Sage 100

Sage 100 ERP v4.45 Bill f Materials, Main, Production Label Printing. Customer wants to implement Production Label Printing using the Zebra 2348+ CTP label printer. Does anyone know how to configure a 4"" x 6"" label in Crystal reports that will work with this (or similar) printer? You would think that Sage would support label printing on Zebra (and other) label printers. Who prints shipping labels in a warehouse using a laser printer? We shouldn't need a 3 hour project for printing a simple label on the popular thermal transfer and direct thermal label printers.

Doug, 4 x 6 is larger than I have done, but I have created labels in crystal before - the trick is to set the printer and paper size in crystal to match the label size in the printer. Since you are using a zebra printer the paper size should be available as a drop down on the printer settings if the printer is installed where you are accessing crystal designer. if not you may need to create a custom paper size on the workstation (through windows settings) and then select that in crystal.

Just make sure the default size on the printer is the size of your label (I setup multiple printers if they print different-sized labels) and check the margins - they often default to wayyy too big. (Both in Crystal and on the printer) And make your detail section that you are actually printing a little smaller than the size of the label. Lastly - sometimes you have to do a 90 degree on the fields in Crystal - which is a gigantic PIA, but sometimes it's the only way you can get it to work with the drivers.

Agree with Doug - there really should be some type of native support for popular label printers.

Thank you everyone for the information. I will give it a whirl and see what happens.

For my limited number of clients using Zebra printers, I have them bite the bullet and purchase a label program (e.g. Label Matrix or Bar Tender). I then use Access to create (get ready) a PTQ (or select query for multiple tables) to link the MAS tables with the software. Creating a label now takes about 10 minutes (or slightly more if you need to create the PTQ). Yes, you shouldn't have to, but if you are spending three plus hours dinking with Crystal, then the cost of the label program is offset by your Crystal fee. Plus you prevent a few more gray hairs from forming. Which at my age, means a lot!

I am using Zebra printers with Bar Tender driven by a BOI script launched by a UDS button out of RoG and Shipping. Bar Tender has evolved significantly and has an interface accessible via scripting. With a single click labels are queued from any workstation then printed from any connected workstation and the quantities are driven by quantity or 1 per line.

Oooh......

I've used both Bartender and Label Matrix. You don't really need Access as you can create your own prompts using ODBC and some basic scripting. It is a good idea, however, I want to see if I can get Sage 100 to create the labels. This company already owns Alerts & Workflows, Starship, Valogix, SPS, and a custom shopping cart. I don't have the heart to tell them they have to fork out some more cash for another Sage ""strap on"".

The other thing I've had to do to get labels to print to a Zebra with Crystal is make the Zebra the Windows Default Printer on the workstation.

Thank you everyone for all of the great suggestions!

I have the label working ""OK"" with one exception: The label is 4 x 8 and the only standard label available in Windows is 4 x 8.25, so when I print a label it prints a blank label after each label. The solution, I believe is to create a custom 4 x 8 label for the printer, which I have done. However, the custom label doesn't appear as one of the choices in Crystal reports when I use printer Setup. Does anyone know why the custom label size would be saved in Windows printer Setup, but not appear as a choice in Crystal?

Got it figured out. There's no correct answer to my question above as each printer driver is different. In this case the solution was to not only set up a custom label size in the Windows, Settings, Printers, Server Properties, but then also set up a custom label size in the printer driver... in this case right click on the Windows printer, Printing preferences, Stocks. Create a custom label size in Stocks and save it. It then appears in Crystal reports Page setup. Quite a learning experience. Took several hours to design the label with bar codes, different fonts, logos, etc and then to get it printing properly on the Zebra printer. Should be a breeze next time. Now.... who do I charge for a day of learning????

Thanks Doug, your write-up is helpful.

@DougHiggs Attending the school of hard knocks results in a lifetime of learning in only 3 hours.