How to Add Custom Label Sizes to Visual FoxPro

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows version 3.0

SUMMARY

In earlier versions of FoxPro, it was difficult to add a custom label size. Although Visual FoxPro ships with the most common styles of Avery labels, it may still be necessary to add your own custom label size. This article shows you how.

MORE INFORMATION

With Visual FoxPro, it's easy to add a new, custom label size to your application. The following steps, taken from the online Help, outline this process.

If you don't see a label size that you need in the Label Designer, you can add label sizes to the New Label dialog box by adding new sizes to the resource file that populates the dialog box. The name of the resource file box is stored in the configuration file. By default, the configuration file is CONFIG.FPW.

To add a label size:

1. From the Program menu, choose Do.

2. From the Visual FoxPro directory, select ADDLABEL.APP.

3. In the box, enter the path and name for the resource file.

   NOTE: If you do not know the resource file's name and location, type ? SYS(2005) in the Command window to display the file's name and path in the main Visual FoxPro window.

4. In the Add Label dialog box, select Create New Label Layout.

5. In the Create New Label Layout dialog box, enter the information for the label.

6. Choose Add This Layout. Visual FoxPro adds the new label to the resource file and to the table LABELS.DBF.

7. If you want to add another label size, choose Create New Label Layout. If you want to stop adding labels, choose Cancel.

Existing Labels in Resource File

Visual FoxPro doesn't check to see if label definitions already exist in the current resource file. Consequently, pressing the 'Add Labels to Resource File' button repeatedly will add the same 86 present label definitions to the resource file. When you go to select a label layout, you will see each definition repeated however many times you pressed the button. The easiest way to recover from this is to delete your resource file, but if this is not feasible, you will need to issue a SET RESOURCE OFF, use the resource file, and then manually delete the unwanted label entries.

Adding a Label

The following information documents some of the points to remember when creating a new label layout.

• Measurements: Label measurements are in increments of 1/10,000 of an inch and can either be shown in standard U.S. or metric format.
• Layout Names: Layout names can contain any valid characters and can be up to 24 characters in length. The layout name is the internal reference to the label in the resource file and will not appear in your list of label layouts. The ID for a label layout in the resource file is LABELLYT and the TYPE is DATAW.
• Description: The description of your label is what will appear in the list of available labels. You can enter a label description in this fashion:

  4144 1-2/3" 3" 3

  Or you can follow the label template shown on the label entry screen of how the actual label description should be entered. If the template is followed, the same entry would appear like this:

     4144     1-2/3"      3"      3
  
     When entering a label description, use spaces to align the values for
     the label.
  
  

• Measurement Entries: It is not necessary to enter the leading zeroes to the measurements. However, you must enter a value for all measurement fields.

In the event that your resource file ever becomes corrupt, you can recover by reruning the ADDLABEL.APP program to add back in the standard and custom label definitions. After you finish adding labels, choose the Cancel button from the Add Label dialog box.

Distributing Labels with Your Application

Because label layouts are stored in your resource file, you must also distribute the resource file with your application so your users have access to the standard and custom label definitions.