Updated Information on Printing With LogPrint

c.  Click on the SetUp word at the top of the sub-window and choose "Custom Label Sheet Setup"  From the picture you can see how I set up my Custom Label 3 to print a QSL card.  When complete, click on [Apply] to write this information to the LogPrint.ini file.

d.  Now you can click on SetUp, then click on "Custom Label Design - K5LAD QSL Card" (or whatever name you have designated for this option).   Use the QSL card template you created {see NOTE #2}.  The print QSL image referred to on the setup sub-window is actually your QSL card template.  It includes the picture, if one is included, your call and personal information and any other writing you want printed, and the boxes to fill in the QSO data.  Even if you do not have an actual picture on your card template as I have, the QSL card template itself is a picture so be sure to check the box for “Check to print QSL image.”   Note that the Image Width (5.5) and Image Height (3.5) is the same size as the finished QSL card since the template picture prints all over the full card dimensions. 

 e.  The values shown for the 15 fields are the means to pull data from specific ADIF records to print in the required boxes on the card.  The setup information is given elsewhere on the website in the article ”LogPrint Multiple Label Suggestions”.  The values used in the preparation of the card and the labels can be found in the copy of the LogPrint.ini file I used to prepare them.

I like to check the "Show Grid" to allow me to see the boundary lines of the completed QSL card when I have clicked the [Preview] box to see what it will look like when printed.  The grid lines are never actually printed by the printer.     

f.  When the QSL card is set up like you want it and the Preview looks like what you had planned, click on the [Close] box to return to the first screen.

g.  Click on "Print" to get the drop-down choices and for this activity; you'll want to click on the 4th choice, "Print QSL Label" even though you might not consider the card as a label.  The label designation is still the closest to the QSL card printing, according to LogPrint's options.  The other three choices above it are for printing your logbook, either fully or partially.

h.  QSL card printing using this method is slow and requires close attention to the task but printing this way may be used primarily for creating just a few cards at a time.  If you desire to print a fairly large number of cards at one time, the options for printing single or multiple QSO labels might be preferable.

Note #1 – If you do not have a printer available or you don’t want to use up your label stock or heavy card stock for QSL, consider a program which announces itself like a printer but prints, instead, to a PDF file, readable by Adobe Reader XI (available free at

http://get.adobe.com/reader/?promoid=JZEFU) 

Install a program called PDF995 to have this available.  You can find it at http://www.pdf995.com/.   It is a free program but the non-registered version has quite a few advertisements as it runs.  For a small fee (currently $9.95) you can get a key to eliminate the sponsored advertisements.

Note #2 - The template for your QSL card can be as simple or as complex as you like it.  There are free programs available on the Internet that allow you to add your own information while it arranges it in the proper places for you.  I would recommend that you spend an hour or two looking over QSL cards shown on the Internet or if you have already received QSL cards from others, look them over to get ideas of what you would like.  It is easier to create your own template if you spend some time seeing how others have made their cards, either created by themselves or by commercial QSL printers.

For my template, I used the simple Microsoft Paint program that has been included in Windows packages for many years, perhaps from back to the first Windows OS package delivered.  It is simple to use, freely available, and provides a good finished product.  I am far from a creative artist but I think mine looks pretty nice. 

 The boxes for data can be place at any location on the card face.  It requires some experimentation with setup values but you can instruct LogPrint to insert the proper data from your .adi file into the proper boxes, regardless of where they appear on the card.

Note:  You can also print copies of your QSL card template and create blank cards to manually fill in the boxes for a single, quickly required card.  This is done by displaying the QSL card setup screen (option 3 on my examples) and choosing the selection message under the title bar that says “Print Blank QSLs”.  More detailed instructions are given for this activity in the Helpfile.

 Note #3 - When I print a single card on a single piece of heavy white or colored card stock, I use a metal-edged ruler and an Xacto knife to measure, then cut out the 3.5" x 5.5" card from the 8.5" x 11" sheet.  Once the partial sheet is trimmed to an 8.5” x 7.5" size (because you have already used up a part of the sheet), it can be used to create one and perhaps two more cards by carefully hand-feeding the remainder into the printer.  It's not quite as good as being able to print 4 QSL cards per sheet in Portrait mode, but I find it satisfactory for my use. 

 Note #4 – Visit Marek’s website to find some really nice utility programs he has written and made available at no cost.  Some of his programs are specifically to work with a program such as LoTW to Logger32 Credits, specific to Logger32.  His program Log Recoverer can take a part of the Logger32 logbook file and recreate a fully usable logbook file for Logger 32.  For a user of Logger32 who failed to keep a current backup of their logbook, and discovered their current program in a crashed condition, Marek’s Log Recoverer program can often save them from a bad loss.  Take some time to look over his website and study the list of his free programs available for download.  You’ll, no doubt, be glad you did.

The small utility program Marek has written for use with LogPrint here is available by clicking here.   When time allows, Marek with integrate the features of this program into his currently available program called ADIF_FILTER.   This program allows the user to take an ADIF file created by a logging program such as Logger32 and specifically pull out just the pieces of information desired for a particular project.  You should take a look at this program as it is a very handy tool to have in your toolbox.

If you would like to see or have a copy of the LogPrint.ini used for this article click here to download.  It has all the setup information for:

        Printing single QSO labels      

        Printing multiple QSOs labels

        Printing full QSL card with QSO data

 ===============================================================

===============================================================

ERROR Messages in LogPrint v.3.1.2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ERROR 1 - Runtime 383 Error

When Field9Condition=|notEqual|Rcv'd|Please|

I got a Runtime Error 383.   I deleted the "not" to just leave   "Equal" and still got the error.   I deleted the "Rcv'd" and "Please" and the error went away.  Note:   the error can occur on any of the 15 fields but in this case it was in the data I had in Field 9 of a label setup.

 On Field9Condition=|notEqual|yes|no|  --- I got the error

On Field9Condition=|notEqual|||  --- I got the error

On Field9Condition=|Equal|||  --- I did NOT get the error

 Conclusion - Runtime 383 Error is caused by an inappropriate setting in the Field#Condition setting.

 NOTE the correct entry shown below:

      Field9Condition=|Equal|||

 Another observation on this error:

When a Field is removed from usage, it is vital that it be removed correctly and thoroughly.  You cannot just remove the vertical and horizontal positions, the

ADIF fields to choose for decisions and the ADIF field information to print ---

you MUST click on the button labeled [Clear ALL] which returns the

"Fields#Condition" entry to that shown above, i.e., Field9Condition=|Equal|||

 Anything else will bring up the "Run-time error 383 -- Text property is read-only" error message.

===============================================================

ERROR 2 - Runtime 481 Error - Invalid picture

 This error occurs when the Setup routine expects to find a picture to use in a QSL or SWL card print but the picture cannot be found

 Conclusion - a missing BMP picture file causes a Runtime 481 Error.  Note also that LogPrint asks you to load a .bmp picture file but a .jpg picture file will work.  When it requests [Select QSL image file] the window shows “Files of type;” and fills in the box with “BMP Files (*.bmp)”.  To load a .jpg file, change the “BMP Files (*.bmp)” to All Files (*.*)

BMP {bitmap} files are generally several times larger than JPG files in number of bytes.  These larger files should be better resolution over the JPG but my old non-artist eye cannot see any difference.

===============================================================

ERROR 3 - QSL via printing on wrong label

My QSL via - (call) entry kept printing on the wrong label, (it printed below on the next sequence of labels) particularly when the printing location was near the bottom of the label (above the "Verified and Printed by Logger32/LogPrint" line).  After much work and changes, I determined that it worked correctly when called upon to print above the logbook entries closer to the top of the label.

 Conclusion - I never did determine why this happened but moving the print location for the QSL via - to a higher spot on the label cured the problem.

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ERROR 4 - Preview and/or printout only shows a single label on the page instead of the full page of labels as expected.

I noted previously in the article, that occasionally I’ve discovered, on my computer, that sometimes when I start the program from the beginning that the "Choose Label Sheet" window has moved from my previous setting to one of the Custom settings lines on the list.  An example might be:  you originally had the "Choose Label Sheet" highlighted on #5161 because you wanted to print 20 – 1” x 4” labels per sheet but when you look at the preview or the printed copy, only one label appears on that page or some strange configuration appears other than what you wanted.

Go back and look at your "Choose Label Sheet" and make sure it is still on the highlighted line - #5161.

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ERROR 5 - Runtime 380 Error - Invalid property value

 I ran across a note with a screen print with this error #380.  I’m trying to find more information about it but I currently don’t have a solution.  I wanted to mention it here since others might run across the error and see that they’re not alone.

When I discover a solution to this one, I’ll add it to the website.

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ERROR 6 - Printing one page of labels that span several pages.  Incorrect paging of printed pages

One of the problems I ran into came a couple of years after I had successfully used the setup described in the original website article.  After making the changes for the improved Multiple QSOs Labels, when I tried to print them on the label stock or to the PDF file I got disastrous results.

 When printing either single QSO {option #1} or multiple QSO labels on Avery #5163 (2" x 4") label stock {option #2}, it would print the first 8 labels per page correctly (or 18 labels with option 1).   The picture below shows what should have been the last 4 labels at the bottom of the page where 10 labels were to be printed per page.  The bottom two labels of every full page was like this.

 The label at #9 spot (lower left of page) would print most of the top of the label and most of the first QSO entry but the "Please" or "Rec'd" would be at the bottom of the next sheet.

 This shows what was printed on the second sheet.  All above this printed information was completely blank.

 The label in #10 spot (lower right of page) would print none of the label but would print (as with #9 above) most of the top of the tenth label up to the "Please" or "Rec'd" and that would skip down to a third page, just as the rest of #9 was printed at the bottom of the second page.

 All that was printed on the third sheet was the few lines below.  All above this printed information was completely blank.

 The next sheet of labels printed was back like the first sheet above with 8 (or 18) full labels printing correctly and the bottom two labels spread over the next two sheets.

 I struggled for several days trying to vary the values in several of the setup boxes and I really suspected that something in the setup feature which prints the "Please" or "Rec'd" for QSL was incorrect but I just could not see it.

 I finally discovered that the problem was in the Field 11 box which had the following data left over from my previous setup.  I would have sworn that I removed all that data when I modified my new setup but obviously I had not.   The Field 11 box, which should have been empty of data, instead had the following still in it:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IF - QSL_RCVD

IS - Equal

TO - Y

THEN - Rec'vd^

ELSE - Please

Horizontal - 2.2             Vertical - 3.3

Current font is Arial at 10 pts.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once I clicked on [Clear ALL], all the values were removed and the skipping pages and labels problem was gone.   Something quite small can cause you major problems.  I guess you could say that the moral to this story is, Don’t overlook the obvious. 

 Conclusion:

As you work with LogPrint and become more comfortable with it, my recommendation to you would be, once you have a version working correctly and printing, at least partially like you want it to print, SAVE a copy of that working LogPrint.ini file in a separate folder and write yourself a text message that “this one is working.”  When LogPrint crashes with an error message it will often shut down completely and it is hard, if not nearly impossible, to get past the error message to correct the error.  You must do your correcting within the .ini file to get past that error.  Being able to go back to a known working LogPrint.ini file will keep the frustration factor down to a MUCH lower level and, perhaps help extend your life for several days longer.

 Also worth noting is, if you locate a new piece of information that allows LogPrint to produce something you especially wanted it to do, it is possible to leave yourself notes within the .ini file.   To do this, precede any line that is a note to you but not to the program with a semi-colon (;). 

 ;<  Field3Condition=|Equal|||                   this line made LogPrint go bonkers and spit

 ; printer paper over the floor         (No, no this is not a true error, just an example of a REMark)

 Note that the semi-colon is only required at the beginning of a line.  It is saying, “disregard anything you see to the right of that semi-colon on this line.”  If the REMark line is longer than a single line, the line can be split but each line to be ignored must start with a semi-colon.  You can also have a regular line of instruction, the place a semi-colon AFTER the instruction to let the reader know what that line is doing.  Again, LogPrint will ignore any text it sees to the right side of the semi-colon but execute the command prior to the semi-colon.  An example might be:

Field14FontSize=12             ; the information printed on this part of Field 14 will be 12 point size
Field14FontBold=True       ; the information printed on this part of Field 14 will be bolded

Also, if you’re having a problem with some area and you suspect a line in the .ini file is causing you the problem, you can REM that line (or several lines) out by placing a semi-colon in front of the suspect line.  LogPrint will then not read or execute the line but you will be able to find the EXACT wording and location to put it back, just by locating and removing the semi-colon/s.

There have been times I have worked with the LogPrint program and been able to create a label or card looking exactly as I had pictured it; the operation went as smoothly as silk.  There are other times when I have spent many hours fighting with a misprinting problem, or even worse, with an error message that was unclear and might as well have been written in hieroglyphics.  I hope that some of the ideas given in this new article, and particularly a clearer description of the error messages, will allow you to create some very nice pieces of work.

 73,  Jim – K5LAD