Printing labels is most often done by people upon checking into an event, but we also found that we regularly wanted to print out name tags before an event occurs. We found that our staff was asking us to open the check-in at a random time before the event and checking people in one-by-one (which is not ideal for data integrity, or for larger events). So, we came up with a way to leverage merge templates. Using a merge template means you can print off labels for a group (even a large one) in a few minutes, and it doesn’t assign an attendance or require the adjustment of check-in settings. 

First, you will need to create a Word Document that will be used as the Merge Template:

• Under the Layout Tab, open the Page Setup Settings under Margins and set everything to 0
• In this case, I am using the Landscape Orientation
• Select the “Paper” Tab, under the Paper Size select your Label Size (in our case we use 3x2 labels) 

After saving these settings, your document should look something like this:

After that, you need to add the lava that coincides with what you are trying to print. We have had two main contexts where people were trying to print name tags prior to an event. Sometimes, they are printing from a group, other times they are printing from a registration list. Below is the lava we have used to print name tags from both contexts.

To print Names from a Group:

          {{ Row.NickName }}

          {{ Row.LastName }}{%Next %}

To Print Name Tags from a Registration:

           {{ Row.PersonAliasId | PersonByAliasId | Property:’NickName’ }}

           {{ Row.PersonAliasId | PersonByAliasId | Property:’LastName’ }}{%Next %}

We currently have the label using the Arial Black font. The first name is 20pt font, the Last Name is 16pt font (and the “next” is 4pt font, which doesn’t really matter).

• I will note that font selection is important, there have been times that we have selected a font that was either not supported by Rock or didn’t pass between operating systems well. So, you will want to double-check those things.
• Also, our font sizes could probably be bigger – nobody has complained about the being too small, though, but we also have not had a name so long that it fell off the name tag.

Once your Document and Lava are ready go to Admin Tools> General Settings> Merge Templates, select your category and click the add merge template button. Fill out the fields and upload your new Doc.

Once you have the document uploaded (using the group name label as an example):

• you can go to any group list in Rock,
• select who you want to print name tags for (leave blank for all),
• select the Merge Templates icon,
• select your merge template and it will export all name labels to that word document.

All that is left is to make sure you have access to a computer that has a Zebra Printer connected to it. Once you get the merge document on that computer, you can have the computer print the file to the Zebra printer. It automatically orders the labels by last name for you, which is an added bonus.