Counters

Counter variable values increase or decrease with each printed label. Use Counter to assign unique serial identification to your labels or to count your printed labels.

To create a new counter variable:

  1. Click the Data icon to open the Data Sources menu.

    89_data.png

  2. Expand the Variables drop-down menu, then click Add variable.

  3. In the drop-down menu, click New Counter variable.

  4. The counter properties window opens, where you can define your counter name, type, initial value, and other properties. In the Definition section, you can:

    • Set your counter's Name.

    • Define the Counter type. Your counter can count incremental (1,2,3,...) or decremental (10,9,8...).

    • Define Step. For example, if step = 2, your counter will count 1,3,5,7,...

    • Define Repetition. For example, if Repetition = 3, your counter will count 1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3...

    • Define Initial value. For example, if Initial value = 10, your counter will count 101,102,103...

      Example 14. Example

      You want your counter to count in the following sequence:

      100, 100, 105, 105, 110, 110, 115, 115...

      Set your counter properties like this:

      • Counter type: Incremental

      • Step: 5

      • Repetition: 2

      • Initial value: 100


    • Preview the first few counter values.

    In the Printer counter section, you define if your label will use a computer or printer internal counter. Most of the label printers support internal printer counters. Use printer counters to optimize your printing speed.

    [Note] Note

    If you want to use a printer counter, you must also select a printer font for your text objects with counter variables.

  5. In the Prompting section:

    • You can override the Initial value if you enable the option Prompt for the value at print time.

    • You can change your default prompt text from a counter name to a more descriptive text. For example, your counter name is ser_no , and to avoid confusion, change the prompt to Enter the starting serial number.

    • Value can not be empty at print time means that your label won't print if your variable value is empty. An error message will pop up.

  6. You can define Input rules for your counters:

    • Allowed characters: You can limit input characters to numeric, alphanumeric, or letters.

    • You can Limit your input string length or define the Fixed length of your variable value.

    • With the Check range option, you can define minimum, maximum, or both values for your counter inputs.

    • With Rollover settings, you define when your counter resets to the initial value.

      • Using min/max values: Your counter restarts when the incremental counter reaches a maximum value or the decremental counter reaches a minimum value. You define the min or max value in Input rules > Check range.

      • When data source changes: You define the variable or database value that resets your counter. When a variable changes its value, the counter resets.

      • When date/time changes: You can define a date or time when your counter resets.

  7. You can modify your input variable values with Output rules.

    • You can add a Prefix or Suffix to your counter value. For example, your counter value is "711". To print the string "Serial number: 711", add a prefix "Serial number: ".

    • To print fixed length counter values, even if the counter is variable length, use the Pad character option. To enable the Pad character option, first define the Limit option in Input rules. For example, your counter enables values from 1 to 9999. You would always like to print all four characters, for example, "0027" instead of "27":

      1. In Input rules , set the Limit option to "4".

      2. Set the Pad character option to On left.

      3. Set the Character option to "0".

      Your counter value will print as "0027".

    • The Multiline option enables you to design a multiline counter. Without this option, long counter values print in a single line and may exceed the label area. You can define Number of lines, Line length (in number of characters) and Enable word wrap.

[Note] Note

If you want to create similar variables to the existing ones, you can copy and paste variables and modify the properties.

  1. Right-click the existing variable, then select Copy.

  2. Right-click the same variable, then select Paste.

  3. A copy of the original variable is generated with the prefix _1. You can rename the variable name in variable Properties > Definition.

To use counters with your text objects or barcodes:

  1. Place the label object on the design surface.

  2. Click the object to open the object properties.

  3. In the Source section, select your prompt counter.

    72_counter.png

Your label object now presents the counter variable value.