Label designer

The Label designer tab of Admin › Assets › Labels is where you lay out the label that goes on your assets: which code it carries, which details are printed next to it, and its size. A live preview on the right shows the result as you change it.

Once saved, the design is what every asset prints with: open a device and choose Actions › Print label. See A device's page.

schoolOS administrators choose Account at the top of Labels before making changes. The selection applies to the saved design, real-asset previews, and the next tag suggested for tag sheets. The selection stays when switching tabs. Save any edits before switching accounts. Account administrators continue working in their own account.

Who can use it#

Anyone who can open Admin and has View assets (assets.view) sees the tab and can try out a design and print a label from it. Saving it needs Manage asset labels (asset-labels.manage), at the Full level of Asset settings in Admin › People › Roles; every role that could manage asset types when it arrived was given it. Without it there's no Save changes button. The design belongs to your account, so a save changes it for everyone.

Label options#

Top to bottom:

• Barcode Type. QR Code or Barcode. Both are real codes that scanners read. Barcode is a Code 128 barcode, the kind most handheld scanners read; it holds letters, digits and the usual punctuation. A value with other characters (accented letters, for example) can't go in a barcode: the label prints just its text, and the preview warns you. Use QR Code for those.

• Barcode Value. What the code holds: Asset Tag, Serial Number or External ID. The asset tag is the usual choice: it's short, every asset has one, and it's what people search for. If the asset has no serial number or external ID, the code holds its asset tag instead. The value is also printed under the code.

• Line 1 — Title. The first line, in bold. If the asset has nothing for it, the asset's name is printed instead.

• Line 2, Line 3, Line 4. Smaller lines under it. A line the asset has nothing for is left off.

  Each line shows one detail: Asset Name, Asset Tag, Serial Number, Model Name, Manufacturer, Location, Location With Room, Owner Name, Category, Status or Asset Type. Location With Room prints just the location when the asset has no room. Pick None (omit this line) to leave a line out. If Line 1 is set to None, the next line that has a detail moves up and turns bold. Fewer lines fit a small label and read better from a distance.

• Printer and Labels. The printer's maker, then the labels you load in it. Picking them sets the label's size; everything else in the design stays. See Printer and labels.

• Label Size. Only for Custom size: width × height in millimeters. It starts at 75 × 40 mm. Match it to your label stock.

• Length. Only for Brother P-touch tape: the tape's width is fixed, and you choose how long each label is (25 to 200 mm).

• Printer Resolution and Zebra Printer. Only for Zebra. See Print to a Zebra.

• Font Size. The base size of the text, in points. It starts at 9. The title is a point bigger; the other lines a point smaller.

A new design starts with a QR code of the asset tag, Location on Line 1 and Location With Room on Line 2. Until someone saves a design, that's also what assets print with.

Which should I choose?#

Barcode Type.

| Type | Choose it when | | --- | --- | | QR Code | Labels are small or square, or people scan with a phone or a webcam (both read either kind). It fits in a corner and reads from any angle. | | Barcode | Your techs already carry handheld laser scanners, which read Code 128 but often not QR codes. It needs a wide label. |

Barcode Value.

| Value | Choose it when | | --- | --- | | Asset Tag | Almost always: it's short, every asset has one, and it's what people search for. | | Serial Number | You look devices up by serial in your other tools too, like your device management console or a vendor's repair portal. | | External ID | Another system that scans your labels knows your devices by that ID. |

Whichever you pick, scanning works everywhere in schoolOS: Check-in/out, Audit, the scan button and a handheld scanner on any page find a device by its asset tag, serial number or external ID, matching the whole value. If two devices share the scanned value (say one's external ID is another's asset tag), the scan says more than one device matches instead of picking one.

Lines. A label is printed once and stays on the device for years. Pick details that don't change: Asset Tag, Model Name, Asset Type. Owner Name, Status and Location are right the day you print, then go stale as soon as the device moves or changes hands.

For example, a district labeling 9,000 Chromebooks for a 1:1 program picks QR Code of the Asset Tag on a 50 × 25 mm label, with Asset Tag on Line 1 and Model Name on Line 2. The student's name stays off the label, so a device keeps its label when it's reassigned next year.

Printer and labels#

Under Printer and Labels, pick who made your printer, then the labels you load in it. Type in the Labels box to search by name, size or number. The label takes that product's size, and the preview and print follow it. Your code, lines and font stay as they are. The choice is saved with the design, so Print label on every asset prints at that size too.

| Printer | Labels you can pick | | --- | --- | | Avery (sheets) | Sheets of peel-off labels for an office printer: Avery 5160, 5167, 5161 and 5163. Each also fits the other numbers it's sold under, like 8160 or 5960 for 5160; search for any of them. | | Zebra | Rolls: 2" × 1", 1.25" × 1", 2.25" × 1.25", 3" × 1", 4" × 2" and 2.25" × 0.75". | | Dymo LabelWriter | 30336 (1" × 2⅛"), 30252 (1⅛" × 3½") and 30334 (2¼" × 1¼"). | | Brother | QL rolls DK-1201 (29 × 90 mm) and DK-1209 (29 × 62 mm), and P-touch TZe laminated tape, 12, 18 or 24 mm wide. Tape has no set length: choose it under Length. | | Custom size | Any width × height, in millimeters, under Label Size. A design saved before you could pick a printer is a custom size. |

When you print on a label printer, only the label prints, on a page exactly the label's size, so the printer's driver feeds one label. On an Avery sheet, the page is the whole sheet and the label lands on the one you pick. In your browser's print dialog:

• Avery. Set Scale to 100% (or Actual size) and Margins to None. Print label prints one label, on the label of the sheet you pick (Use a partly used sheet); to fill a sheet, use Print tag sheets.
• Zebra. Use Send to Zebra to print straight to it (Print to a Zebra). From the print dialog, pick the Zebra printer, the same label size, and Margins None.
• Dymo. Pick the LabelWriter, set Paper size to the label you loaded and Margins to None.
• Brother. Pick the Brother printer, set Paper size to the label or tape you loaded and Margins to None. P-touch tape prints a little in from each edge, so leave the code and text a millimeter or two of room.
• Custom size. Pick your label printer, set Paper size to the label's size and Margins to None.

The tip for your printer is also beside Printer and Labels.

Save the design#

Select Save changes. A message confirms the save, and the design is saved for your account: it loads the next time anyone opens the tab, and Print label on every asset uses it. If the save fails, a message says so.

Preview with a real asset#

The preview starts with a made-up MacBook tagged MCHS0001. To see a real one, type an asset tag or name under Preview with real asset and press Enter or select the search button. The preview uses the first asset that matches, so type the full tag to get the one you mean. Currently previewing shows which asset it is.

The preview shows the label exactly as it prints, just smaller. Details the asset doesn't have are left off, the same way they are on paper.

Print label#

Print label, at the top right, opens your browser's print dialog with the label you're previewing, at its real size. Only the label prints, and the page is sized to it, so choose your label printer and print. It prints the design as it is on screen, saved or not.

On an Avery sheet, Print label first asks which label of the sheet to print on: click it on the picture of the sheet, then select Print. The page is the whole sheet, with your one label where you picked. See Use a partly used sheet.

With a Zebra picked, Print label opens a menu: Send to Zebra, Download ZPL file, or Print from the browser.

Print to a Zebra#

A Zebra prints best in its own language, ZPL: sharp codes at the printer's resolution, and no print dialog. schoolOS sends it two ways.

Send to Zebra prints straight to the printer through Zebra Browser Print, Zebra's free helper app for Windows and Mac. Set it up once on each computer a Zebra is plugged into:

1. Get Browser Print from Zebra: select Get Browser Print in schoolOS, or search Zebra's support site for "Browser Print". Zebra may ask you to fill in a short request form first.
2. Install and open it. It runs in the background (look for its icon by the clock or in the menu bar).
3. In Browser Print's settings, choose your Zebra as the default device.
4. The first time, it asks to accept its certificate, and to let schoolOS use your printers. Accept both. Your browser may also ask whether this site can connect to devices on your network; allow it, since that's how the page reaches Browser Print on your own computer.
5. Back in the label designer, select Try again under Zebra Printer. Your printer's name appears.

With several Zebras connected, pick one under Zebra Printer. This browser remembers your choice. If Browser Print isn't running, schoolOS says so and the page still works; download a ZPL file instead.

Printer Resolution is your Zebra's printhead: 203 dpi (most desktop models) or 300 dpi. It's on the label under the printer, or in its settings. A label sent at the wrong resolution prints too small or too big.

Download ZPL file saves the labels as a .zpl file for people who can't install Browser Print. Send it to the printer with Zebra Setup Utilities, or copy it to a Zebra on your network. A run of tags is one file.

A message confirms when the labels are on their way, or says why they couldn't be sent, like a printer that's switched off. Printing can't be undone.

Print tag sheets#

Labeling a delivery before the devices are entered? Print tag sheets, at the top right, prints a run of asset tags, one tag per label: on a standard sheet of peel-off labels, or on a label printer's roll or tape.

1. Enter the First tag and the Last tag, like MCHS0001 and MCHS0300. The first tag starts as the tag your next new asset gets (see Asset tags). Tags count up and keep the first tag's zeros, so that's 300 labels. You can type just the number for the last tag (300). Both tags need the same letters in front, and one print holds up to 3,000 labels.

2. Pick the Printer and Labels, as in Printer and labels. They start as the design's; if the design is a custom size, they start at Avery 5160. For sheets, pick the product number on the box:

   • Avery 5160: 30 per sheet, 1" × 2⅝". It's the one most schools have.
   • Avery 5167: 80 per sheet, ½" × 1¾", for small devices.
   • Avery 5161: 20 per sheet, 1" × 4".
   • Avery 5163: 10 per sheet, 2" × 4".

   The same layout is sold under other numbers (5160 is also 8160, 5960, 18160 and more). The dialog lists the numbers each one fits, and you can search for any of them.

   On a Zebra, Dymo, Brother or custom-size label, each tag prints on its own label, first to last.

3. Start at label, for sheets only, skips labels already peeled off a partly used sheet: click the first empty label on the picture of the sheet, or type its number. The tags fill the sheet from there, then carry on onto new sheets. See Use a partly used sheet.

4. Text on each label is optional, like Property of Westfield Schools. It prints in smaller type under the tag.

The preview shows the first sheet, with every label on the sheet outlined, or the first label on a roll or tape. Each label carries the Barcode Type and Font Size of the design on screen, the tag as its code and its title, and your text. Nothing else from the design applies, because these tags aren't on a device yet.

Select Print. For a sheet, set Scale to 100% (or Actual size) and Margins to None in your browser's print dialog. Anything else shrinks or shifts the page, and the tags miss the labels. Print one sheet on plain paper first and hold it up to a label sheet to check. For a label printer, the tip for your printer is beside Print.

On a Zebra, Send to Zebra prints the whole run straight to the printer, and Download ZPL file saves it as one file. See Print to a Zebra.

Printing tags doesn't create assets or change your next asset tag. When you add a device, type the tag from its label, or scan it.

Use a partly used sheet#

A sheet of labels with a few peeled off still has plenty of use. Whenever you print on an Avery sheet (Print tag sheets, Print label here, or Print label on a device), Start at label shows a small picture of the sheet, drawn to its real layout: 3 across and 10 down for a 5160.

• Click the first empty label on your sheet. Labels before it show as used (gray and striped), the labels that will print fill in, and the rest stay empty. A line under the number says how many of each, and how many more sheets a long run takes.
• Or type its number in the box beside the picture. Labels count across, then down, so on a 5160 label 4 is the first one in the second row.
• From the keyboard, Tab to the sheet, move with the arrow keys (Home and End go to the ends of a row, Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End to the first and last label), and press Enter or Space to pick a label.

This browser remembers where you left off on each kind of sheet. Print 5 labels starting at label 3, and the next print on that sheet starts at label 8; once a print reaches the sheet's last label, the next one starts at label 1 of a new sheet. When you load a fresh sheet, select Start at label 1 (new sheet). The spot is kept on this computer only, for each sheet number (5160, 5167 and so on) apart; other people and other computers start at label 1. It moves on as soon as you select Print, so if you cancel in your browser's print dialog, pick the label again.