Current Time

The Current Time variable enables you to display Control Center server time or printer time in text objects or barcodes. You can also print time values with time offsets.

[Note] Note

Control Center server time might differ from your computer time.

To create a new time 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 Current Time.

  4. The variable properties window opens, where you can define your variable name, output format, time offset, and other properties.

    • If you use more than one Current time variable, create a descriptive variable Name.

    • Output format defines the form of your printed time variable. Using a drop-down menu, you can select one of the predefined formats, or you can type your own format.

    • Time offset enables you to print time values different from the current time. You can also define Time offset for your Printer clock.

      [Note] Note

      You can't define negative time offset. For example, if you want to use offset -2h, set your time offset to 22h.

    • If supported with your printer, use Printer clock to optimize printing. If you use a printer clock, also use the internal font in your Text objects with Current time variable.

    • In Output rules , you can add a Prefix and Suffix to your output time format. To include special characters in your prefix or suffix, click the icon on the right side of the edit field.

      55_time_prefix.png

To use current time variables with your label objects:

  1. Place the Text or Text box object or a barcode on the design surface.

  2. Click the object to open the object properties.

  3. In the Source section, select your Current time variable.

    70_cur_time.png

Your label object now presents the time variable value.