Counter specification

You can access the Counter Specifications dialog box either by selecting the Counter 
Specifications option from the Label menu, or by double-clicking on a Counter field you've 
placed on a label.
The Counter Specifications dialog box allows you to define the parameters for Desktop 
Labels' built-in Counter feature.  With the Counter feature, you can automatically generate a 
sequentially numbered series of barcodes. Further, you can assign a Pre-amble, Post-amble, 
Starting Number, Incremental Interval, and Use Same Value for these barcodes.This 
feature is extremely useful in generating serial-number and inventory barcodes.

You can place counter on a label as a barcode.  After setting the counter specifications, you 
can place the counter barcode on a label by:
     1) Selecting the Counter field with the Field Tool in the Label tool Palette
     2) Placing the Counter field in its desired location on the label
     3) Selecting the Barcode Tool from the Label tool Palette
     4) Clicking once (with the crosshairs in the cursor) on the Counter field on the label.
  After performing these steps, the computer will display a solid black bar on the label.  You can 
preview the actual appearance of the barcode by either clicking on it once with the Preview 
Tool, or by selecting Label Preview from the File menu.
The Counter Specifications dialog box gives you the following options:

 Preamble - is a string up to 20 characters and spaces that preceeds the Starting 
Number. 

 Starting Number  -  is a number, containing up to 8 digits that can either increase or 
decrease  in value.

Postamble -  is a string up to 20 characters and spaces that follows the Starting 
Number.

Increment by field defines the value to increase or decrease the counter by the specified
amount which can be positive or negative.

Use same value field allows you to designate the number of times a counter is used during 
printing before the number is changed. For example if you entered 10 in this field,Desktop 
Labels will change the counter after every 10 labels.

Padding Option allows you to specify a certain number of Zeros  and Spaces at the beginning 
of the Starting Number. None puts no padding before the  Starting Number.

Fixed fields Length- becomes active if Zero or Space is selected and defines the number of 
Zeros or Spaces up to 8 be placed before the Starting Number. If the number of digits is 
greater than the the Fixed Fields Length the entire counter will still be printed. For 
example :

Preamble - COUNTER 
Starting Number - 1
Fixed Field Length -4
Padding option - Zero

then the first counterwill be = COUNTER0001.
If you print 100000 labels, the last counter will be = COUNTER100000.