About Template Sections and Spacing

Print Designer Overview | Print Designer FAQs

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Most document design templates are divided into logical sections, each with a unique printing behavior. The number of sections and the specific fields located in each section vary depending on the document type. For example, price tag, label, and 40-column templates will not include all of the section types listed below. The following descriptions will provide a general understanding of how the template sections are used and how these sections behave. Template sections cannot be re-positioned, though they typically can be vertically resized to add or remove white space in a design.

The five section types are as follows:

Repeating Header The elements included in this section are printed at the top of each page of the document. This section typically includes such things as the document date, print date, page number, document/transaction number and the logged-in users name.

Body Header The elements included in this section are printed only on the first page of a document. This section typically includes such things as store name and address information, as well as billing and shipping address information.

Body This section typically contain the actual content of the document. For example, on most transactional documents this would be the list of the items processed and the descriptions and/or attributes of those items. When printing a document, the body section expands to accommodate the number of items listed and can span multiple pages.

Body Footer The elements included in this section are printed only at the end of the document, or on the last page of a multi-page document. This section typically includes such things as totals, balances, savings, payment type, messages and comments.

Repeating Footer The elements included in this section are printed at the bottom of each page. The same type of information can be placed in this section as in the Repeating Header section, depending on whether you wish this information to be displayed at the top or bottom of each page.

Click on a section name on the left side of the template to make it active. In the example shown, the Body section is active.

Template Spacing

The Print Designer allows you to add or remove "white space" at the top and bottom of each section by dragging and dropping the section dividers. This is useful for gaining additional space to add design elements or to remove space that would otherwise waste paper when printing.

The Print Designer template display is not always an accurate representation of how the printed document will appear. Templates typically contain many fields that may or may not be populated with data from a particular Point of Sale transaction. For example: if your sales receipt template includes customer address fields, but you do not always record the customer on the receipt when a sale is made, then those fields and the vertical space they normally occupy will be omitted from the printed document and everything below the address fields will be moved up.

Use the vertical ruler as a general guide for relative positioning of elements. The actual height of sections and their contents will vary depending upon what data is actually available to be printed. It is recommended that you test your modified templates before implementing them for general use.

The End of the Document or Section

Sections in the template and particularly at the end of the document will vary depending upon the particular type of document and the printer being used. It is recommended that you build each section from the top down and then set the placement for the end of each section and the end of the document according to the lowest field placed in that section.

The image to the right shows the divider at the end of the document moved to just below the end of the last field. This ensures that no wasted space is added to the printed documents. If more space is needed, the divider can be moved down.

Moving Elements between Sections

You cannot move an element directly from one template section to another. If you need to move an element to another section, first remove it from one section and then add it to the other.

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