LabeLase Producer - Special Flags

Special Flag Fields

Special flags are available that cause the printer to automatically insert text into a field. These flags can be inserted anywhere in the text string. All flags begin with a percent sign “%” and are followed by an optional number and then a character.

The following flags are available for use. Note that the computer’s locale setting may affect the output of these flags, including language, order, etc.

%A	Abbreviated Weekday (MON, TUE, WED...)
%B	Abbreviated Month (JAN, FEB, MAR...)
%C	Date & Time (date is short date format, time is long time format)
%D	Day of the Month (01-31)
%E	User Year Code
%F	Single Digit Checksum
%2F	Single Digit Checksum for UPC-A barcodes (new in V1.30)
%G	Double Character Checksum
%H	Hour of the Day (00-23)
%I	Hour of the Day (00-12)
%J	Julian Day of the Year (001-366)
%#K	Operator Prompt from Line #
%L	Last Digit of the Year (0-9)
%M	Month (01-12)
%N	Minutes of the Hour (00-59)
%P	AM or PM
%Q	A unique number which changes every print.
%#S#	Serial Number (1st # = Number of Digits, 2nd # = S/N Field ID)
%T	Time of Day (short time format HH:MM:SS AM)
%U	User Month Code
%#V	Operator Entered Text from Line #
%W	Weekday Number (1=Sunday to 7=Saturday)
%X	Date (MM/DD/YYYY)
%Y	Year (00-99)
%Z	User Shift Code

Any automatic text flag may be followed by a “sub-string specification” which can be used to extract a portion of the automatically generated text. Following the flag with this sequence specifies the sub-string:

(#, #)

The first number following the open parenthesis character specifies the character position of the first character to be included. The first character in the string is character number 1.

The second number following the comma specifies the number of characters to include in the text.

For example, let’s say that the %X(1, 5) flag is included in the message and the date is 03/26/2001. The sub-string that will be included in the message is 03/26 because it will begin with the first character and include 5 characters.

Flag Help Form

If you click the Flag Help button in the Text Field Editor form, the form shown below will appear, which provides help on the various flags that can be inserted into the message.

The left pane of the form shows a list of the flags that are available to you for insertion into your text field. When you select a flag, the right pane shows a preview sample of the text that will be generated by the flag. Some flags have optional parameters that you can specify as well. In the above exampe, the %C flag can have an optional number before the letter C that specifies the number of digits to put in the year portion of the generated text. In this example, you may specify 2 or 4 digits.

Once you have selected your flag and provided the optional parameter for it, you may click the Insert button. The form will close, and the selected flag will be inserted into your text message at the cursor.

Text field before using the Insert feature of the Flag Help form. Note the position of the cursor within the text. This is where the flag will be placed.

Text field after inserting the %4C flag from the Flag Help Form

LabeLase® Producer Special Flags

Special Flag Fields

LabeLase® Producer
Special Flags