[Solved] Label format dialog does not allow enough precision

[ronhip]

I've been trying to print sheets of very small labels (OL5400) that are only 1"x0.375" (7 columns and 22 rows of labels). The problem here is that the label "format" dialog only allows for accuracy of + or - 0.01" (see attachment of dialog box). The top row of labels are great, but the low precision format causes the labels to "creep" from the proper vertically centered position within the label as one progresses down the sheet. By the time you get to row 22, the printing is completely off the row. I think I need to have + or - 0.001" accuracy in the label "format" dialog, but it annoyingly rounds the number up or down to the hundredths digit if you try to enter it to that decimal accuracy. Is this fixable by editing some template file in the terminal or something? Can this be fixed in an upcoming version?

Thanks for any advice.

[Bill]

I'd say that there is no chance that this would be fixed soon.

The vertical pitch is .473". Round it down to .47" instead of up to .48". That will reduce the creep. You can further reduce the maximum creep by changing the top margin setting so text is vertically centered in row 11 instead of row 1.

[RusselB]

Welcome to the Forums.
To my knowledge this is not adjustable, and, quite frankly, I suspect that it'd never end up being implemented as a feature based on the progress rate lately of features that are updated/added to new releases.
You might have better luck making the suggestion to the development team of LibreOffice than that of OpenOffice, but in either case, you have to submit your request to the appropriate development team, not here on a user to user help forum. For OpenOffice make your suggestion following this tutorial. For LibreOffice use https://www.libreoffice.org/community/developers/

That said, based on the limitations of the current system and your exacting requirements, would it make much difference if you were to force OpenOffice to use a label size of 1"x0.37", instead of the 1"x0.38" shown in your picture?
Personally I've never used those labels, so this is just a suggestion based on a bit of logic and common sense. I do realize that making the adjustment I suggested is going to make your labels off pretty quickly, as there is a 0.005" height discrepancy, though I wonder if that might be compensated for by adjusting the vertical pitch. Some experimentation might be necessary, thus I suggest using a plain piece of paper for the experiments rather than the actual labels.

[Bill]

There is a workaround. Go to Tools > Options > OpenOffice Writer > General and change the Measurement unit from Inch to Millimeter. You can then adjust the measurements by .01 mm instead of by .01 inch.

[ronhip]

Bill,

Brilliant workaround for the problem! Why didn't I think of that? Just had to do a lot of multiplying by 25.4, but worked like a charm. I guess that the wonderful Oo developers (and I truly mean that...) didn't think of the problem of having that many rows of labels. Even if you are off by .01" the bottom label offset accumulates to .22" which is quite a lot on a small label that's only .375" tall!

Took me a while to find that dialog within a dialog. I guess that the UX still needs some work...

Thank you for your fantastic hint.

Ron