Working with Labels and Print Status

[Lyrek Admin]

In order for users to keep track of which contact has been printed for which event, Lyrek provides a variety of options for selecting labels to print and updating the print status for these records.

Print Status
Print Status Functionality is unique by label type (Avery® 5160, 5660 and 8167) and by event. This means that if you print address labels (5160) for one event and toggle the box to update the print status to printed, the next time you print 5160 labels for this event, Lyrek will remember if they've been printed before and provide options for you to re-print or not-print previously printed labels.

Since this functionality is so powerful, some intuitiveness is sacrificed. Since you may be scratching your head at the above description of the Print Status function, let's look at a couple examples of how this functionality can be applied to your event labels.

Figure 01


Figure 01, above, shows an example of the Event View page where some labels have been printed and others have not. Contacts with printed labels are displayed with their label name/number in pink. Contacts who have not yet been printed on that particular label type show label name/number in blue. So the first contact in the above example has been printed on 5560 stock, but not 5160 or 8167. The second has only been printed on 5160.

Click the "Print" Icon (above the contact list) to pop open a the Print Wizard. Select "Avery Labels" and the various options you want until you're brought to the "Print Confirm" page, which displays the Print Status options.


Figure 02



Figure 02, above, shows the "Print Confirm" page with your Print Status Options. Let's go through these options one-by-one:

1. Remove incomplete/partial records
This option (which should normally remain checked) removes labels that do not have the required information for the post office to actually send the invitation/mail. This may be because your contact doesn't have a city or zip code. You can normally fix incomplete/partial records by asking contacts to update their information when they RSVP for events. This is part of the unique power of Lyrek Contact and Events Management System and oftentimes, users will find less incomplete/partial records by the time they send out seating or follow-up emails because contacts have already updated their addresses in your database.

2. Update RSVP status to printed for Label Stock (5160/5660/8167)
Naturally, you will only see the label stock that you're currently printing for this option, not all three. In our example, we're printing 5160, so the option will actually read: "Update RSVP status to printed for Label Stock: 5160"

If this box is checked, every label that is currently printed will be marked as printed for these contacts on this label stock, and their status will be shown next to their row in the Event View page as pink (see Figure 01, above).

This is important, so let's reiterate. You will not be able to print labels on this stock for these contacts again if you select an option that limits records to "not printed". We'll learn about the limiters next, but you should only check this "Update RSVP status to printed..." if you do not intend to print these contacts again on this label stock. Change it to unchecked, if you anticipate needing to print another batch.

Note that Lyrek offers the capability of printing multiple copies of each label. Users sometimes click the checkbox to update the RSVP status, but ensure that two copies are printed in case they ever need to go back and reference what was printed on which day.


The Limiters

3. Limit the labels to only print...
These are the limiters mentioned previously. Lyrek offers four options for printing and each should be carefully considered before proceeding to the next page in order to avoid confusion or problems with future printing of labels.

3a. Contacts that have been printed on this stock
Selecting this option effectively "reprints" labels that have already been printed. Say your designer asks for a second copy of the labels, but you didn't previously check "Print 2 copies of each label" before." Now you can provide them with a second list that includes all contacts that have previously been printed. Naturally, keeping the "Update RSVP status to printed for this label stock" option checked will do nothing for this limiter because all these labels have already been printed and, therefore, already have their print status stored as printed.

3b. Contacts that have not been printed on this stock
Selecting this option enables you to print ALL remaining labels, regardless of the contacts' RSVP status. This is to say that this option will print everyone that has not yet been printed, whether they've RSVP'd Yes, No or not replied. Note that if you check this option, it will be impossible to differentiate RSVP status on the labels, so this option is rarely used (though available).

3c. Contacts that have RSVP'd (Y) Yes, but have not been printed on this stock.
This option is the one you will select almost always. It allows you to print only the contacts that have RSVP'd Yes since the last time you printed labels for this event on this label stock.

For instance, a designer asks for labels on Monday and 500 of 1000 invitees have RSVP'd Yes. You print 5160 labels with "Update RSVP status to printed for Label Stock: 5160" checked and "Contacts that have RSVP'd (Y) Yes, but have not been printed on 5160 stock" as your limiter. Lyrek prints the 500 labels and updates these contacts as having been printed on this label type for this event.

On Wednesday, the designer asks for labels for the people who have RSVP'd since the labels were generated on Monday. In the last two days, 200 more people RSVP'd Yes. Again, you print 5160 labels with "Update RSVP status to printed for Label Stock: 5160" checked and "Contacts that have RSVP'd (Y) Yes, but have not been printed on 5160 stock" as your limiter. This time Lyrek prints only the new 200 labels and updates their status to printed on this label type for this event.

Now 700 contacts are marked as printed on 5160 for this event, and your designer has two batches of labels (500 from Monday, 200 from Wednesday).

Friday, the day of the show, the designer wants a final list of people that have RSVP'd Yes. Using the same options above, you can create a list of people that have RSVP'd since your last print on Wednesday.

Note that if you selected "Contacts that have not been printed on 5160 stock," on Wednesday, you'd be printing the 200 newly RSVP'd contacts as well as the remaining 300 contacts that have either RSVP'd No, or not responded at all. Selecting this option would yield 0 results for your print on Friday because everyone has already been printed.

This is obviously a problem for event producers and a good example of why careful consideration of limiters and print options is crucial to ensuring your events go smoothly.

3d. All
Selecting this option will print all labels, regardless of their RSVP status and previous Print Status. Everyone that was printed previously will be printed again. Everyone that RSVP'd No will be included with the people that RSVP'd Yes, or didn't respond at all.

You ONLY want to select this limiter if you do not care about this data being lost.

Keep in mind that like our previous example, selecting "Update RSVP status to printed for label stock: 5160" and the limiter "All" will disable any contacts from being printed again for this event, on the 5160 label stock.

If you have questions, it's best that you ask your office administrator or submit a support ticket before doing anything. It takes 2-3 hours for Lyrek Support technicians to restore older versions of your database to revert the updates to Print Status and highly discouraged during a season where contacts are RSVPing, since this data would be lost.

Technicians may be able to retrieve Print Status if a mistake is made, but this can also be a costly request as it involves billable time. This is why understanding these options or requesting help is the preferred approach.

Unfortunately, there isn't an easier way to explain the Print Status and Limiters. If you have suggestions, feel free to reply to this forum topic.