Table of Contents
1.  Exporting Data from ConfTool
2.  Opening and Customizing the Data
3.  Creating the Form Letter
4.  Hints for MS Word and OpenOffice
5.  Templates for Lists and Badges
6.  Printing Badges at the Registration Desk
7.  Printing Several Badges for Selected Participants

Creating Name Badges and the List of Participants

In order to print name badges and the list of participants from ConfTool Pro, it is advisable to use the data export feature and a corresponding serial letter. It allows customizing the printout exactly to the requirements of the organizers.

ConfTool provides both the option to create serial letters and to print directly from the ConfTool interface.

We recommend the use of serial letters because there are countless label sizes and formats. Furthermore, the ideas and concepts to design such printouts differ considerably. But the according documents can be produced quite easily and quickly by using the ConfTool data export, an office program, and a “form letter” (“serial letter”).

Take a look at the penultimate section of this page if you also want to use the ConfTool Front Desk Feature to print single name badges most efficiently at the registration desk. This option is especially useful when you want to reprint labels for individual participants.

The last section will show you how to print several name badges directly from ConfTool for all or a list of selected participants.

1. Exporting Data from ConfTool

Log in as administrator or conference assistant and open this page:
Overview => Data Import and Export => Export Data

The export function offers many options to export data. To create name badges please use the option „Export Participants for Badges and Vouchers“. You can add additional data to the export when you select one of the checkboxes, e.g. to include the selected events / items or the total sum.

You can use the formats CSV and XLS (as XML formatted file). The CSV format can be processed by many different programs, such as OpenOffice and Filemaker. The XML/Excel format, however, can be opened directly by Excel or can be used for further processing with XML tools.

Please click on "Create Export File" at the bottom of the page to start the export and save the file locally.

2. Opening and Customizing the Data

Please start Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc to open the file. With regard to Excel, the file can usually be opened by a double click. The CSV format must be imported and converted to open it in a program. Please consider the character encoding. ConfTool normally uses „UFT-8“ (also called “Unicode UTF-8“, see Screenshot), however, the character encoding depends on your installation. Former versions of ConfTool used mostly ISO-8859-1. Please pay attention to special characters on the import preview page; the wrong character encoding has been selected if these characters are not shown correctly.

Image 2: Set UTF-8 language character encoding - Click on image to enlarge

You can also delete unneeded columns if you like to.

It is advisable to save the imported data in the „native“ format of your spreadsheet program, i.e., „Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (*.xls)“ or Open Office „ODF Spreadsheet“, as these programs might have problems to provide the data for a serial letter without first saving the data in the native format.

3. Creating the Form Letter

Now you may open "Microsoft Word" or "OpenOffice Writer" to create your form letter (serial letter). Please start the “mail merge” wizard to create a new form letter or use one of our form letter templates for name badges and lists of participants provided in section 5.

The screenshots show examples how to start the “mail merge” function in different versions of MS Word and in OpenOffice. Choose the exported file as source file. You can edit the recipient list and add rules.

Continue to customize the document.

Hint: If you have enabled one of the options for the online participant list / conference profile pages, you will find two additional columns in the export: "badge_fullname" and "badge_organization". These are the names entered by the participants specifically for the purpose to be printed on the name badges. You will find the corresponding templates below, the file names include the ending "_with_official_list_enabled_.doc".

When you complete the mail merge of your form letter, your name badges or your list of participants will be created. You can save the output as a new document or send it to the printer.

4. Hints for MS Word and OpenOffice

A documentation on printing form letters that provides information for most versions of Microsoft Word can be found at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294683

Instructions for OpenOffice can be found here:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOoAuthors_User_Manual/Writer_Guide/Creating_a_form_letter

5. Templates for lists and badges

We provide templates for form letters for participant lists and name badges. If you create a new, other, or better template, please send it to us and we will be pleased to publish it.

6. Printing Name Badges at the Registration Desk

ConfTool also provides an option to print name badges at the registration desk. This function is primarily intended for printing single badges on-site for people who register late for participation or people who have lost their badges.

The size, layout and elements of the printout of these name badges can be configured at:
Overview => Settings => Settings for Name Badges
Here you can define different parameters according to your requirements and preview the name badge at the bottom of the page.

General Settings:
Please set the unit for your printouts as well as the page format and the page orientation for your name badges.

Then select a font family and a font size. The fonts are limited to the listed open-source fonts as commercial fonts would require a license for each font. If you want us to add one of the free Google Fonts, please contact us.
Background Image for the Badges:
You can include an image to your name badges. This image will be inserted as background image for all badges. It will be aligned with the top of the page and scaled to the full-page width.

If you need more than one image on the badge, please use an image editor to combine your images into one main image for the background, as you can upload just one image.
Badge Elements:
You can define different text elements for you badges. For each element you can configure the text, its position and the text attributes.

You find the supported text codes below the text field. In addition to that, you can use the code {event_xx_number} to show the number of booked tickets for your events, whereby xx stands for the ID (number) of the event. You can manage your events and items here:
Overview => Settings => Manage Events and Items

Many HTML codes may be used in the text fields, for example:
<table style="border:0.1px solid red; align: center;"><tr>
<td style="border:1px solid red;">Person ID</td>
<td>Event ID</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border:0.1px solid red;"> {person_id}</td>
<td>{event_10_number}</td>
</tr></table>

Please take a look at the forum for more detailed information on the use of HTML in PDF files.

Please save your settings to see the current settings in the preview of the badges.

If you want to use prepared name badges, you could use a label printer (for instance a Brother P-touch QL570) to print self-adhesive labels that can easily be stuck onto the prepared badges.

7. Printing Several Name Badges from ConfTool for Selected Participants

With ConfTool, you can also print several name badges for all or a selected number of participants in one go. Please note that this method always prints one name badge per page.

To create the PDF for the printout, please go to:
Overview => User and Participant Management => List of All Registrations for Participation
…and filter the participants according to your requirements. You can use one filter or combine several filters to create a list that meets specific registration criteria.

After you have filtered all participants who need a name badge, please open the drop-down menu "Related Functions" on the right and click on "Create Name Badges for Current List". Depending on the number of participants, it might take a short moment for the PDF file to be generated.

The generated PDF file will contain one name badge per page. If you want to print several name badges on one sheet, please try the print settings of your PDF viewer: in the print dialogue, most PDF viewers allow you to print multiple pages per sheet. Alternatively, please try the print option via a ConfTool data export and the mail merge function of Office instead (see sections 1 – 4 above).