I’m trying to customize our mtl tag and I’m running into an issue I can’t solve.
If I print the canned Epicor version, the ‘tags’ seem to be formatted for 8.5x11, with two tags per page. I need these to be 4x3. When I try to print to the label printer, I can get it to print the correct size, but it only prints one label. If I select the ‘fit’ option it will squeeze both tags onto one label, but that’s not the goal.
Also, if I attempt to create my own custom tag, it seems to still default to the two tags per page, and when I resize my label to 4x3, I’m still only getting the first of two tags. I need a way to force the tags to print one per page but can’t make it happen.
Am I missing something simple here? It seems odd that the default size for a tag would be a full 8.5x11 page…
Pay close attention to the various sections of the reports RDL. Use the Report’s Properties to set the page size, orientation, and margins. Make sure the report body is narrower than the page setup.
Thanks, Calvin. I guess my issue is that it seems designed to print two tags per page and I have no idea where to address that. I’ll probably have to leave it for now and end up paying someone to handle it for me.
We are in E10(.1.600.xx) but still use crystal for this report. When I run it for the SSRS and review the design of it, I see the same thing as you. Two as default on the standard report and quantity labels to produce does not work. Seems like a bug to me. I think it is reasonable for Epicor to provide a standard report that functions here in SSRS properly, right? Perhaps call support and report it, maybe they have a fix in later version.
I think the original intent of this report was to always print two labels, and was targeted for a printer that used letter size pages with peel off labels. The Avery 61550 is (4) labels (3-1/2" x 5") on a letter size sheet. Maybe that was the target “label”.
If you have a real label printer (that prints on 3-1/2" x 4" (or 5") rolled labels), then deleting all the elements on the right, and shrinking the report width to just the left side elements, will get you a single label per print.
If you want it to always be two, It will take some work. If you just stretch the report length and move all those right side fields to below the left side ones (to act as the 2nd label), those ones that were on the right side (now on the bottom) may move up and down as the fields above them grow or shrink.
You’d need to place tablix with two rows to act as each labels border, and place all the controls inside each row. The tablix can be just one column by two rows. Then set the row height to the label height. You might even need to have the second always insert a page break before it, just to make sure the labels don’t creep out of alignment.
Thanks for the idea and continued help, Calvin, much appreciated! That’s basically what I did to get my current version that still only prints half of the labels as it’s still trying to print the other half to that second, now missing, label.
Hmmm… I hadn’t noticed this qty issue with MtlTags… thanks I will have to remember to check that.
SSRS Report Builder has been a bit a pain compared to Crystal (for me at least it is).
On a related note, anyone heard that Report Builder is being “orphaned” by Microsoft at some point and users will need to start licensing Power BI instead?
I thought I read something about this recently… can’t remember where, or maybe I might have mis-interpreted?
SSRS is awful, there is no way around it…I’ve said it before here and I’ll say it again, I can’t believe the Epicor community didn’t revolt en masse over the forced change, which as I understand was nothing more than a cost savings as CR isn’t free.
Good point, Mark. I would like to think our ever increasing yearly maintenance bills would cover that and then some. I guess a company like Epicor has to prioritize the yearly bonuses of CEO’s over user satisfaction at the end of the day, I get it.
Just an FYI, you can paste pictures that are on your clipboard, right into the text box here on this site. No need to upload to imgr.
That one screenshot showed the preview consists of 3 pages. But that could be 5 labels spread across three pages (like each lable taking 3/5 of a page). If that’s the case then review what I mentioned about page breaks.
Only appears to be two labels. In SSR, that is one label that is 8" wide by 6" (?? the bottom is cutoff) tall. It just happens to print two of everything, side by side.
If your print just was just 1 record, you would have the same info on both the left and right sides. If you’re printing on to an 8-1/2"x11" page, this would give you the “two” side by side labels (really just one printout that spanned across two individual 4x6 labels). If your printer is only 4"wide, then the renderer will be forced to put the stuff that runs off the right edge (which would be all the fields on the right side), onto the next page.
BUT, this depends on the way the renderer is setup. Especially for PDF output. If the render is set for “Shrink to Fit”, it will shirnk the whole image to fit on one sheet. If that sheet is a 4" wide label, it would print at roughly 50%, and you’d see “both” labels (the left set of fields and the right set of fields) on one 4" wide label. If the renderer is set to maintain size, the right side fields would be forced to a new page - but no guarantee their placement would be positioned correctly on the label next label.
Think of it like Excel. Say my spreadsheet is 15 columns wide(A-N) and 75 rows long. When printing at 100%, only 30 rows and 10 columns fit on a page. You’d get:
Page 1 would contain the range A1:J30
Page 2: K1:N30
Page 3: A31:J60
Page 4: K31:N60
Page 5: A61:J75
Page 6: K61:N75
If you want two labels for every record, you need two sets of fields in the report. placing them side by side relies on the renderer pushing the right side fields that don’t fit onto the next page. But this isn’t considered another page in SSR (the page count wouldn’t increase).
Unfortunately, no…I still can’t explain or figure out why my custom label, which is now down to about 3x2 will not print correctly…still only getting half of what I expect. It just shouldn’t be this difficult.
When I find a proper consultant, I’ll have to add this to the pile of issues.
Maybe an exampl in Report builder would be clearer …
In all of the following examples, my target label is 4"x2" 4"x5"
Example 1: Two copies, side by side
report properties - > page setup: Custom, 4" wide, 5" high, all margins zero
Report Body Properties → size: 8", 5" (note that it is twice the width of the page size)
Report layout as shown. the same fields are on the right and left. The dotted line is just to show which set of fields are being used on the printout/preview. EDIT: All the fields on the right have the same Y position as those on the left, but their X position is exactly 4" more that its twin on the left.
Report Body Properties → size: 4", 10" (note that it is twice the height of the page size)
Report Layout as shown. EDIT: All the fields on the bottom have the same X position as those on the top, but their Y position is exactly 5" more that its twin on the top.
