split this into its constituent container type and container identifier elements, and eventually puts them back together.)

• Restrictions flag: The column in the input file that indicates whether or not an item is restricted. (The program can use this information to produce a warning message on the corresponding box label.) If this column contains "True", "T", "Yes", "Y", "1", "-1", or any word that begins "Rest" (texts can be given with any mixture of uppercase and lowercase characters), the program considers the item to have restrictions placed on its use. If this column contains any other text (or nothing at all), the program assumes that the item can be used without restrictions.
• Folder title, part 1 and Folder title, part 2: The spreadsheet columns that contain up to two data elements that the program should assemble to create the folder caption.

• Folder title extension: The spreadsheet column containing a data element (such as a date) that the program should tack on to the end of the folder caption constrcuted from the Folder title elements.

• Box title, part 1, Box title, part 2 and Box title, part 3: Spreadsheet columns containing data elements that the program should print on box labels. (If you select anything here, you need to tell the program where to put this information; this is on the Box labels tab.)

• Component identifier in folder labels: If the ArchivesSpace record for an object contains a component identifier, the program can include that identifier on folder labels. The program can print the identifier with a caption you supply; and it can print the identifier in one of several different locations on the label.

• Blank space for box numbers: If you have asked the program to print just the container type when it cannot find an identifier, it will print the number of blank spaces that you indicate here.

• If the top container type is 'Box' ...:

  If this box contains a check-mark, and if (when constructing a folder label) the program finds that it has a box identifier but no folder identifier, the program will not produce the folder label. (It will still produce a box label.)

• If the top container type is one of the following ...: If this box contains a check-mark, and if the there is no child container identifier, and if the top container type is one of the types listed in the associated text box, then the program will produce a folder label instead of a box label. (For example, you could use this feature to cause the program to print labels for individual volumes or reels.)

This business of labels that may be printed when a folder identifier is not present, can be a bit confusing. Perhaps the following will help.

Note that this is different from the Blank child number check-box; that check-box tells the program to print the folder caption, with a blank space instead of the folder number.

Additional illustrations of settings on this tab for common and not-so-common source file layouts (including pictures of the corresponding source files themselves) are available here.

7.4. The Folder labels tab

This tab gives the program information about the folder labels that it will prepare.

Some of the elements defined here can be printed on your labels in bold, italic, or both.

• Collection name: The display name of the archival collection. The collection name may contain special characters, such as letters with diacritical marks. This box starts with an echo of text you put into the Collection name box on the Get started tab; but you can change it on this tab as needed; any change you make to the text on this tab does not cause changes to the collection name on other tabs.

  If the program will be reading directly from ArchivesSpace, you cannot modify this text; the program will use the name that it finds in ArchivesSpace. (If the program discovers that the name is too long to fit, it will pause and ask you to truncate it.)

• Label type: Use this drop-down list to choose the label type and layout that you wish to use for this collection. The values available here are those defined in your configuration file.

• At the top, In the middle and At the bottom: Use these three drop-down lists to tell the program which data elements to print in the three primary areas of the folder label.²⁰ The default label configuration places the collection name at the top, the folder caption in the middle, and the series, box and folder numbers at the bottom, but you can choose a different order; you can replace any of these elements with the "Repository" element, if you wish.

  The following configuration places the collection name at the top of the label; followed by the series, box and folder numbers; followed by the folder caption.

  

  This configuration produces labels with this general appearance:

  

• Repository name: This box only appears if you have chosen the repository name as one of the elements that will appear on your folder labels. Give the name of the repository as it will appear on folder labels; the text must fit onto a single line of the folder label.

  If the program will be reading from ArchivesSpace, it will use the repository name that it finds there.

• Box/folder separator: Characters that the program should insert between the identification of the top container and identification of the child container on folder labels. This separator is normally one or more marks of punctuation and/or one or more spaces. Use "#" to indicate each space. The program uses the same separator between the identification of the child container and any identification of a grandchild container.

• First page start at label ...: The feature available with this button is works just like the feature of the same name available on the Box labels tab. The only difference is that the button on this tab tells the program to skip a certain number of labels on the first sheet of folder labels.

  This feature only affects the first page of folder labels to be printed. The program assumes that it can use all of the labels on the remaining sheets of folder labels.

  If you wish the program to skip a certain number of labels on the first page of folder labels, click this button. The program will show you a crude mock-up of a sheet of labels; in this mock-up each of the buttons represents a label.

  This panel represents a page of labels that has two columns of ten labels each:

  Click on the button that represents the first label on the sheet that's printable. The program marks all of the preceding buttons with "X".

  In the following illustration, you have just clicked the third button button from the bottom in the right-hand column. The program has marked the preceding buttons with "X". This means that for the first page of folder labels, the program will skip the first fifteen labels and begin printing with the sixteenth label.

  If you click the OK button the program will change the caption of the button on the Folder labels tab to reflect your choice, and will skip labels on the first page as you have instructed. If you click the Cancel button, the program will assume that you want to start printing with the first label on the first page.

  Here is the Folder labels tab, after the work described above. The caption on this button now indicates that the first page of labels will begin with the sixteenth label.

• Maximum pages per file of labels: The program has a set of 10 template files that it uses as models to produce files of folder labels for printing. The program uses the template file with "01" in its name if all of the labels fit on a single page; the program uses the template file with "02" in its name if all of the labels fit on two pages, and so on, up to 10 pages. (So the values avialable here range from 1 to 10.) If the labels to be printed take up more than 10 pages, the program uses the 10-page template file repeatedly, until the remaining labels take up fewer than 10 pages, and then it uses the appropriate smaller file for the remainder. Now, it may be the case that you don't want to have files containing as many as 10 pages of labels. If so, you can set a different maximum number of pages here. For example, if you want no file of folder labels to contain more than 5 pages, set the value of Max pages per file to 5; if the labels to be printed take up more than 5 pages, the program will produce 5-page files until the remaining labels take up fewer than 5 pages, and then produce one file with fewer than 5 pages. If you set Max pages per file to 1, the program will produce a separate file for each page of folder labels.

• Window size: If the text for a label caption requires more than one line, the program will automatically fill up the first line, and put the remainder of the text on a second line. Although this is perfectly acceptable behavior, this can in some cases produce labels that may seem out of balance. For example, if a label text is just a bit too long to fit on one line, the second line may contain just one word. Similarly, if the label text takes up very nearly the full text of a single line, it may look ungainly. For these reasons, the program takes special care when it encounters a caption that is almost as long as the width of a single line, or is just a bit longer than the width of a single line. For such folder captions, the program will find a breaking point near the middle of the folder caption, giving the label what might be considered a more pleasing and balanced appearance.

  If a label caption is defined to contain more than 2 lines, the program applies a similar logic to the last two lines of the caption.

  The program generated this label without using this feature. Having just one short word on the second line might be considered unfortunate.

  The program generated this label with this feature enabeled. The label caption is split more evenly onto two lines.

  The value of Window size helps the program determine which folder caption lines should receive this special attention. If a caption's length is longer than the maximum line length minus the Window size and is also shorter than the maximum line length plus the Window size, the program will attempt to split the line at a reasonable middle point.²¹ (If the line is shorter than the maximum length minus the Window size, it will fit comfortably on a single line; if it is longer than the maximum length plus the Window size, the program will split the line into two or more lines using its default break-point mechanism: fill each line, with the remainder on the last line.) When a folder caption's length falls within the range defined by Window size, the program scans the caption first to the right of the mid-point, and then to the left of the mid-point, in search of a place to divide the caption. (This means that most of the captions the program divides in this manner have a first line slightly longer than the second line, as in the above example.) The default value of 1000 twips (50 points, or about 0.7 inches, or about 18 mm) gives reasonably pleasing results. Available values are 500-1500 twips. The program does not apply this extra logic if the folder caption is longer than the width of a line plus the Window size.

• Separate the series from box/folder: This option tells the program what kind of separation to make between the two elements on the line that contains both the series identifier and the box/folder information. There are two possibilities:
  • Tab: The program will insert a tab character between the two elements.

    If you choose this option, the program will simply insert a tab between the two elements, which will generate a certain amount of space. You may wish to make changes to the lines in your folder template files that will contain series and box/folder information, to produce a different effect: format the lines to be left-justified, and with one tab (at the right margin of the label and set for right justification). This will push the two elements to the left and right edges of the label, with the maximum space between them.

  • Blank spaces: Use the up/down buttons to tell the program how many blank spaces to insert into a folder label between the series and box/folder elements.

• Caption hierarchy: The hierarchical structure of the record for a resource may contain an arbitrarily large number of levels. The program's default behavior is to apply to any given object the captions for all of the objects that are above that object in the hierarchy (to a maximum of 10 levels), in addition to the object's own caption. If this amalgamation of captions does not fit into the available space, the collective caption becomes subject to the program's rule for truncating long captions. This often means that program will omit the most significant portion of the caption string from the folder label. This option allows you to tell the program to include fewer levels of hierarchy in the potential caption for a folder label, reducing the chance that important information will be truncated.

  The program applies the Caption hierarchy set of options to data read directly from ArchivesSpace, as well as to data read from a spreadsheet to be loaded into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in.

  Use the up-down buttons to tell the program to accumulate a certain number of hierarchy elements (but no more) in the folder caption for an object. This number includes the caption for the object itself. A value of "3" means that the program will include the caption for the object itself, plus the captions for up to 2 superior levels of the resource's hierarchy; a value of "1" means that the program will only include the caption for the object itself in the folder label.

  	Assume this hierarchy of objects in an ArchivesSpace resource record:
  	Books by Tribune authors
  	Dubois, Jules. Dictators of the Americas, 1965
  	Volume 1
  	Volume 2
  	If the value of Caption hierarchy is "3", the candidate folder caption for Volume 1 will be "Books by Tribune Authors. Dubois, Jules. Dictators of the Americas, 1965. Volume 1"; if the value of Caption hierarchy is "2", the candidate folder caption for Volume 1 will be "Dubois, Jules. Dictators of the Americas, 1965. Volume 1"; if the value of Caption hierarchy is "1", the candidate folder caption for Volume 1 will be just "Volume 1".

  The 'Omit Series' and "Omit Subseries" options tell the program whether to include the captions of series and subseries when constructing its folder captions. The program does not count any such ignored lines when applying the limitation on the number of hierarchy levels included in folder captions.

• Long captions: If the caption for a folder will not fit into the space available on a label, the program will shorten the caption by removing words from either the left or right end, until it fits. Use these radio buttons to indicate your preference for truncating long captions.

• Punctuation for folder title part 2: If the program is going to read from a spreadsheet in a locally-defined format, and if you have specified (on the Data mapping tab) that the spreadsheet contains two data elements that the program should assemble to form the folder caption, use these boxes to tell the program what punctuation and/or spaces it should insert between the first and second caption elements, and what punctuation it should include after the second caption element.

• Punctuation for folder title extension: If the program is going to read from a spreadsheet in a locally-defined format, and if you have specified (on the Data mapping tab) that the spreadsheet contains a title extension, use these boxes to tell the program what punctuation and/or spaces it should insert between the caption and the extension, and what punctuation it should include at the end of the extension element.

• Date begin/end separator: The date associated with an object in ArchivesSpace, or a row in a spreadsheet designed for loading into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in, may consist of both a begin date and an end date. The labels program will add some kind of marker between the dates, to make the relationship easier to understand. The program provides for a variety of formats; let Gary know (e-mail address at the top of this document) if you prefer some other way of displaying the relationship between the begin date and the end date.

  The following examples show the varying date formats possible with this option.

  Option	Begin: 1872, end: 1927	Begin: 1952-01-01, end: 1987-08-31
  Hyphen	1872-1927	1952-01-01-1987-08-31
  Space, hyphen, space	1872 - 1927	1952-01-01 - 1987-08-31
  Slash	1872/1927	1952-01-01/1987-08-31
  Space, slash, space	1872 / 1927	1952-01-01 / 1987-08-31
  ... to ...	1872 to 1927	1952-01-01 to 1987-08-31
  from ... to ...22	from 1872 to 1927	from 1952-01-01 to 1987-08-31

  The program does not apply this option when there is also a date expression. (The program uses the date expression instead of the beginning and ending dates, and assumes that the date expression contains all appropriate text and internal punctuation.)

• Generate test files to determine maximum line length: Only check this box if you want to do an experiment to determine the correct value for the LineWidthActual element in the program's configuration file. The value of this check-box (checked, or un-checked) mirrors the value of the box with the same name on the Box labels tab.

7.5. The Box labels tab

This tab gives the program information about the box labels it will prepare. The current choice for the Label type controls the appearance of this tab. There are three areas on box labels into which the program will insert text; two of these are defined on this tab.²³ Texts for these areas are presented on this tab as a set of boxes: there are numbered lines for the institution name, the collection name, or anything else you might care to use on all of the box labels for a collection.²⁴ There is an additional box labeled Warning. (The Warning line is optional, and need not be included in the definition of a given label format.) Each box label that the program produces will have exactly the same texts on all of these lines (with the exception of the "Warning" text, which can be made conditional, depending on your option). Any of these lines can be defined as being in bold, italic, or both. The Warning box (if present and used) also has a Color button that allows you to pick the color in which the line's text will be printed.

• The numbered text lines can contain whatever you want. In a typical box label, the first line or lines contain the name of the custodial institution, and perhaps a subordinate unit; the middle lines contain the name of an archival collection. However, this is only one convention; you can use these lines as you see fit. The main thing you should note is that the program uses the same texts on every box label.²⁵ The number of lines available is controlled by a setting in the program's configuration file for the type of labels you have selected.

  Here is one way the text in these boxes might be defined (the label configuration that lies behind this illustration provides for eleven lines of text, and a warning line):

  If you have defined columns in the input data for individual box titles to be drawn from your source file, you also need to use special symbols on this tab to tell the program where in the box label to insert the title. The complex matter of getting titles for individual boxes into the box labels is discussed elsewhere.

• Use the box labeled Warning to hold an important additional piece of text that needs to be brought to the attention of users of the collection. The presence of the Warning line is controlled by information in the program's configuration file. Perhaps most commonly, this line will contain a word such as RESTRICTED when the contents of a container are not available for public consultation; but you can in fact use the line for any purpose you wish.²⁶ Use the Color button to the right of this box to tell the program to print the warning text in some color other than black. (Bright red is a good choice for warning labels.) If you choose a color, though, you must remember to send the labels to a color printer.

  The radio buttons below the box for the warning line text allow you to control the application of the warning line text on individual box labels. (Of course, the program only applies the action indicated by the radio button, if there is some text in the warning line text box.)

  • Always: The program prints the warning text on each box label

  • If any restrictions: (This option is only available if the program will be reading directly from ArchivesSpace, or reading from a spreadsheet designed for loading directly into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in.) The program prints the warning text on the label for any box that contains restricted materials, and omits the warning text for any box that contains no restricted materials. If the program is reading from ArchivesSpace, the logic behind this choice is based on the use of the Restrictions apply check-boxes for the resource and its objects; if the program is ready from a spreadsheet designed to be loaded into ArchivesSpace, the logic depends on the value in the "restricted" column of the spreadsheet

  • Never: The program does not print the warning text on any box labels

  Here is one way the text in this box might be defined:

  When the If any restrictions button is selected, the program notes the state of the Restrictions apply check-box for the resource, and for each object attached to the resource (or the value in the corresponding "restrictions_flag" column of the spreadsheet). The program reads the objects for a resource in a hierarchical manner (mirroring the way that ArchivesSpace lists the objects in the staff client), and it applies restriction information in a hierarchical manner.²⁷ Given the choices made in the illustration just above, the program will add the warning text only to those top container labels that contain an object marked as restricted; other top containers will display no warning text.

• Label type: Use this drop-down list to choose the label type and layout that you wish to use for this collection. The values available here are those defined in your configuration file. The boxes and other controls available on this tab change, depending on the label configuration.

• Maximum pages per file of labels: The program has a set of 5 template files that it uses as models to produce files for printing box labels. The program uses the template with "01" in its name if all of the labels fit on a single page; the program the template file with "02" in its name if all of the labels fit on two pages, and so on, up to 5 pages. (So, the values availabel here are 1 to 5.) If the box labels to be printed take up more than 5 pages, the program uses the 5-page template until the remaining labels take up fewer than 5 pages, and then it uses the appropriate smaller file for the rest. Now, it may be the case that you don't want to have files of box labels containing as many as 5 pages. If so, you can set a different maximum value here. For example, if you want no file to contain more than 3 pages of box labels, set the value of Maximum pages per file of labels to 3; if the labels to be printed take up more than 3 pages, the program will produce 3-page files until the remaining labels take up fewer than 3 pages, and then produce one file with fewer than 3 pages. If you set Maximum pages per file of labels to 1, the program will produce a separate file for each page of box labels.

• First page start at label ...: It will often happen that a prior job of printing labels has left you with a sheet of labels on which some labels remain unused. To reduce waste, you can use this incomplete leftover page as the first page of labels to be printed, and use this button to tell the program where to find the first printable label on the first page. This feature is only of practical use if you do not print frames or borders around your labels; if you have borders or frames, the "blank" labels will still have borders, and it's likely that the alignment will not be perfect.

  This feature only affects the first page of box labels to be printed. The program assumes that it can use all of the labels on the remaining sheets of box labels.

  This feature is available both from the Box labels tab and the box label review panel.

  If you wish the program to skip a certain number of labels on the first page of labels, click this button. The program will show you a crude mock-up of a sheet of labels; in this mock-up each of the buttons in the center of the panel represents a label.

  This panel represents a page of labels that has two columns of three labels each:

  Click on the button that represents the first label on the sheet that's printable. The program marks all of the preceding buttons with "X".

  In the following illustration, you have just clicked the middle button in the right-hand column. The program has marked the preceding buttons with "X". This means that for the first page of labels, the program will skip the first three labels and begin printing with the fourth label.

  If you click the OK button the program will change the caption of the button on the Box labels tab to reflect your choice, and will skip labels on the first page as you have instructed. If you click the Cancel button, the program will assume that you want to start printing with the first label on the first page.

  Here is the Box labels tab, after the work described above. The caption on this button now indicates that the first page of labels will begin with the fourth label.

• Separate the series from box number: This option tells the program what kind of separation to make between the two elements on the line that contains both the series identifier and the box number. There are two possibilities:
  • Tab: The program will insert a tab character between the two elements.

    If you choose this option, the program will simply insert a tab between the two elements, which will generate a certain amount of space. You may wish to make changes to the lines in your folder template files that will contain series and box information, to produce a different effect: format the lines to be left-justified, and with one tab (at the right margin of the label and set for right justification). This will push the two elements to the left and right edges of the label, with the maximum space between them.

  • Blank spaces: Use the up/down buttons to tell the program how many blank spaces to insert into a folder label between the series and box elements.

• Review box labels: Under typical conditions, the program reads through your data, and immediately produces files of labels ready to be sent to a printer. You can use Microsoft Word to review the box labels in their files, and make adjustments to them during that review. You may instead find it more convenient to review box labels from within the program, and adjust them before they even get into the program's output files. If you wish to do this, put a check-mark in this box. (If you wish the program to produce output files of box labels immediately, leave this box un-checked.)

• Generate test files to determine maximum line length: Only check this box if you want to do an experiment to determine the correct value for the LineWidthActual element in the program's configuration file for this kind of label. The value of this check-box (checked, or un-checked) mirrors the value of the box with the same name on the Folder labels tab.

8.1. Introduction

The labels program provides two different ways for you to supply the information it places on your box and folder labels: you can tell the program to read directly from ArchivesSpace, or you can create a data file, called here the source file, and pass that to the program. You are probably already producing files in some format or other as you go about processing archival collections. If you wish to create labels from such a file rather than from data in ArchivesSpace, you should be able to devise a layout for your data file that this program can use it to produce satisfactory labels while at the same time meeting your other needs. If you choose to produce labels from a source file, your success with this program depends on devising a suitable design for the layout of your source file, coupled with a rigorous adherence to your design as you supply the data.

This label program recognizes source files in the following formats.²⁸

• Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

  If your input file is an Excel spreadsheet that contains more than one worksheet, you can select just those worksheets from which you wish to produce labels. Each worksheet within a given spreadsheet from which you wish to produce labels during a single run of this program must have the same column layout. (In other words, the column identifications on the Data mapping tab must be applicable to all of the selected worksheets. If different worksheets have different layouts, you will have to produce a separate set of labels from each different layout.) The program will produce a separate set of labels from each worksheet that it reads suring a single run.

  The tool that the program uses to read an Excel worksheet (as opposed to the one that it uses to read tab-delimited text files) does not recognize an explicit end-of-file marker; this tool simply returns blanks when it is asked for data from rows that are beyond the worksheet's last row. Because of this odd limitation, the program defines its own rule for figure out when it's reached the end of data in a worksheet: the program stops reading from a worksheet when it finds five consecutive rows that do not have a caption for the folder label. The program will ignore single blank rows interspersed throughout the worksheet, but a sequence of five consecutive blank rows at any point (even if they're in the middle of otherwise valid data) will cause the program to stop reading from that worksheet. (The program does not make any allowance for blank lines in text files: blank lines should not be present in text files.)

  Your worksheets may contain any number of columns; however, the program is at present only designed to look for information somewhere within the first 26 columns (columns A-Z).

• Tab-delimited text file, or comma-delimited text file

  Text files used as source files must be in the Windows text file format, with carriage return and line feet characters marking the ends of lines. If you suspect that your text file is not in Windows format, open it in a tool such as the Windows WordPad, and save the file as a Windows text file.

• Microsoft word document

  If your favorite method for processing an archival collection involves creating a table in a Microsoft Word document that lists box numbers, folder numbers and captions (and so on) in separate columns, you must take an extra step to convert the Word table into an Excel spreadsheet before the program can read the data. (This method has been used successfully to convert finding aids prepared in the past, into valid ArchivesSpace data, though often with some additional fiddling at an intermediate stage.) You give the program the name of the Excel spreadsheet that you've derived from the table in the Word document, not the name of the Word document itself.

Because tab- and comma-delimited text files can be opened in Excel and handled as if they were spreadsheets, and because the information in those files is also presented in columns and rows, just like a regular spreadsheet, this document uses the generic term spreadsheet for all of these input formats.²⁹ If some comment in this document applies only to Excel spreadsheets or only to text files, this document will use the more specific term.

Although some variety is possible, depending on what information you want on your box and folder labels, your source file will in most circumstances have at least the following information:

• A column for the box number
• A column for the folder number
• A column for the folder title or caption

Your source file may contain additional columns that also play a part in the generation of box and folder labels, and it may contain yet other columns that this program will ignore.

The program does not inspect the captions that may be present in the first row of a spreadsheet to figure out what kind of data data is in which column. You must use the program's Data mapping tab to tell the program about the layout of your source file.

The program knows how to handle the following different data elements in a source file. Each element (when intended to be used by this program) must be in a separate column of the spreadsheet. Your spreadsheet must contain columns for box number, folder number, and one column that contains text to use as the folder title.³⁰ All of the other possible kinds of data are optional.

• Box caption: the text term the program should use as a label for the box number. If this term is not present in the file, supply a default value in the adjacent box.
• Box number: the numeral or other identifier that identifies an individual box
• Box caption plus number: a preassembled unit containing the box caption and the box number
• Folder caption: the text term the program should use as a label for the folder number. If this term is not present in the file, supply a default value in the adjacent box.
• Folder number: the numeral or other designation that identifies an individual folder
• Folder caption plus number: a preassembled unit containing the folder caption and the folder number
• Folder title, part 1 and Folder title, part 2: one or two elements that the program should use for the folder caption. If both are defined, and present in the data, the program will use them both, and will insert a comma-space between them
• Folder title extension: Information for the program to add to the folder title, within parentheses. For example, if the title proper folder is just a year or similar uninformative term, your data may include in a separate column one or more elements of the hierarchy in which this folder is embedded.
• Box title 1, Box title 2 and Box title 3: texts that the program should insert into box labels

A note about the text in your source file: If you create your file by typing from the keyboard and by selecting special characters from the Microsoft Word or Excel Insert/Symbol dialog, the program should be able to print all of the text in your source file without any problems. However, if you create your file by copying text from some external source into your file, there may be problems with some characters. If the text already looks bad in Word or Excel, then obviously enough you should take immediate action. However, it is possible that text that you copy into your file will look right at the time, but come out funny when it's printed. All of which goes to say that if you copy text that contains special characters into your source file, you should carefully inspect your labels, to make sure that they have not become unreadable.

The program recognizes those parts of the list of entity references that involve characters with diacritics, and special characters; it also recognizes the "&xNNNN;" notation for all Unicode characters.

The examples in the following sections should help you understand how to tell the program about the layout of your spreadsheet, to produce labels containing the correct information.

8.2. Simple examples

The examples in this section show spreadsheets that have separate columns for box and folder numbers. The first row in these spreadsheets contains the captions for box and folder numbers; these captions apply to all of the numbers in those columns of the spreadsheet.³¹

In the following examples, the columns of the source spreadsheet are shown in a straightforward order, for clarity. In your spreadsheet, the columns can be in any order that satisfies your needs; the important thing is that the definition of data columns that you give the program must match the layout of your speadsheet.

• One column of the spreadsheet contains box numbers, a second column contains folder numbers, and a third column contains folder captions; all of the information wanted for folder captions is present in a single column.
  

  If your data looks like this, you need to supply column letters for the Box number, Folder number and Folder title, part 1 drop-down lists on the program's Data mapping tab. All of the other drop-down lists must be set to NONE.

  

  This configuration produces folder and box labels like these:

• One column of the spreadsheet contains box numbers, a separate column contains folder numbers, a third column contains text folder captions, and a fourth column contains dates. The dates are to be included as part of the folder caption.
  

  If your data looks like this, you need to supply column letters for the Box number, Folder number, Folder title, part 1 and Folder title, part 2 drop-down lists on the program's Data mapping tab. All of the other drop-down lists must be set to NONE.

  

  This configuration produces folder and box labels like these:

8.3. Complex examples

The examples in this section show spreadsheet layouts that differ in some way from the straightforward layouts show in the previous section. The examples shown in this section do not by any means exhaust the possibilities for variations in spreadsheet layout that the program can accommodate.

In the following examples, the columns of the source spreadsheet are shown in a fairly straightforward order, for clarity. In your spreadsheet, the columns can be in any order that satisfies your needs; the important thing is that the definition of data columns that you give the program must match the layout of your speadsheet.

• The first row of the spreadsheet does not define captions for boxes and folders. Instead, the box and folder number columns contain pre-composed captions plus numbers. Each row in the spreadsheet can have its own designations. In this example, the title information is spread over two columns; but it could just as well be contained in a single column.
  

  If your data looks like this, (with pre-assembled captions and numbers) you need to supply column letters for the Box caption plus number and Folder caption plus number drop-down lists (as well as, in this case, the Folder title, part 1 and Folder title, part 2 drop-down lists) on the program's Data mapping tab. All of the other drop-down lists must be set to NONE.

  

  This configuration produces folder and box labels like these. Since the box and folder captions (but not the numbers) are defined as being printed in bold, the program parsed the pre-composed units so that it could insert the appropriate printer instructions.

• Each row in the spreadsheet contains columns that give the captions the program should apply to the numbers in the same row. Different rows can have different definitions. In this example, the folder title information is in column E, and the folder title extension is in column F.
  

  If your data looks like this, you need to supply column letters for the Box caption, Box number, Folder caption, Folder number, Folder title, part 1 and Folder title extension drop-down lists on the program's Data mapping tab. All of the other drop-down lists must be set to NONE.

  

  This configuration produces folder labels like these. (The box labels produced by this configuration are similar to box labels shown for other configurations.) The program produces folder labels in the order given in the source file, but the program attempts to sort box labels by the numeric value of the captions before printing them. So the labels for boxes 301 and 303 will not fall somewhere before the label for box 27, but closer to the end of the series of box labels.

  

8.4. Box titles

Your source file may contain titles or other designations that you wish to include in individual box labels, but that do not apply to all box labels. For example, you might wish to place the name of the series, or the series and subseries, that forms the contents of a box, on the box label itself. It goes without saying (but probably needs to be said anyway) that you should only place individual titles on box labels if all of the materials in a given box can be assigned the same title. (This is not the most common case.) However, there are some collections that do in fact have one kind of thing per box. There probably are more collections that have a mixture: a few boxes contain a single type of item, and the remaining boxes contain more than one type of material. (For such collections, some boxes have an individual title, but most do not.) Although the program may not (yet) be capable of handling all possible configurations and contingencies, it contains a set of features that will assist in the printing of individual titles on box labels in many cases.

Getting individual titles onto box labels requires that three different things be in alignment.

• You create separate columns in your source file to hold the title or titles that you wish to include in box labels. (This column can be blank for boxes that do not have individual titles.)
• You use the Box title 1, Box title 2 and Box title 3 drop-down lists on the program's Data mapping tab to tell the program the columns in your source file that contain individual titles to use on box labels.
• On the program's Box labels tab, you use codes in the following table that correspond to the drop-down lists, to tell the program where on the box labels you wish it to place the box titles. These codes must be the only things on their lines of the box label definition.

  Symbol	Meaning
  %1%	Insert information from the column identified by the Box title 1 drop-down box here
  %2%	Insert information from the column identified by the Box title 2 drop-down box here
  %3%	Insert information from the column identified by the Box title 3 drop-down box here

Information for the program to use as variable titles on box labels must be placed in the source file on the first line that identifies each box. The program only looks at the column that is defined to contain a box title when it first encounters a new box number. (Other rows in the file for the same top container can contain the same title information, no title information, or different title information; the prdogram only considers the first row encountered for each top container.)

If the box title information that the program pulls from your source file will not fit into the available space, the program will truncate it. The program does not attempt to continue too-long box titles into other lines of the box label.

This complex feature is perhaps best demonstrated with a few examples.

• The source file in the following illustration features a common and straightforward layout, with separate columns for box number, folder number, and title; captions are in the first row of data. This spreadsheet also has a separate column (column D in this case) for a title that should appear on box labels. These titles are in the same row as each new box number.
  

  The configuration on the program's Data mapping tab gives column letters for the box number, folder number and folder title, as well as for Box title 1.

  

  The configuration on the program's Box labels tab tells the program that the contents of the column identified by the Box title 1 drop-down list on the Data mapping tab (represented by the symbol %1%) should be printed on label line 9, in bold.

  

  This combination of data in the source file, configuration on the Data mapping tab, and configuration on the Box labels tab, produces the box labels shown in the following illustration.

  

• The source file in the following illustration also has columns for box number, folder number, and title, and captions are again in the first row of data. This spreadsheet has two columns for box titles: column D and column E, perhaps to be considered the series and subseries. Boxes 1 and 2 both have the same main series, and the title of the main series is not repeated for box 2. (Column D for box 2 could instead have repeated the title Clippings³².) Box 3 does not have an individual title.
  

  The configuration on the program's Data mapping tab gives column letters for the box number, folder number and folder title, as well as for Box title 1 and Box title 2.

  

  The configuration on the program's Box labels tab tells the program that the contents of the column identified by the Box title 1 drop-down list on the Data mapping tab (represented by the symbol %1%) should be printed on label line 9, in bold, and the contents of the column identified by the Box title 2 drop-down list on the Data mapping tab (represented by the symbol %2%) should be printed on label line 10, in italics.

  

  This combination of data in the source file, configuration on the Data mapping tab, and configuration on the Box labels tab, produces the box labels shown in the following illustration. The label for box 3 does not have an individual title, because none was present in the source file.

  

• The source file in the following illustration has columns for box number, folder number, and title, and captions are in the first row of the data. Column D contains a title to be used on box labels. In this source file, boxes 3, 4 and 5 each contain an unitemized collection of objects, so there are no folder titles for those boxes; the program will print no folder labels for them.
  

  The configuration on the program's Data mapping tab gives column letters for the box number, folder number and folder title, as well as for Box title 1. There is a check-mark in the If folder number blank, produce only box label box.

  

  The configuration on the program's Box labels tab tells the program that the contents of the column identified by the Box title 1 drop-down list on the Data mapping tab (represented by the symbol %1%) should be printed on label line 9, in italics.

  

  This combination of data in the source file, configuration on the Data mapping tab, and configuration on the Box labels tab, produces the five box labels shown in the following illustration.

  
  

  Here are the folder labels produced from this data and configuration. The program only produced labels for folders in boxes 1 and 2, because those are the only boxes for which folder titles were given.

  

  In the example shown just above, box labels were produced even though no folder labels were produced for some of the boxes. This technique can be extended, to produce just a set of box labels, if that's what you want to do.

8.5. Box labels only

Introduction

In some circumstances you may only want a set of box labels. This program offers several ways to do this.

• If you already have a source file that provides information for both folder labels and box labels, the most obvious thing to do is to produce a full set of labels; send the files of box labels to the printer and simply ignore the files of folder labels.
• If you have a source file that contains box numbers (and perhaps box captions) but not not folder numbers, you can make use of an unusual bit of configuration to trick the program into giving you what you want.
• If you don't have a source file at all, you can use a special feature built into the program to print only box labels.

Source file with only box information

Use the instructions in this section if you have a source file that has box numbers (and perhaps also box captions) but not folder numbers, and you wish to produce just a set of box labels. The configuration that produces this result may seem a bit odd, but it works.

The examples in this section makes use of the program's ability to add box titles to box labels, but using this feature is not part of the task of producing box labels from a source file that contains no folder information.

• The source file in the following illustration has only columns for box number and box title; captions for the columns are in the first row of the data.
  

  The configuration on the program's Data mapping tab shown in the following illustration gives column letters for the box number, folder number, folder title, and (because the source data contains individual box titles, and we're interested in having those titles on our box labels) for Box title 1. This configuration has the following important features:

  • The column defined for the folder number (column C) does not contain any data in the source file. Because the column identified here is an empty column, every time the program looks for a folder number, it will discover a blank. This lack of a folder number triggers the program's "What do I do when I have a blank folder number?" routine.
  • The If folder number blank, produce only box label check-box is checked. This tells the program that when it encounters a blank folder number (which it will in every case, given the other elements in this configuration), it should not attempt to produce a folder label.
  • The column defined for the folder title is actually the column that contains individual box titles. The program requires that some column be identified as the source for the folder caption (and requires that this column not contain blanks), so this choice is as good as any. (For this source file, Column A would be another acceptable choice.) If we were producing folder labels, this would produce some odd-looking ones, but with this configuration we'll never see them.
  • Because in this case we're interested in putting individual titles into the box labels, the Box title 1 drop-down list identifies the column in the source file that contains the box titles.
  

  Because we happen also be interested in putting individual titles on the box labels, the configuration on the program's Box labels tab tells the program that the contents of the column identified by the Box title 1 drop-down list on the Data mapping tab (represented by the symbol %1%) should be printed on label line 9, in bold. (This is a nice thing for this particular set of labels, but it's not an integral part of the production of box labels from a source file that contains no folder information.)

  

  This combination of data in the source file, configuration on the Data mapping tab, and configuration on the Box labels tab, produces the six box labels shown in the following illustration. The program produced no file of folder labels.

  
  

• The source file in the following illustration has columns for box number and box title, as before, plus a column to insert a Warning line on one of the box labels.
  

  The important thing to note about the configuration on the program's Data mapping tab is that the Box title 1 and Box title 3 drop-down lists the column identifiers for the column of variable data that will appear on box labels. (This example also indicates that although it may be reasonable to do so, it is not necessary that you use the Box title drop-down lists sequentially. Note also that although this particular example uses Box title 3 to put text onto the Warning line of a box label, there is no direct correspondence; the operator could just as well have used Box title 2 for this purpose.)

  

  The configuration on the program's Box labels tab tells the program that the contents of the column identified by the Box title 1 drop-down list on the Data mapping tab (represented by the symbol %1%) should be printed on label line 9, in bold, and the contents of the column identified by the Box title 3 drop-down list on the Data mapping tab (represented by the symbol %3%) should be printed on the Warning line. (The Warning line is defined here as being printed in bright red.)

  

  This combination of data in the source file, configuration on the Data mapping tab, and configuration on the Box labels tab, produces the six box labels shown in the following illustration.

  
  

A final word about this method:

Taken to the extreme, you could produce a set of box labels (though without individual titles) from a source file that contained only a single column (we can assume this is column A), containing box numbers of interest. You would tell the program that the box numbers are in column A, that folder numbers are in one of the empty colums (column B, perhaps), that folder captions are also in column A, and that the program should not produce folder labels if there is no folder number. However, if the only information you have is a consecutive sequence of box numbers, there's an even easier way to get box labels.

Set of sequentially-numbered box labels

If you want to produce a set of sequentially-numbered box labels (starting from any number, and ending with any number):

• Use a theme that describes the box labels you would like to produce (the details of the folder label set-up are immaterial)
• On the Get started tab, in the Behavior frame, click the Produce only sequential box labels radio button. Give in the Caption box the designation for the kind of container for which you wish to produce labels (Box, Tube, etc.) Use the up/down buttons in the adjoining boxes to indicate the first and last box numbers for which you wish the program to produce box labels. The beginning and ending numbers can be anything you wish; but the beginning number cannot be higher than the ending number. The Reset button at the bottom of the From box area sets the value to 1; the Reset button at the bottom of the To box area sets the value to 10 more than the value of From box.

  This configuration asks the program to produce a set of 33 labels, beginning with Box 3 and ending with Box 35.

The files of box labels that the program produces when you use this method have names that begin BoxLabelsOnly.

Box labels produced in this manner look just like any of the program's other box labels. There is one important difference: since this method does not use a source file, there's no way for the program to put individual titles into particular box labels. (If you need individual box titles, you can open the file of box labels in Word, and add them yourself.

8.6. 'Sticky' box numbers

If your spreadsheet does not have an explicit box number in each row, but instead only indicates each box number when it changes, the program will still produce the correct designations on your folder labels. When the program encounters a blank box number, it uses the most recently encountered box number: the box number 'sticks' until it's changed by your data.

8.7. Using Word documents as source files

If your favorite method for processing an archival collection involves creating a table in a Microsoft Word document that lists box numbers, folder numbers and captions (and so on) in separate columns, you can use your Word file as a source file, but you need to convert the Word data into an Excel spreadsheet, and then use the Excel speadsheet as your source file. Here's an outline of the steps:

• Select the entire text of the table in the Word document, including column headers if present
• Issue the Edit/Copy command from the Word menu (or press CONTROL-C) to copy the selected text to the Windows clipboard
• Create a new, blank spreadsheet in Excel
• Place the cursor in the A1 cell of the blank spreadsheet, and issue the Edit/Paste command from the Excel menu (or press CONTROL-V) to paste the selected text from the Windows clipboard into the Excel spreadsheet
• As necessary and appropriate, add a first row for box and folder captions
• Review the data in Excel
• Save the spreadsheet as an Excel spreadsheet

You do not need tediously to re-enter the Word data one line at a time into a second program. You use your Excel spreadsheet as a source file for the archive labels program, and configure the program to correspond to the layout of the spreadsheet.

All of this depends, of course, on the data in your Word table being presented in a reasonable manner. This may not necessarily be the case. The following points describe problems encountered with tables copied from sample Word documents while this program was in development. (In all fairness, these files were not prepared with an eye to their possible re-purposing as data.) In some cases, it is possible to compensate for problems in the data; but on other cases, the program cannot use the data as found in the Word document. If your labels do not come out as you expect, you should carefully review the Word data as it exists in Excel; if you find a problem that has a solution, modify your spreadsheet, save the spreadsheet, and run the data through the program again.

• 'Blank' lines in the spreadsheet: The program considers a row in an Excel spreadsheet to be blank if it does not contain a folder title and a folder number or box numer. (The details of this vary somewhat, depending on how the columns are defined to the program.) If the program finds five consecutive rows in the Excel spreadsheet that it believes to be blank, the program declares that it has reached the end of the file, and will produce no labels for any data that may follow.³³ If you notice that the program has stopped producing labels before the end of the data, inspect the data at the stopping-point to see if there are multiple blank lines (or, at least, lines that the program believes to be blank because they don't contain sufficient information to produce a folder label). Delete those lines, or add content to them, and try to use the input file again to produce labels.

  In the following extract from a Word file, the line for box 3 folder 3 is followed by a blank line, a caption, a second blank line, another caption, and a third blank line. When this data is pasted into Excel, the blank lines becomes blank rows, and the two lines of text become text in column C, with nothing in the remaining columns of those rows. From the program's point of view, these five lines are devoid of useful content; the program will stop producing labels at this point. Because these lines of text have no part to play in the production of folder or box labels, the simplest solution is to delete them from the Excel spreadsheet.

  

• Inconsistent data entry: The program requires that data elements be found in defined columns. If the data is not entered consistently, the program will not be able to adjust. (Problems such as those illustrated here may stem, some cases at least, from the use of a variable number of tabs to make the data look right, rather than using a proper table.)

  In the following extract of an Excel spreadsheet created from a Word file, the date is sometimes given in column D, and sometimes in column E. The program cannot be configured to work with this data successfully. The program could, of course, be configured to pull the date from either column D or column E, which means that some labels would not have a date; or it could be configured to ignore columns D and E altogether, which means that none of the labels would have a date. But there is no way to produce consistent folder labels that contain all of the dates present in this source file.

  

  The following Word table uses two different columns for the folder number, two different columns for the folder caption, and three different columns for the date. Because the program allows for the definition of two different title sections, a configuration could be devised to pick up the title whether it occurs in column C or D; but none of those configurations could then include any of the dates from the remaining columns, or make sense of the folder numbers.

  

• Dates, and things that look like dates. Dates may have been recorded in the Word document in a number of different formats, and possibly using some standard other than ISO 8601. The Word document may contain some text that has the same appearance as a date, but is not actually a date. When text containing things that either are, or appear to be, dates is pasted into Excel, Excel will attempt to reformat the text according to its own best lights. You do not want this to happen. You should first format the entire spreadsheet, to declare that all of the columns and rows contain text (the default value is "general", which means that Excel will try to figure things out). When you paste your text into the spreadsheet, it will match the text in the Word document. (If you intend to massage the data further, with an eye toward its eventual loading into ArchivesSpace, you will need to inspect the dates carefully; but they can be used on folder labels as given.)

• Not actually a table. The program requres a separate column for each data element. The program cannot parse a string into its consistuent elements.

  Each of the lines in the following extract from a Word document is just that: a line of text. Although this may appear to the casual observer to be formatted in columns, this is not the case.

  

  The folder numbers and folder titles in the following extract are in a single string, so the program cannot deal with them. The fact that box numbers are given by themselves on a separate line is an additional problem, but that particular problem could be overcome by copying the box numbers into columns in the same row as the other data.

  

• Changes being tracked: If the Word feature that tracks changes to the data is turned on, the information copied into Excel reflects everything that you can see, and not just the "finished" text.

  The following extract from a Word document has the track-changes feature turned on. This text transfers into Excel exactly as given (for example, "ColorSidesColorSlides:"). Turn this feature off before you copy the table from Word into Excel.

  

9.1. Introduction

The comments in this section apply to:

• Data that the program reads directly from ArchivesSpace
• Data that the program reads from a spreadsheet formatted for loading directly into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in

Both of these sources will be referred to in this section as ArchivesSpace data.

9.2. Series information on box labels

If the materials that comprise a resource are housed in boxes in the same order as they are listed in the ArchivesSpace data, you may wish the box labels to indicate the series held in each box.³⁴ The technique that this program employs to place series information on box labels borrows part of the box titles technique already defined for data read from spreadsheets.

To tell the program that you want it to include series information on box labels when it is reading ArchivesSpace data, place the marker "%1%" on the box label line that should contain the series information. (The markers "%2%" and "%3%" that are available when the program is reading data from a spreadsheet prepared according to a locally-defined scheme, are not available when the program is reading ArchivesSpace data.)

If the definition for box labels conains the "%1%" symbol on any line, the program will collect information about the series contained in each box, in the order encountered in the ArchivesSpace data, and use the collected series title(s) on box labels.

This technique is subject to the following conditions:

• The "%1%" symbol must always appear on box labels below any line that will contain the resource title. (The box labels need not display the resource title; but if they do, series information must be defined to appear below it.)
• There must be no text defined in any of the numbered line boxes below the line that contains the "%1%" symbol. (The "warning" line may contain text as appropriate.)
• The program defines a series as an archival object with the type "series" at the top level of the hierarchy (that is, attached directly to the resource itself). (In an ArchivesSpace spreadsheet, the equivalent is a line with the hierarchical level "1" and the type "series".) An archival object at the top level with some other type is not a series; a series at any level other than the top level is not a series for the purposes of this task.
• If the resource title occupies more than one line of the box label, the program will automatically move the line containing "%1%" (together with its formatting) to a lower line on the box label, preserving any blank line defined between the resource title and the series information.
• The program will collect the names of all of the series that are present in each box. (There may be several.) The program will print as much of this string of series titles as will fit on the box label, up to the maximum number of lines available.

10.1. Introduction

Most of the data that this program uses to populate folder and box labels comes from ArchivesSpace, from your source file, or from information you provide as part of the program's settings. To make it possible for individual institutions to have their preferred values for the remaining items, this program also pulls information from a configuration file. This file, called ArchiveLabels.Local.txt resides in the same folder as the program's template files for folder and box labels. A default version of this file comes with the program's installation (as do default versions of the template files). You can modify this file to reflect your local practice, if you wish. The ArchiveLabels.Local.txt file is a plain text file, and you can use a simple program such as Notepad to edit it.

If you decide to change the ArchiveLabels.Local.txt configuration file, that file (and by extension all of the program's template files that reside in the same place) needs to be in a folder that allows you to make changes.

This configuration file has the same structure as a standard Windows INI file: data elements are grouped under headings into stanzas. The lines in each stanza consist of a key of some kind, an equals sign, and a value. Lines that begin with a pound sign (#) are comments.

The configuration file has two main areas of interest: one area provides values for the Series caption drop-down list on the program's Get started tab, the other describes the program's template files.

10.2. Series caption

The SeriesCaption stanza in the program's configuration file defines the values that the program presents in its Series captiondrop-down list. The keys in this stanza are consecutive numerals, beginning with 1. Each line defines a value that becomes an item in the drop-down list. You do not need to define the value NONE in this stanza; the program always includes NONE as the first item in drop-down list for series captions.

The texts you define in this stanza are the texts the program presents for you to select from its drop-down list. On your labels, the program will use whatever text you select.

11.1. Introduction

The program uses template files to direct its printing of the box and folder labels for an archival collection. Template files embody your preferences for font, margins, paragraph alighment and decorative features such as frames or borders: in fact, they control almost everything about your labels except the label texts themselves. In some cases, your preferences for label features must be reflected not only in the template files themselves, but repeated in the program's configuration file. With limited exceptions, the program does nothing to override or adjust the formatting instructions given in the template files; it inserts texts into whatever it finds there.

To produce the labels needed for any one archival collection, the program uses one set of folder template files to direct its production of folder label files, and it uses one set of box template files to direct its production of box label files. The program comes with several sets of default template files for both folder and labels. You can modify these files, add your own files to the default files, or replace the default files with with your own files. You can have as many sets of template files for box and folder labels as you need.

• The default sets of template files for folder labels are designed for Demco A-16 label stock printed with the paper oriented in portrait fashion. Most of the default folder template files use 11-point Calibri for all lines of the folder label text. (One set, designed for use when the caption is the bottom element on the folder label, uses a smaller font for the folder caption.)
• All of the default sets of template files for box labels are designed for Demco C-27 label stock printed with the paper oriented in portrait fashion. The default box template files use 12-point Times New Roman for box label text. There are various sets of template files for box labels: labels with and without a frame; labels containing or not containing a warning line, and labels that fill only have of the available space (horizontally, or vertically).

If you use the default label stocks and are satisfied with the font choices and layout options used in the default template files, you can use the default label template files without change. If you use these label stocks but prefer a different font, you can modify the default template files to match your wishes. If you prefer some other label stock, or some other layout, you can create a new set of template files, and tell this program to use your template files instead. The program's use of template files and a configuration file, combined with its options for handling pieces of text pulled from your source file, should make it possible for you to produce labels in your favorite style without any change to the program itself.

If you decide to make any changes to the program's template files—either by adjusting the default template files, or by creating a new set of template files—you should first create a new folder; copy into that folder all of the program's default template files and its configuration file, and then work with the files in that folder. Doing this means that you will also need to change the value of Folder containing template files in the program's configuration, to point to the files in this new folder rather than the files in the default folder. There are two good reasons for you to work with these files in a separate folder, rather than with the files in the default folder.

• If you are not careful, the changes you make to your template files will render them unusable by this program, and you'll need to be able to restore them to a valid state; having the original files as backup will get you out of this difficulty.
• Whenever you install an updated version of this program, the installation will drop a fresh copy of the default template files and configuration file into the program's own folder. If you have placed your modified template files and configuration file in the program's own folder, the installation program will overwrite them.

If you decide to change something in the default template files, note the following:

• Your changes should be limited to specifying a different font name and/or font size; or changing the alignment of a line (from centered to left-justified, for example).
• Never change the text contained in any a line of a template file
• Never change the spacing between lines
• You can change the order of the dummy lines in the template files, to some extent
• If you change the font name or font size, be careful to select the entire text of the label before changing anything.
• If you change the font name or font size of of text in a file, you must change information in the configuration file to match your choice.
• Using different fonts and sizes for the different lines in a given type of label is not supported, except as indicated in this document. There's no problem if you want to use one font for folder labels, and a different font for box labels.)

Similar considerations appliy if you wish to create your own template files:

• You must use the prescribed texts, and only the prescribed texts, in the template files. (Details of the prescribed texts are given below.)
• When you set the font name and font size, be careful to select the entire text of the label before making the change
• You can change the order of the dummy lines in the box template files, to some extent
• Using different fonts and sizes for the different lines in a given type of label is not supported, except as indicated in this document. (There's no problem if you want to use one font for folder labels, and a different font for box labels.)
• Every label on every page of all of the template files that constitute a set must have the same font characteristics.
• The font name, font size, and other information concerning your template files must be recorded in the program's configuration file.
• You must create a set of 5 template files for box labels, describing output files containg 1 through 5 pages of labels. You must create a set of 10 template files for folder labels, describing output files containing 1 through 10 pages of labels. You must use the naming conventions for your template files prescribed in this document.

The program's template files use the RTF format. The program cannot understand template files in any other format. You can use Microsoft Word to create and modify RTF files.

11.2. Template information in the configuration file

The program's configuration file contains several stanzas that tell the program about the configuration files available to it. Information in the configuration file centers around the name assigned to a set of template files; each set of template files needs a unique name. This name is used as a link within the configuration file, as a display element within the program, and as the lead element in the names of the template files.

Names assigned to sets of template files must follow these rules:

• The name must follow Windows file-naming conventions³⁵
• Further, any internal space in the name must be represented by an underscore.³⁶

The names used in the default template files include designations for the type of label stock: Demco_A-16, Demco_C-17_Frame, Demco_C-17_No_frame and Demco_C-17_No_frame_no_warning. This is a reasonable convention to follow, but it is not a requirement. It only matters that the name be used consistently within the configuration file, and that the name be applied uniformly to the names of a set of template files. For all the program cares, the name used for a group of template files could be the name of one of the months, or of a prominent street in your neighborhood.

Two stanzas in the configuration file list the sets of folder and box template files that are available to the program.

• The FolderLabels stanza identifies each set of template files that can be used for folder labels
• The BoxLabels stanza identifies each set of template files that can be used for box labels

Both of these stanzas contain one or more lines, keyed sequentially with integers starting with 1. Each line identifies one set of template files, using the name for a set of template files as the value. The default configuration file identifies one set of folder template files and three sets of box template files.

The configuration file also contains one stanza for each set of template files defined in the FolderLabels stanza, and one stanza for each set of template files defined in the BoxLabels stanza. The name of this additional stanza (enclosed within square brackets) is the name assigned to a set of template files. Each such stanza contains a group of elements (keyed with pre-defined text strings) that together describe one set of template files. As is the case for other stanzas in this configuration file, lines that begin with the pound sign (#) are comments.

The stanzas that define the characteristics of each set of template files contain the following elements. The elements are listed here in alphabetical order, but the configuration file can list them in whatever order seems best to you. A few elements apply only to folder labels, or to box labels.

• AvailableLabelSpace (folder labels only): The amount of vertical space available on the label for text, measured in twips. If your choices for the placement of text on folder labels place the caption text in the middle of the label (this is the default arrangement), the program uses the value of AvailableLabelSpace, together with the height of the various text lines and the number of lines occupied by the folder caption, to determine how much space to insert above and below the folder caption so that the caption flows across the center of the label. (See examples.) If you have told the program to use the folder caption as the first or last element on the folder label, the program ignores the value of AvailableLabelSpace, and will not adjust spacing around the folder caption.

  The number needed here is not quite the same as the actual height of the physical label. Gary has found that for the Demco A-16 labels, which are 1" (1400 twips) high, a value of 1260 produces acceptable labels. If you are setting up a configuration for some other label stock, start with a value of 90% of the nominal folder label height, use a source file containing a variety of lengths of folder captions, and carefully examine the files of labels that the program produces. (Asking Word to display boxes around the labels during this review is a big help.) If it looks to you like the last line of the labels could be a bit lower, increase the value of this element so that the program uses a bit more of the label; if the last line of the label runs into the border, decrease the value of this element so that the program uses a bit less of the label.

• CaptionFontName (folder labels only): If you wish, you can use one font for the collection name and series/folder lines of a folder label, and a different font for the folder's caption. To do so, give in this element the name for the font to use for the folder caption. The program takes the default value for this element from the FontName element, so you can omit this element if your folder captions use the same font as other parts of the folder label.³⁷

• CaptionFontSize (folder labels only): If you wish, you can use one font size for the collection name and series/folder lines of a folder label, and a different font size for the folder's caption. To do so, give in this element the font size for the folder caption. The program takes the default value for this element from the FontSize element, so you can omit this element if your folder captions have the same font size as other parts of the folder label.

• ColumnsPerPage: This element tells the program how many columns of labels there are in a sheet of folder or box labels. The program can use this, in combination with the value of LabelsPerPage to calculate how many labels are in each column. The program only uses this information when it is presenting the panel that allows you to indicate that the first page of folder or box labels should not begin with the first label.

• FontName: The name of the font used for lines of text in the template file. (Exception: for folder labels, the caption can use a different font.)³⁸

• FontSize: The size of the font used for lines of text in the template file. (Exceptions: for folder labels, the caption can have a different font size; for box files, the Warning line can have a different font size.)

• LabelsPerPage: The number of labels on a page of label stock. The program does not know how the labels are laid out on the page; it only cares about the total number of labels per page. After the program counts the labels to be produced, it divides that number by the number of labels per page to determine the number of pages required for the set of labels.

• LinesAvailable:
  • For folder labels, this is the number of lines available on the label for the folder caption. The number of lines available for folder captions depends on the size of the label and CaptionFontSize; Demco A-16 labels with captions printed in an 11-point font have space for 2 lines of folder caption text. (Room for 3 lines if the captions are printed in 9-point font.) The program will make its own calculation of the number of lines available, based on your font size selections and the value of AvailableLabelSpace. If the value you give for LinesAvailable is higher than the program's own calculation of the number of lines available, the program will only use as many lines as can fit. You can tell the program to use fewer lines for the folder caption than the theoretical maximum, but you can't trick the program into using more lines than will fit.
  • For box labels, this is the highest-numbered line of text (not counting the Warning line if present, or the reserved line containing the series and box information). This number tells the program the highest-numbered line to display on the Box labels tab. If there is a Warning line, the available range is 1-14; if there is no Warning line, the available range is 1-15.

• LineWidthActual: The the maximum length (in twips) of a line of text on the label. The best way to determine the maximum line length available on a label is to set the LineWidthDefault element to the approximate length of the line, then perform an experiment to find the correct maximum length. The number you determine as the result of your experiment is the number you supply as the value of LineWidthActual.

• LineWidthDefault: The width defined here is the approximate maximum length (in twips) of a line of text on the label. To find the default line width, multiply the length of a full line of text in inches by 1400, or the length of a full line of text in millimeters by 56.69. (For example, if a line of text is about 3.5 inches, the default width is 4900 twips.) This number need only be approximately correct; you will do an experiment to determine the precise size of a line of text in the label. (The approximate number you give here just gives the program a parameter to use in the test.) After you perform the experiment to determine the correct length of a line, supply that number as the LineWidthActual element. The program only uses the LineWidthDefault element when it is performing an experiment to determine the value for LineWidthActual.

• WarningLineFontSize (box labels only): The size of font used for the Warning line. If you use a Warning line on your box labels, you must set the font size for the line in your template files. This element in the configuration file exists only to help the program calculate the amount of space available on the warning line, so it can alert you if the text you provide for the line will not fit on the label.

• WarningLinePresent (box labels only): This tells the program whether or not the box label includes a Warning line. The program uses this information when presenting its Box labels tab. Acceptable values are True and False

When the program starts up, it reads the configuration file to find the available sets of folder and box template files, and then it reads the characteristics of each of those sets of files. These characteristics define some aspects of the program's appearance and behavior, and the appearance of your labels.

The following sections describe the program's folder and box template files in detail.

11.3. Folder label template files

You un-zip the file of default template files into whatever folder seems appropriate. The default folder template files are designed for Demco A-16 labels (two columns of ten labels each), printed in portrait orientation; these files have names that begin Demco_A-16. These files are described by the Demco_A-16 stanza in the program's configuration file, which is in turn listed in the configuration file's FolderLabels stanza. One of the folder template files (the one with "01" in its name) describes an output file containing a single page of folder labels, another (with "02" in its name) describes an output file containing two pages of folder labels, and so on up to the last file (with "10" in its name), which describes an output file containing ten pages of folder labels.

If you wish to create your own folder template files, they must follow the same pattern: there must be ten files, describing successively one through ten pages of output.³⁹ The names of the files must consist of the name defined in the configuration file, a two-digit number to indicate the number of pages produced by the file, and the extension .rtf. The files must be in the RTF format. Your files must be properly identified in the program's configuration file.

Each label in the folder template file has three lines, each with a distinct and odd-looking piece of text. The program replaces these bits of text with your data. (The program removes these odd texts if there is no corresponding data element.)

When this program uses a folder template file to create an output file of folder labels, it replaces these dummy texts with your texts, or nothing; it's a simple matter of substitution. The following describes the program's default behavior, but other arrangements are possible.

• The program replaces YerLine1 with the collection name you supply.
• The program replaces YerLine2 with the folder caption (as constructed by the program from data in your source file), which may occupy one or more lines on the folder label. If the caption only takes one line, the program adds space above and below it to center the caption vertically in the label space.
• The program replaces YerLine3 with the series caption and number, and the box and folder caption and number.

You cannot change the order of the lines in folder template files: YerLine1 must come first, followed by YerLine2 and YerLine3. However, if you wish the elements on your folder labels to be in some order other than the default order (collection name, folder caption, series/box/folder numbers), you can achieve this by using an equivalent technique.

11.4. Box label template files

The installation program places several sets of five box template files each into the same folder as the program itself. These default box template files are all designed for Demco C-27 labels (two columns of three labels each), printed in portrait orientation; these files have names that begin Demco_C-27_Frame, Demco_C-27_No_frame, and so on. These files are described by the stanzas with those names in the program's configuration file, which are in turn listed in the configuration file's BoxLabels stanza. One of the files in each set of box template files (the one with "01" in its name) describes an output file containing a single page of box labels, another (with "02" in its name) describes an output file containing two pages of box labels, and so on up to the last file in each set (with "05" in its name), which describes an output file containing five pages of box labels.

If you wish to create your own box template files, they must follow the same pattern: there must be five files in each set, describing successively one through five pages of output.⁴⁰ The names of the files must consist of the name defined in the program's configuration file, a two-digit number to indicate the number of pages produced by the file, and the extension .rtf The files must be in the RTF format. Your files must be properly identified in the program's configuration file.

The labels defined in box template files can have borders, or not, depending on your preference. The presence of a border reduces the maximum length of lines of text available on box labels. The illustrations in this section chiefly show labels produced by a set of template files that include a border.

Each label in the template file has a number of lines, each containing a distinct and odd-looking piece of text. The program replaces these bits of text with your data. (The program removes these odd texts if there is no corresponding data element.)

• The first line in each label must begin TopLine and end with a numeral. Each label on a page of labels must have a different numeral for its TopLine element.⁴¹ (The numbers in the TopLine elements of the different labels on a page don't need to be in any particular order, they just need to be different.)
• There must be a set of lines with names beginning YerLine, numbered consecutively from 2 up to the number of lines of text available on the label. (If there is a Warning line on the box label, the highest-numbered line available is line 14; if there is no Warning line, the highest-numbered line available is line 15.)
• If the label includes a Warning line, the label must include a line with the text YerWarning. This line may have a different font size from the other lines in the label
• The line YerBottomLine represents the line on labels that contains the series and box numbers

When this program uses a box template file to create an output file of box labels, it replaces these dummy texts with your texts (or nothing); it's a simple matter of substitution.

• The program replaces TopLine with your Line 1 text from the Box labels tab
• The program replaces YerLine2 through the last numbered YerLine... text with the texts you supply in the Line 2 and following lines on the Box labels tab
• The program replaces YerWarning with your Warning line
• The program replaces YerBottomLine with the series caption and number and the box caption and number.

These texts in the template files are required, but—except for the TopLine text, which must be the first line in the label—the relative placement of the lines is under your control. (You would only sow confusion by giving a different order to the YerLine lines, but you could if you wanted to.) You might wish to place the warning line at another point in the label, or place the line for series and box numbers between YerLine2 and YerLine3.⁴² Because the program does not flow text from one line on a box label to another, and does not add blank space to box labels, you can use whatever line spacing you like, as long as everything fits onto the label.

11.5. Editorial remarks about the configuration file

Producing a set of labels requires appropriate information in three different places: the template files, the configuration file, and a theme in the labels program. Deciding the most reasonable home for each kind of information is not a simple task, and there is often more than one possibility. The question is a bit more involved than it might be, due to the nature of RTF encoding: Gary simply doesn't know enough about it to make many changes to the file on the fly. (Changing font size is easy; adding a color is within reason; changing paragraph spacing is iffy; adding a font is impossible.) The solution for now is to use encoding in the template files (maintained via Word) for those things that Gary doesn't know how to change, to put into the configuration file those things that you're not likely to want to change from one project to the next, and to put into the program's themes those things that you may want to change frequently. If you have another idea how options might be distributed, please send Gary a message with your thoughts.

13.1. Introduction

The term special characters is used in this document for all characters that are not in the range of ASCII characters 0x20 through 0x7E. The following characters are in the range of ASCII characters 0x20 through 0x7E, and so are not special characters:

• standard punctuation ("',.?/:;[]{}\|!@#$%^&*()_+)
• the space character
• the numerals 0-9
• the letters a-z and A-Z

All other characters are special characters. The term special characters includes (but is not limited to):

• Roman-alphabet characters with an associated diacritical mark (é or Ä for example)
• Characters other than A-Z and a-z that may be used in languages that employ a modified or extended roman alphabet (Þ and ß, for example)
• Characters in non-roman scripts

The labels program can produce labels that contain any special character, as long as the source data has been prepared in an acceptable manner, and as long as the character is available in the font you have chosen to use for printing your labels. (The program won't know which characters are available in your preferred font.) Much depends on the manner in which special characters are represented in the data that you feed into the labels program.

13.2. ArchviesSpace data

Special characters in ArchivesSpace data (data that the program reads directly from ArchivesSpace; or data in an Excel spreadsheet prepared for loading into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in) are restricted to those characters that are acceptable to ArchivesSpace itself.

At present, ArchivesSpace does not recognize entity references for individual special characters (such as "é"), and it does not recognize entity references in the form "&x...;" or "&#...;". ArchivesSpace also does not provide a mechanism for entering special characters.

All special characters needed in an ArchivesSpace record must come from the outside. Special characters can be laboriously copied into Archives from a Web page (sometimes!), or some other document (sometimes!); they can be input in Word via the Insert/Special character mechanism and then copied into ArchivesSpace; or they can be input in Excel (also via the Insert/Special character mechanism) and then loaded into ArchivesSpace via the plug-in.

Notes and perhaps other ArchivesSpace data elements may contain carrige returns, line feeds, tab characters, or formatting codes that are the equivalents of those characters. Such formatting instructions should not be present in the ArchivesSpace data elements used by the labels program (title, dates, and container identifiers).

13.3. Data in source files

The data in a source file may contain special characters (letters with accent marks, for example). It will happen from time to time that you need to use similar special characters in the texts you supply in the program's text boxes for use on folder and box labels. When this happens, you will need to use special symbols instead of the characters themselves. These symbols consist of the ampersand ("&"), followed by either a piece of text or a numeric designation, and ending with a semicolon. These symbols are sometimes called entity references.

The program recognizes a limited number of entity references that are identified by pieces of text. (These are also, as it happens, the ones you're most likely to need for labels; plus a few others.) These are shown on the following table. For reasons that may be obvious, these labels are case-sensitive.

The program also recognizes the full range of entity references that are constructed with a hexadecimal number preceded by "x". This hexadecimal number is the encoding assigned to characters of the Unicode character set.⁴⁴ (You can drop leading zeroes. All of the characters defined in the preceding table can also be produced with this kind of numeral reference.) There are far too many Unicode characters to be represented here in a table; the following table shows a few (unlikely) examples. Note that just because you can define a character in this manner, that doesn't mean that the printer font you're using will be able to render it correctly. (Your printer may very well not have a font for Egyptian hieroglyphics, as in the last example in this table.)

The program does not know how wide characters generated from numeric entity references will be when they are rendered on labels. When the program is testing the width of a line of text, it assumes that any characters represented by numeric entity references have the same width as the lower-case letter "a". If a line of text contains a large number of numeric entity references, the program's assumption might lead to incorrect results: it might declare the line to be too long, when it isn't; and it might believe that it's short enough, when it isn't.

16.1. Install and configure the ODBC driver

The basics

The label program uses a method called ODBC (Online DataBase Connectivity) to request information from your ArchivesSpace database. The labels program sends its requests for information to Windows, which passes them to the ODBC driver for MySQL. This ODBC driver is the component that actually signs on to your ArchivesSpace server and retrieves information. (The retrieved information gets passed back from module to module in a similar manner; all of this passing-around may sound complicated, but it takes next to no time.) All of these pieces have to be in place and properly configured before you can use the label program. The installation, and some of the configuration, requires a person with administrative privileges on your workstation.

The MySQL ODBC driver

Locate, download and run an installer for the ODBC Unicode driver for MySQL. (It's available at no cost from more than one site; it's called a "connector" at download sites.) After you've done this, there will be a line in the ODBC data source administrator (see the next section) that reads "MySQL ODBC 8.0 Unicode Driver." (The version number may change with time.)

The 32-bit ODBC data source administrator

Use the 32-bit version of the ODBC data source administrator (this is part of Windows, not part of the label program) to identify your database as something that can be reached via ODBC. (The labels program tells Windows that it wants to talk to this connection, and it is then able to retrieve what it needs.) You can't do this step until you've installed the MySQL ODBC driver. (See the previous section.)

If you have more than one ArchivesSpace database (such as a production database and a test database) you can define an ODBC connection to each. (Later, you will tell the labels program about each ODBC connection to your ArchivesSpace database.)

Collect these pieces of information about each ArchivesSpace database before you start the 32-bit ODBC data source administrator:

• The name that you want to use for the connection (this is just a piece of text, so it can actually be anything; but it should be something that is reasonably brief, and clearly identifies the nature of the connection). Use only alphabetic characters and numerals (no spaces, no punctuation; “ArchivesSpaceProduction” or “ArchivesSpaceTest” are reasonable possibilities)
• A description of the connection (“ArchivesSpace production” and “ArchivesSpace test” are possibilities; this string can include spaces, punctuation, or anything else; it’s only used for display)
• The IP address of the ArchivesSpace server (the numeric version of the address, not the text version)
• The port number on the ArchivesSpace server used for ODBC conversations (probably the default port: 3306)
• A read-only signon and password that gives access to the ArchivesSpace data

Use the correct version of the ODBC data source administrator:

• If you are using a 32-bit version of Windows, there is only one ODBC tool, and it’s the right one
• If you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, there are two versions of the ODBC tool: a 64-bit version, and a 32-bit version. If you have 64-bit Windows, you must use the 32-bit version of the ODBC data source administrator to define the connection to your ArchivesSpace database

One way to find the ODBC data source administrator is to open a search box, and type “odbc.”

Take these steps in the ODBC data source administrator to define the connection to each ArchivesSpace database:

• Go to the "System DSN" tab
• Click the "Add" button
• In the drop-down list, select "MySQL ODBC 8.0 Unicode Driver" (the version number may be different)
• Click the "Finish" button
• Supply the data source name, description, IP address ("TCP/IP Server"), port number, user name and password
• Click the "Test" button
• If the test is successful, use the "Database" drop-down list to select "archivesspace"; this is the internal MySQL name for your ArchivesSpace data
• Click the "OK" button

After you've done all this, you're still not done! You also need to tell the spine labels program about your ODBC connections.

16.2. Install the labels program

Go to the program's download site. Download these two files:

• ArchiveLabels.zip
• Configuration.zip

Open (or unzip) ArchiveLabels.zip, and run the program setup.exe. Each time the program pauses for your input, press Enter to accept the default value.

Identify some convenient folder into which to install the program’s configuration files. (This should be a new folder, not used for anything else. Permissions on this folder must allow the program to open and read these files; and should allow all users to open, modify and save these files.) Unzip Configuration.zip into that folder. If a number of people are going to be generating labels from different workstations, you may find it most convenient to put the configuration files on a networked drive, so that everyone draws on the same configuration.

You can start the labels program from the Windows menu (it's under "Northwestern University Library"); or you can create an icon on your desktop (point the shortcut to C:\Program Files (x86)\ArchiveLabels\ArchiveLabels.exe).

16.3. Configure the labels program

Once you've got everything installed, and (as necessary) ODBC configured, you're ready to configure the program to produce box and folder labels. You'll create one or more themes, and configure your themes to match your needs.

16.4. Updating the labels program

The labels program is updated as new features are added or problems are resolved. This documentation is also updated from time to time to describe the current state of the program; a separate section of the documentation describes changes made to the program. If you find that the program has a new feature you could use, or if you see that a problem you've encountered has been fixed, you can download the latest version of ArchiveLabels.zip. Run the setup.exe program in this file to install the latest version over top of your existing version.

Updating the program in this manner does not affect the configuration choices you have made; all of your themes, and your template files, remain untouched.