Shop-Trak Creating & Printing Employee Badges

This topic describes how to create and print employee badge labels. The BarTender label software is used to create the badges. A default badge format is included in your Shop-Trak download package. You can use the default badge as-is or customize it for your organization. Some setup is also required using the Shop-Trak Parameters and Shop-Trak Label Rules forms. You can then print the badges using the Print Badge button on the Shop-Trak Employee Profile form.

Creating Employee Badges

To create employee badges using BarTender:

Open the BarTender label software.

Select Open an existing BarTender document.
Select the default employee badge, Employee Badge.btw, located in the BTLabels folder of your download package:

You can use the badge as-is, or customize it for your organization by adding, changing, or deleting objects. For example, to add new label and data source objects for Middle Initial:

LABEL OBJECT

Select an existing label object on the badge (e.g. Dept:), and Copy/Paste it to the desired location.
Double-click on the object.
Select the Data Source tab.
Erase the old label name and specify a new one in the Embedded Data field (e.g. MI:).
Click Close.

DATA SOURCE OBJECT

Select an existing data source object on the badge (e.g. Department), and Copy/Paste it to the desired location.
Double-click on the object.
Select the Data Source tab.
Click the Change Data Source Name button at the end of the Name field.
Select Create a new named data source and specify the data source name in the Name field. The available badge data sources are listed in the table below. Specify the data source using the format tablename.fieldname. For example, specifying employee.mi will print the employee's middle initial from the Employee table.

Tables and Fields for Employee Badges
Table & Field Descriptions	Table & Field Names
Department	dept
Department description	description
Division number	div_num
Employee	employee
Employee number	emp_num
Last name, first name, middle initial	name
Last name	lname
First name	fname
Middle initial	mi
Department number	dept
Shift number	shift
Employee Position	emp_pos
Job ID number	job_id
Job detail number	job_detail
Employee Position History	emp_hpos
Company name	comp_num
Job title	job_title
Job classification number	class
Job grade code	jobgrade
Supervisor number	super_num
Shop-Trak Employee Profile	lc_lt_employee_profile
Shop-Trak ID	EmployeeID
Primary Supervisor	supervisor_primary
Alternate Supervisor	supervisor_alternate
Administrative Supervisor	supervisor_admin
User defined integer field	intfld1
User defined decimal field	decifld1
User defined character field	charfld1
User defined integer field	intfld2
User defined decimal field	decfld2
User defined character field	charfld2

Click OK.

On the Data Source tab:

Keep the type as Embedded Data.
Specify a new data source description in the Embedded Data field (e.g. Middle Initial). This description appears on the badge when displayed in BarTender. When the badge is printed, the actual data from the table replaces the description (the employee's actual middle initial).

Click Close.
Save the badge to a shared network path that is accessible to the workstation that will be printing the badges. You can rename the badge if desired. For example, you might want to create different badges for each department, naming them accordingly.
For more information on using BarTender, please refer to the BarTender Online Help.

Setting Up Label Parameters and Rules

To set up Shop-Trak to print employee badge labels:

1. Enable Label Printing Using the Shop-Trak Parameters Form - Main Tab

Open the Shop-Trak Parameters form and select the Main tab.
Select the Labels check box in the Available Menu Options, Info section.
Save the changes.

2. Specify the Badge Path Using the Shop-Trak Parameters Form - Labels Tab

Select the Labels tab on the Shop-Trak Parameters form.
Select the Employee Badges check box in the Settings, Label Print Options section.
Specify the shared path to the employee badge file in the Path to Emp. Badge Formats (.btw) field. Or, click Browse to select the path by navigating to the correct folder.
If you have an area on the badge for employee photos, specify the shared path to the photos in the Path to Emp. Badge Images field. Or, click Browse to select the path by navigating to the correct folder.
Save the changes and close the form.

3. Specify a Rule Using the Shop-Trak Label Rules Form

Open and unfilter the Shop-Trak Label Rules form.
Select E (Employee Badges) from the Type list. This is a required field.
Select the * (asterisk) from the Department list to designate the same badge for all employees. If the badge is specific to a department, select the department number from the Department list.
Specify the label's file name (the .btw file) in the Label Name field (e.g. Employee Badge.btw).
Specify the printer name in the Printer field. Type the printer name exactly as it is listed in the Windows Control Panel.
Save the changes and close the form.

Printing Employee Badges

To print an employee badge:

Open the Shop-Trak Employee Profile form and select the General tab.
Filter for the employee who needs a badge printed.
Click Print Badge.
Shop-Trak verifies that:

The parameter to enable employee badge printing is checked.
There is a path specified to the labels and the labels are accessible.
If there is an image on the label, the path to the image is specified and accessible.
There is a label rule set up for employee badges:

If there is a default badge for all employees, it will send the employee information from the Shop-Trak Employee Profile form to the default label format and print the badge to the specified printer.
If there is a department specific rule defined for the employee's department, it will send the employee information from the Shop-Trak Employee Profile form to the label format specific to that department and print the badge to the specified printer.