As part of the major works we have released on our Template Designer (previously the "Invoice Designer") you can now use one template designer tool to create several different formats of PDF templates in ChannelGrabber!  

You can create invoices, which prints one whole page per order, you can create Packing Slips where there are multiple sections per page that contain different customer/product/order data, and you can also create customised labels for shipping your items too.

This guide will talk you through Designing Custom Shipping Labels.
You may also want to check out our other guides on Personalising Your Invoice Design and Designing Packing Slips.
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First please navigate to Settings > Template Management > Template Designer:
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Click on the Blank template under the Create New Template header and this will open up a new blank page in the template designer tool:

First, on the left hand column, enter the Template Name you want to assign to your label design (this is what it will be referred to as in other parts of ChannelGrabber such as in Settings and on the main Orders page) and select the Template Type as Other from the drop-down options:

 
Select the Paper Type and/or set the specific dimensions of the labels you are going to print the labels on if it doesn't match any of the preset options:

The default orientation if choosing 6x4" labels is landscape, but if you want to create the template in a portrait orientation you simply swap the dimensions round like so:

If you want to set margins on the page to ensure that any elements you add to the template will not get cut off by your printer, you can enter them in mm under the Page Print Margins section and then the area will be greyed out on the template to stop you from accidentally overlapping the margins:

 Now that the page setup is complete, you can start to add the elements that you want to appear on each label to the section in white, which is the printable area of the label.

On the left hand column you will find a list of different pre-set elements that can be added to your label design.  These quick-load buttons will add various elements to the label which will use pre-scripted code to call in the relevant information from each order, such as the shipping address etc:

Seller Address: Your address and trading details (automatically populated from your Company Settings/Trading Details as appropriate)

Delivery Address: Your customer’s shipping address as provided on the order by the channel the order came from

Image: Allows you to upload your logo or any image, which can then be re-sized and re-positioned anywhere on the page (we recommend JPG or PNG file formats - if you find that your JPG image is blurry, try converting it to PNG and re-uploading)

Text: Create a text box for you to type in any text or messages for your customer, or input data field tags to add further order details to your invoice (eg. Order ID, buyer messages etc.)

Table: Creates an table with key information for each product that is ordered (and the content and order of the table columns can be edited from the right hand editing pane once the table is selected)

Box: Adds a bordered box which you can re-size and re-position anywhere on the page. Text or other elements can be positioned over this box to give important elements of your invoice more emphasis

PPI:  If you are printing Royal Mail PPI logo as part of your packing slip, then you can add a placeholder to position the PPI logo where you want it on the page (see guide on Shipping Aliases for more on how to map PPI logos to different shipping methods automatically)

Courier Label:  Similar to PPI, this inserts a placeholder courier label (6"x4") so that you can position where you need it on the page.  This will then be populated on the slip automatically when you have generated your courier label in ChannelGrabber (see our collection of guides on Couriers & Shipping for more details on this topic)

Barcode:  Creates a barcode placeholder for you to position where you need it on the page.  There are three different types of barcode that can be used when processing orders to trigger different actions within the system.  See our guide on Using Barcodes on Invoices for more details on how these can benefit you.
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Click on the button for the element you want to add, and a field with the relevant data tags or element will be added to the invoice design (default position is always the top left corner). You can then click and drag to re-position this element to where you would like it to be printed on the page and re-size it as needed:

To change the content or formatting of the element, click the item and look on the right hand editing pane:

In this example we have a Text element so on the right are all the text options.  

Display On All Pages means that the selected element will repeat on every page of the PDF template (eg. if one order takes up more then one page the element will repeat on every subsequent page as well as the first) so tick this to apply this setting to the element:

Using the Text editing box, you can add or remove content, align the text to left, centre or right of the text box, change the font, size and colour of the text and make it Bold or Italic. 

You can use the Select Data Field drop-down menu to insert other useful data tags, such as which channel the order came from, any buyer message, customer contact details etc. (see A Guide to Dynamic Tags for the full list and definitions).

You can tick the Remove Blank Lines option for elements like the Seller Address and Delivery Address, so that is a specific order doesn't have an "Address Line 3" for example, there won't just be a blank line left on the address section of the packing slip:

You can even add a border to some elements to give them greater emphasis on the page and you can change the exact position and size of the element in mm, which can help to align different elements on the page neatly:
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Use the Delete button in the top right hand corner to remove the entire element from the template if needed:

The changes you make will update immediately on the design so that you can check they are correct as you go along.  Make sure to click the Save button at the top in the red bar to save each change you make:

Once you have finalised your label design, go to the Settings > Template Management > Template Designer section, where you can set your new design as a "Favourite" by highlighting the star icon - this means it will appear at the top of the list of options to print along with any others you have starred:

Next, navigate to the main Orders page. select the orders that you want to print the labels for, then click the PDF Download drop-down button:

Your starred/favourite design(s) will appear at the top of the list and all other designs will be there too so you can tick one or more templates to print:

Next, click onto the main PDF Download button and this will generate the PDF file for the template(s) you have selected (this is usually downloaded or opened within your browser, depending on your browser settings):

 
We hope this new feature is really useful but if you get stuck and need further guidance, just open a new chat (using the blue chat button at the bottom right corner of any ChannelGrabber page) and our Support Team will be on hand to assist.
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