Print Designer: User Label

When a staff member opens a user record and clicks Print User, Aeon takes the user's information, drops it into a User print template, and produces a printable document — typically a reader's ticket, registration card, or ID/credential label. (The print dialog pre-selects the template marked default, but staff can switch to any other User template before printing.) The Print Designer: User page is where you design those templates: what appears on them, where each piece sits on the page, and how many print per sheet.

This is the configuration side of user printing. The day-to-day act of printing a card from a user record is covered separately; this page is about building and maintaining the layout those prints are based on.

The User designer is one of several print template types (Request Slip, Call Slip, User, Invoice, Invoice Statement, Digitization Request) that all share the same canvas editor. Everything here applies to the others too — only the available fields differ, because each type is built around a different record (the User template is built around the User record, so it offers user fields, addresses, status, and so on).

When you'll use this

• You're setting up Aeon and want reader's tickets or ID cards to carry your institution's name, the patron's details, and a scannable barcode.
• An existing label needs a tweak — a new field, a logo, a larger name, different paper size.
• You print several cards at once and want to fit, say, four to a sheet of label stock.
• You're moving off the old Word-based templates and want to bring a .docx design into the web designer as a starting point.

This replaces Word mail-merge

In earlier Aeon, print templates were Microsoft Word documents merged with a data file on each staff member's PC, and printing only worked from the desktop client. Aeon 7 replaces that entirely with this in-browser visual designer — there is no Word document to edit, no per-PC printer setup, and printing works from the web client. If you have existing Word templates, you can import them here (see Starting from a Word document) rather than rebuilding from scratch.

Opening the User print designer

1. Open the Customization Manager.
2. In the left navigation, expand Print Designer and choose User.
3. The designer opens at /customizations/print-designer/user.

If at least one User template already exists, the designer auto-selects the default template (or the first one) and loads it onto the canvas. If none exist yet, you'll see "No User templates found" with a Create Template button.

Requires the Designers configuration permission

The Print Designer — for every template type, including viewing the live Preview — is gated by the Designers configuration capability. Staff whose role doesn't include Designers access won't see the Print Designer in the Customization Manager and can't load, edit, or preview templates. This is an administrator/customizer tool, not a general staff one. Note that printing a user card from a user record is a separate, operational permission — a front-desk staffer can print cards without being able to redesign the template.

Use a desktop or tablet

The canvas needs room to work. On a phone-sized screen the designer shows "Larger Display Required" and asks you to switch to a tablet or desktop. Design your templates on a full-size display.

How the editor is laid out

The designer has four regions:

• Toolbar (top) — template selector, template menu, page setup, zoom, undo/redo, grouping, Preview, and Save.
• Elements palette (left) — the building blocks you drag onto the page.
• Canvas (center) — the page itself, drawn to scale at the size and orientation you've chosen.
• Properties (right) — settings for whatever element you've selected. It slides open when you select something and can be pinned open with the pin icon.

Choosing or creating a template

You can keep several User templates and switch between them — for example a full reader's ticket and a compact barcode-only label.

• Switch templates: use the template dropdown at the far left of the toolbar. The one marked default is the layout the print dialog pre-selects when staff click Print User (they can still choose another from the dialog).
• Create, duplicate, rename, delete, set default: open the template menu (the ⋯ button beside the dropdown). It offers New Template, Duplicate, Rename, Set as Default, Export, Import, Import from Word Document…, and Delete.

Only one default per type

Set as Default marks the selected template as the one the print dialog pre-selects for a user card (staff can override it per print, and Aeon remembers each staffer's last choice). Setting a new default automatically clears the old one — there's always exactly one default User template.

Designing the page

1. Set the page size and orientation

In the toolbar, pick a page size — Letter, Legal, A4, or A5 — and an orientation — Portrait or Landscape. The canvas redraws to match. For a card or ticket you'll usually keep one record per page; for label stock, see multiple-per-page below.

2. Add elements

Each item in the Elements palette (left) can be either clicked to drop it in the center of the page, or dragged onto the exact spot you want. The available elements are:

Element	What it's for
Text	A static label or heading that prints the same every time — e.g. your institution's name, or the word "Reader's Ticket."
Field	A dynamic value pulled from the user record — e.g. the patron's name or username. This is the core of any user template.
Barcode	A scannable barcode (Code 39, Code 128, or QR) generated from a field — typically the username, so staff can scan the card to look the patron up.
Line	A horizontal rule, useful for separating sections.
Rectangle	A box or border.
Image	A logo or graphic chosen from the image gallery.

No table element on user templates

The Tables group (for repeating rows of billing charges or payments) only appears on the invoice-style templates. A User template is about one person's details, so it doesn't offer tables.

3. Bind each field to a user value

Select a Field element and, in the Properties panel on the right, open the Field Name dropdown. The fields offered are the ones that make sense for a user document, grouped into categories:

• User Fields — name, username, and core profile fields
• Address Fields and Secondary Address — street, city, state, zip, country
• Status Fields — Status, Cleared, Expiration Date, Last Changed Date, Registration Status
• Research Fields — Research Topics and sharing preference
• Institution Fields — the patron's organization details
• Custom Fields — any user custom fields you've defined in the Customization Manager appear here automatically

Under Format, you can control how a value prints — for instance, formatting a date field as a long date, or adding a prefix/suffix.

A typical reader's ticket

A common User template has: a Text element with your institution name at the top, a Field bound to the patron's name in large type, Field elements for the username and expiration date, and a Barcode bound to the username near the bottom so the card can be scanned at the desk.

4. Position, size, and align

• Move: drag an element, or select it and nudge with the arrow keys (hold Shift for larger steps).
• Resize: drag its handles, or set exact dimensions in the Properties panel.
• Multi-select: Shift-click (or Ctrl/Cmd-click) several elements; drag a selection box on empty canvas; or press Ctrl/Cmd+A to select all.
• Group: select two or more elements and click Group (or Ctrl/Cmd+G) so they move and resize together. Ungroup (Ctrl/Cmd+⇧G) splits them apart.
• Copy / paste / duplicate: Ctrl/Cmd+C, Ctrl/Cmd+V, Ctrl/Cmd+D.
• Delete: select and press Delete or Backspace.
• Undo / redo: the toolbar buttons, or Ctrl/Cmd+Z and Ctrl/Cmd+⇧Z.
• Zoom: the toolbar zoom selector (50–150%) — purely a viewing aid, it doesn't affect the printout.

5. (Optional) Show an element only when it applies

To make an element appear conditionally — for example, only print a "Secondary Address" block when the patron actually has one — select the element and use the Conditions section in the Properties panel. You can require a field to be non-empty, equal a value, contain text, and so on. If the condition isn't met at print time, that element is left off. (This replaces the hidden IF/THEN field codes you may have used in the old Word templates.)

Printing several records per page

If you print user cards onto sheets of label stock, you can lay out a grid so multiple records print per page.

1. In the toolbar, click the records-per-page button (it reads, for example, 1 per page).
2. Set Rows (1–10) and Columns (1–4), plus optional Row Gap and Column Gap in inches.
3. The popover shows the resulting Cell size and Records per page.
4. Click Apply.

Design your layout to fit one cell; Aeon repeats it across the grid, one user per cell, at print time.

Previewing your work

Click Preview (top right) at any time. Aeon renders the current template with sample data so you can see real-looking output — fonts, spacing, barcodes, and grid layout — without printing anything or touching a real patron's record. Adjust and preview again until it looks right.

Preview runs server-side

Generating a preview calls the server to render the PDF. Anyone who can open the designer (i.e. who has the Designers permission) can preview; the preview endpoint also lets operational staff with the matching record permission preview, but in practice you reach Preview from inside the designer, so it's the Designers permission that matters here.

Saving changes

The toolbar shows a live status: Saved, Unsaved, or Saving….

• Click Save (or Ctrl/Cmd+S) to write your changes. Until you do, the status stays Unsaved and the Discard (circular-arrow) button is available to roll back to the last saved version.
• The Customization Manager tracks unsaved work, so navigating away with pending edits prompts you, just like other customization sections.

Starting from a Word document

If you have an existing Aeon print template as a Word file, you can import it as a head start rather than rebuilding it by hand.

1. Open the template menu (⋯) and choose Import from Word Document….
2. Select your .doc or .docx file.
3. Aeon converts it into a new template of this type, switches to it, and shows an import summary noting what came across and anything it couldn't translate.

Importing creates a new template and may discard unsaved edits

The Word import always produces a new template and switches the designer to it. If you have unsaved changes on the template you're currently editing, Aeon warns you first — "Importing will create a new template and switch to it — your unsaved edits will be lost" — so save before importing if you want to keep them. Treat an imported layout as a starting point: review it against a Preview and tidy up positioning and fields, since Word and the web canvas don't map one-to-one.

You can also Export a template (template menu → Export) to a .zip and Import it elsewhere — handy for copying a design between sites or environments.

Editor review — remove this callout (and the HTML comment below it) before publishing

A couple of things an SME should confirm on this page:

• What the "User" template is actually used for at sites — I've framed it as a reader's ticket / registration card / ID-credential label printed via Print User on a user record. Confirm that's the real-world use, and whether there's standard terminology your customers expect (e.g. "reader's ticket" vs "patron card").
• Screenshots needed: (1) the User print designer with toolbar, Elements palette, canvas, and Properties panel; (2) the Field Name dropdown showing the user field categories; (3) the records-per-page grid popover; (4) the Preview dialog with sample data.

The full generation metadata — sources, files read, and verifications — is in the HTML comment directly below this callout. When this page has been reviewed and approved, delete both this callout and that comment; a page with no Editor-review callout is one that's done.