Quick Guide to PLabel for Windows
Version Changes

Version Changes Made in Reverse Chronological Order

IMPORTANT! install the most recent patch to update your program and correct problems. If you find unforseen problems with a patch, go back to the previously available patch.
To install a patch unzip it in your root directory. Allow it to overwrite \plwin2\prg\plwin.exe and other files in \plwin2.

PLABEL FOR WINDOWS, VERSION 2

Changes in recent Microsoft update patches have resulted in incorrect font rendering in Plabel printing. Font kerning (spacing between letters), particularly in proportional fonts is not correct. PLabel formerly used MS-FoxPro forms with an OLE general field to embed rich text into the form. The rich text allowed for the inclusion of bold, italic and underline fonts within fields and in the body of the label. Microsoft has offered no solution to this change and since the error can not be overcome with the PLWin 1.0 version of printing, a new print methodology has been developed and is deployed in PLabel for Windows, Version 2.0. Please consult the Plabel for Windows Quick Guide for printing instructions.

Installation Instructions

1. Download the PLWin2.Zip file (right click the link and save to file). [latest version date: 30 July 2008]
   note: see version changes (corrections, etc.) for information on this version and patches.
2. Unzip PLWin2.Zip onto your hard disk. It is best to do this in your root folder, therefore, e.g., extract to C:\. It will create a folder called "plwin2", with subfolders: data, pdata, prg, print. Don't unzip the program on your desktop!
3. Create the following two folders either in your My Documents folder or in the root of your hard drive (e.g., C:\):
   \plwin_data [e.g., \My Documents\plwin_data\ -or- C:\plwin_data\ ]
   \plwin_printrtf [e.g., \My Documents\plwin_printrtf\ -or- C:\plwin_printrtf\ ]
   
4. Find and highlight \plwin2\prg\plwin2.exe in your MS-Windows File Manager. Right-click, drag to the desktop and create a shortcut, if you want a shortcut on the desktop.
5. Double-click the PLWin2 shortcut to open the program. Alternatively, you can run the program by just double clicking it in your file manager.
6. If the program runs with washed-out colors on Windows XP, close it and right-click on the shortcut. Choose "Properties", "Compatibility" and check "Disable Visual Themes".

Upgrading from Version 1.0 Notes

• If you are upgrading from Version 1.0 you may have been storing your label files (*.plw, *.fpt, *.cdx, *.mem, *.plwtemplate) in the \plwin\data\ folder. Copy or move those files to the \plwin_data\ folder or \plwin2\data\ folder.
• If you are upgrading from Version 1.0 and have special headings, titles and/or footings, and you have altered the family or taxa files, those are stored in the \plwin\pdata\ folder. Copy those files to the \plwin2\pdata\ folder.
• IMPORTANT: Open PLWin2 and change the print windows, print configuration report name to richtext_file. I.e., click on the button that shows the report name and select richtext_file in the drop down list. When printing a file named RichText_File.rtf will be stored in the \plwin_printrtf\ folder. You should open that file with MS-Word or any program that reads rich text format to print the actual labels.

PLABEL FOR WINDOWS, VERSION 1

PLabel for Windows, Version 1.0, is no longer available. Please use PLabel for Windows, Version 2.0. The links for downloads of this verson have been removed.

2 April 2008: Patch

• Added UTMNS field.

14 Jun 2007 : Patch

• Fixed TMPAC error encounted when pressing page down or up on browse page when browse or edit fields were not active.
• Set table update buffering to always commit changes immediately. This might prevent loosing data if the program were to crash, but may not help. It is best to go back to the main menu once in a while to save all changes. All files are closed when at the main menu.

21 Mar 2007 : Patch

• Added field: Set - Char 10. May be used to identify sets for printing.
• Added formating characters for locality, habitat, pltdesc and note fields:
  \\ will force a new line.
• Added formatting tricks to note field. The following codes must be at the end of the note field. Anything before them will print as a note:
  • |DN| prints a determination note on a new line after the taxon name at the top of the label.
  • |DC| prints a determiner note (such as det. conf. Jim Bob) on a new line after the determiner at the top of the label.
  • |AN| prints an annotation above the label. You must use formatting codes to make it appear correctly. E.g., \\ new line, ^ underline, alt-0127 bold, ~ italics.
  • |LH| prints an additional label heading below the standard label heading on the label.
  • |TI| prints an alternate title on the label instead of the print title chosen.

21 Mar 2007 : Family File Patch: PLfamily.zip
Note: PLFamily.Zip includes an updated family files (plfamily.dbf and plfamily.cdx). This file contains all family names referenced in Wunderlin's Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida, ed. 2, and many more APGII families. To update your family file you must extract and place both files your plwin\pdata directory. WARNING! if you have added families to the family file, these files will overwrite those. These means your family codes may not match and print some families.

7 October 2005 (posted 16 October 2005): Patch

• Family code field in add/edit and browse screens: added an even more explicit message for family code validation errors that pops up. Error corrected that caused the box to pop up when F4 was pressed.
• Edit screen: F5 key allows for marking records for deletion. A DELETED box shows on the top right of the screen.
• Print: The print criteria have been redesigned. The draft/full set button has been removed and you must choose between four options when printing: Print (draft set), Print (full set), Print (draft current) and Print (full current). The latter two print only the current label in the edit screen. Full set means the number specified in the # labels field, while draft set prints only one of each label.

• Family code field in add/edit and browse screens: added a more explicit message for family code validation errors.
• Family list: This table defaults to read only. To edit existing entries the "Read Only" button needs to be clicked first.
• Edit screen: F5 key allows for marking records for deletion. A DELETED box shows on the top right of the screen.

9 May 2005: Patch

• Add Screen: bug fixed: template became erratically accessible after family or scientific name lookup (F4) from add screen until going to edit screen and back.

30 April 2005: Patch

• Main Program Menu / Add, Edit / Print add, edit and print screens have been conglomerated into one screen.
• Template: templates can be saved with names and loaded.
• Print: a number of internal changes have been made to the print routines to fix a number of bugs such as skipping labels and internal errors.

10 Nov 2004: Patch

• Family lookup error from browse label screens: Pressing F4 caused a fatal error when trying to look up family codes from the browse screen. This has been corrected.
• Support for Screen Resolution Settings: A little tweaking on field sizing was necessary in connection with the resolution sizing feature added in the 31 Oct. Version.

31 Oct 2004: Patch
Note: There's a lot of major internal changes in this version. To be safe, rename your old \plwin\prg\plwin.exe file before installing this patch. E.g. plwinold.exe. If something fails you can rename it back to plwin and keep using it.

• Table Structure: Datum filed expanded to 10 characters for the oddball datums available. It is still highly recommended that you stick to WGS84 or NAD27!
• Support for Screen Resolution Settings: The program was developed for the 800X600 screen resolution setting. A class library has been added to automatically expand the screen for greater settings (e.g., 1024X768).
• Export Data: A module to export data from the currently open label file to another PLW format data file or to a tab-delimited text file is now available via an "Export" button on the bottom of the Print page. Records selected for export are based on the print criteria. The tab-delimited text file can be readily loaded into most data programs. E.g., for MS-Excel, choose Data / Get External Data / Import Text File. The default settings (delimiter (tab), text qualifier (")) are the correct ones. The field names are passed in the first row. If you don't want those start with the second row.
• Taxa Table: The note field with the taxa table is now available for use. Data can be entered free-form or tagged. Tagged data is as follows:
  |DN| Determination Note
  |CN| Common Name
  These data can be passed to the label during F4 lookup by choosing the command button at the bottom or Shift-F6.

11 Oct 2004: Patch

• Printing: fixed misformatting of United States in labels.

8 Oct 2004: Patch

• Templates:
  • Clearing the template no longer also clears the add label.
  • Each file has it's own template. These are stored in filename.plwtemplate and filename.mem. The default template (last template used) is plmain.mem and the first record in pdata/templabels.dbf. When a new file is created the default template is used.
  • Templates may be saved and loaded.
• Printing: The locality name field now prints on the label after the geographic divisional information and before the locality information field. A colon follows the locality name if there is information in the locality field, otherwise a period follows it.
  E.g.: Florida: Alachua County: Gainesville: Kanapaha Botanical Garden: Hummingbird Garden.
  E.g.: Florida: Alachua County: Gainesville: Kanapaha Botanical Garden.
  The locality name field in the main UF Herbarium collection catalog is used as a standardized place name field. In PLabel, the users can define place names but they will carry over to the main catalog appended to the front of the locality field. The locality names in the catalog will be based on our standards.
• Printing: A print formatting progress box now appears at the upper right. The counter is based on the number of labels processed vs. the total number of labels in the file.

3 May 2004: Patch

• Printing: More field options are available for entering cultivar names so they will not print underlined. Available entry options:

  Genus	SpModif	Species	Authority	Rank1	Infra1
  Castanea	cv.	Dunstan Beauty	(optional)
  Castanea		'Dunstan Beauty'	(optional)
  Castanea			(optional)	cv.	Dunstan Beauty
  Castanea			(optional)		'Dunstan Beauty'

  
  All of the above will print: Castanea cv. Dunstan Beauty -or- Castanea 'Dunstan Beauty'

6 April 2004: Patch

• Printing: Coll. # range printing was not working correctly. It should now work ok.
• CAUTION: Large files take a long time to print and there is still no escape button. I am working on that. The best way is to choose to print smaller sets of labels by record number or collection number ranges or to flag records to print with a proof code and then enter the proof code in the print criteria to print just those records.

20 January 2004: Patch

• File Structure: LatCoord increased to 14 char., LongCoord increased to 15 char.
• Forms: fixed to accomodate larger structure for LatCoord and LongCoord.
• Program: checks file structure of data and temp files and updates for LatCoord and LongCoord.

16 January 2004: Patch

• Printing: Suppress printing "COUNTY:" or "PARISH: " if county field is empty and country is USA.

15 January 2004: Patch

• Form display: # labels field was only displaying one digit instead of 2. This is fixed.

14 January 2004: Patch

• Printing: Italics printing now works.

18 December 2003: Patch

• Printing: Support for cultivar as "cv." in rank1 and rank2 added so that the cultivar in infraspecific 1 and 2 will not print underlined. Also, if name is entered in infraspecific 1 and/or 2, but nothing entered in rank1 and/or rank2 the infraspecific information is not underlined in printing.
  E.g., scientific name printing:
  Platanus x acerifolia (Ait.) Willd. cv. 'Columbia'
  Platanus x acerifolia (Ait.) Willd. 'Columbia'
  note: more control of formatting of scientific name printing will be added later.
• Printing: If collector last name and first name are empty, then the collector prefix (defaults to "coll.") will not print. It would be very rare that there is no collector. If there is no collector it would be better to enter "[collector unknown]".
• Forms: Extension of file name displayed in caption on top of PLabel Main Form and PLabel Print Form corrected to *.plw rather than *.plb.

11 December 2003 Patch

• Printing: support for standard foxpro style reports has been added. One summary report is currently available, "summary-sp-fam-coll". This prints a summary list of the collections with the following columns: species, family, collector, coll. #.
• Conversion from old DOS Plabel: changes have been made to this routine. It is more picky about locality coordinates conversion to the lat./long. fields. If it doesn't find lat./long. is a format it likes it puts it in the STR field.

9 December 2003 Patch

• Printing: all caps country=United States, state and county entries would not print in title and locality correctly due to United States printing on top of label. This has been corrected.
• Printing: collection number prefix field added to print configuration. The suggested perfix should be "#" to print in front of the collection number, e.g. # 300.

8 December 2003

• Infra1 field of taxa grid in add/edit, print and look up screen corrected to reference infra1 field not rank1.
• Copy from main and add label fixed so it has proper field cross-mapping. Otherwise, if the table structure of templabels differs from the user label files the fields would copy wrongly.

PLabel: Herbarium Label Program	Quick Guide	Main Menu	Add/Edit	Table Structures

University of Florida Herbarium collections: Vascular Plants | Herbarium Library Bryophyte and Lichens | Mycological Wood | Paleobotany (affiliated collection)