Labels > Creating And Editing Label Layouts

The Main Address Block defines how a main address is to be used when forming a label.

Order By

This defines how the data is to be alphabetical ordered when a label is drawn from the Main Address fields. Typically, this is last name within zip code, though it may be any field or field expression. The DonorQuest predefined labels are typically ordered by last name within zip, so when copying and modifying a predefined label for your own use, you should only have to alter this expression in the rare instance that you wish to alphabetize mailing labels on something other than zip code and name. The Order By expression may apply functions to fields to achieve very special sort orders. Functions can be particularly useful when you want to alphabetize the labels on a transformed version of the data within a field or fields. For example, the Descend() function will transform the data of a field such that the labels will be alphabetized in descending order by the field to which you apply the Descend() function.

Include For

For specific custom label layouts, you may wish to only include the main address of donors who meet a certain condition. This condition must be in the form of an expression that is either true or false. For example, to only print a mailing label for those donors who have a "Y" entered for their Newsletter field, you would enter the following expression:

.NewsLetter. = "Y"

The expression you enter for the Main Address Include For option has no effect on the inclusion of extra addresses, since there is a separate expression for that. If you wish to unconditionally include the main address for donors while printing mailing labels (the normal case), simply leave this option blank. Note that in most cases the selection you use to print labels with will limit the main addresses which print. This is just a way to enforce an additional filter condition within the label definition.

Content

This is quite simply what is printed on each line of the label. Each line of the content section corresponds to a printed line on the label. A line of content may be a single field, or a combination of fields. For example, the predefined label layout, "Avery 5160 (1" x 2 5/8") - Address Using Sal1" included with DonorQuest has the following content:

.Salutation1.

If( .Address_Type.="H", "", .Organization_Name.)

.Address.

.Address2.

Trim( MemoTextFor( "ADDR3" ) )

Trim( MemoTextFor( "ADDR4" ) )

.City. + ", " + .State. + " " + .Zip.

Decode(.Country.)

As you can see, some of the label lines are simply single fields by themselves, such as the first line which prints the content of the Salutation1 field directly. But other label lines are based on expressions involving fields. Also, some of the content is conditional, meaning it will not always contribute to a line on the label. For example the second line will only print the Organization Name if the Address Type of the main address is not "H" for home. And the fifth and sixth lines involve searching memo history for each donor for any memo's coded as ADDR3 or ADDR4, and only pulling the text of those memos in the label if the memos exist for a given donor. Since we have the Omit Blank Data Lines option turned on, any expression which evaluates to a blank line will not actually print, so our resulting labels will not have any empty lines. So, having eight lines in our content section does not mean the label needs to accommodate eight lines, since some of them will not print.