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Troubleshooting label printing

The following topics describe common problems and solutions when printing labels.

Labels have all fields on the same line

In the text block that contains merge fields, insert carriage returns at the locations you want:

1.	You see a label with a line of fields, each field enclosed in double opening and closing angle brackets like this: <<fieldname>>.

2.	In Layout mode, click the Text tool in the status toolbar, and click to place the insertion point at the position before the field that you want to begin the second line of text.

For example, in a mailing address, you might place the insertion point before the Address field.

3.	Press the Enter key in the main keypad (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).

Only one label prints

•	Open the Print dialog box to see if you are printing only the current record.

Data doesn't print within each label

Tip  When fixing label printing problems, print the first sheet of your labels on plain paper and hold the printout and the label template sheet together up to a light to see if they are aligned.

•	Make sure your paper size is set appropriately for the type of printer and labels that you’re using. Follow the instructions in Considerations when you create a Labels layout to set the paper size for your layout.

•	If you’re printing on continuous-feed label paper using a dot-matrix printer and your layout contains a header part, delete the header part. For more information, see Deleting layout parts.

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If you’re printing to sheets of labels, some laser and ink jet printers cannot print within 0.25 inches of the top of the paper. (Check your printer documentation for this information.) Use a ruler to measure the distance from the top of the label paper to the top of the first row of labels. If the distance is less than the minimum margin your printer requires, increase the height of the header part to include the first row of labels, so that printing starts at the top of the second row. FileMaker Pro won't print on the first row of labels, but it prints in the correct position on subsequent labels.

•	If all labels are too high or too low by the same amount, resize the header part.

•	If the labels move increasingly higher on the page, make the body part one point larger and try again. Repeat until the labels fit the page properly.

•	If the labels move increasingly lower on the page, make the body part one point smaller and try again. Repeat until fixed.

For more information on resizing layout parts, see Resizing layout parts.

There are blank lines in labels

•	Check for extra carriage returns in the field: go to the problem record and click in the field. If it expands, there may be an extra carriage return in it. Delete it.

The last row of labels on each sheet isn't printing

•	Choose Layouts menu > Part Setup. Select the Body part, and click Change. In the Part Definition dialog box, look to see whether Allow part to break across page boundaries is selected, and then do the following:

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If Allow part to break across page boundaries is not selected, then select this option, and also select Discard remainder of part before new page. Then click OK, and try printing again. (You may also want to try printing with Allow part to break across page boundaries selected and Discard remainder of part before new page cleared.)

For more information, see Adding a layout part and Defining page breaks and numbering.