Tape Labeler makes labels that take the place of the cardboard inserts that come with cassette tapes. The labels it makes are quite pretty, especially compared with those made the usual way of filling out the insert by hand.
Version 4.0 is a large step upward from previous versions. It should work on all Macintoshes (except the ancient Mac 512K’s or older), and is compatible with any system in common use for the last several years, including System 7.0. If you have an older version, please delete it before installing the new version (this version can read all old formats).
Tape Labeler is free. Please enjoy it. I hope it makes your life easier or more pleasant in some way. If all goes well, it will make your tape collection the envy of all your friends. If you like it, please send me a postcard or letter saying so. If you don’t live near a post office, or can’t afford the stamp, feel free to send E-mail too. Suggestions are always welcome. Nobody would be happier than I to see Tape Labeler become even better.
If you send me a disk, an envelope, and return postage, I’ll send you the latest version. If it’s easier for you, send $10, and I’ll supply everything. For a personalized version of Tape Labeler, with the tape brands and kinds of your choice available directly from the menus, send $10 and a list of the tape types you’d like me to add. WARNING: The “latest version” usually means 4.0x, but with reported bugs fixed. I don’t see being able to add ANY new features in the near future (I’m sorry, but I don’t have the time).
Send mail to:
Jonathan Z. Simon
170 Chestnut St.
Newton, MA 02165
U.S.A.
Electronic mail (Internet):
jsimon@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
THE BASICS
When you start up Tape Labeler, you’ll see an almost-blank tape label. It is divided up into three parts: the front, the spine, and the back. The names and titles of the artists and albums appear at the top of the front, and, once entered there, automatically appear on the spine as well. Most of the songs are listed on the front. The back, which is considerably smaller than the front, also has room for a few songs.
There is more information you might want to have on a label. Things you might want are:
• The date the recording was made
• The type of noise reduction used (e.g. Dolby B, Dolby C, dbx)
• The Eq/Bias setting for the tape
• The length of the tape
Some people might want even more:
• The brand and name of the tape (e.g. Maxell XL II, TDK SA-X)
• A number or other ID for purposes of organization
• A pattern printed on the spine, perhaps associated with a
specific category of tape
Of course if any of these options were easy enough to use, you'd be much more likely to take advantage of them (even if you’d never bothered with them before).
THE LAYOUT
Artists and Titles
The artist name and album title go at the top of the front. There is enough for two or three lines of text, depending on what font and size you choose. All information entered there is automatically repeated on the spine, in the same font, size, style, and color (if you have a color screen or printer). Most of my tapes are of two albums, one on each side, and this is the default setting for Tape Labeler: Side A and Side B each have their own Artist/Album field. For a tape with only one album, choose “One Album” from the “Label” menu. Then you will have the entire width of the label for the artist name/album title field. For those special cases where a tape is of two albums but both by the same artist, then the artist’s name can be centered while the album titles stay on their respective sides by choosing “One Artist”. The (original) default setting can be regained by choosing “Two Artists”. In all cases the artist name/album title information is automatically echoed on the spine.
Songs
To entering the song information, click in any big blank area and begin typing away. There are four areas for songs, two on the front (one each for side A and side B) and two on the back. You can use the Tab key to move to the next song area (Shift-Tab to move backwards). Each area can have its own font, size, style and color (though only one choice of all them within an area).
If you'd like an ID number (or some other notation), click in the (small) area in the lower right hand corner of the spine and type (you can also use the Tab key to get there).
Other Information
Most of the other information is stuff you wouldn’t bother to enter if you had to type it, so it’s entered via ‘popup’ menus. This includes the noise reduction of both sides, the recording date of both sides, the bias/eq setting, the brand and type, and the length of the tape. If you don’t like any of the offered choices, each menu also has a “None” choice and an “Other…” choice (we aim to please). If you don’t like popup menus, or you forget exactly where to press (the slot is blank if your last choice was “None”), all choices are also available from the Label menu. Even the names of the sides, normally “A” and “B”, can be changed (this should make international use easier).
You can set all the default choices for popup items by closing all the Tape Label windows, and making your choice from the Label menu (except that you may not chose “Other…” as a default option). For example, if you always use 60 minute tapes instead of the default 90, you should: close all the windows; from the Label menu and the Length submenu, choose “60”. From now on, new blank tape labels will have 60 minutes as the default.
You may also choose a pattern that will be printed in the upper right corner of the spine, right above the ID area. For example you can have a solid black pattern for tapes with Rock, a checkerboard pattern for Jazz, and squiggly lines for New Age. Click there to choose your pattern. By holding down the option key while clicking, you can also choose a color (so your Irish Folk music pattern can be green). If you can’t find the right place to click at first (the default pattern is pure white), you can choose “Pattern…” from the Label menu. You can also change the default pattern (from white) by closing all Tape windows and choosing a a pattern via the menu.
CHANGING FONT, SIZE, STYLE, & COLOR
Whenever you make a choice from the the Font, Size, Style, or Color menus, all typed text in all areas you can type is changed to that choice. Furthermore, any choice made from the Font menu also affect all popup items (the size, style and color of popup items are not affected).
You can also change the font, size, style and color of any text area and popup item individually . While holding down the option key, click and hold the mouse button on what you want to change. You will get a special popup menu allowing you to change the font, size, style and color of that item. (The typing area must be the active one before holding down the option key will give you the popup menu).
The normal default font is whatever your Mac’s ‘application font’ is, which is usually Geneva (which will print out as Helvetica on many printers). The default size is 10, the default style is Plain, and the default color is black. Most defaults can be changed by closing all Tape windows and selecting the font, size, style or color of your choice. The program will then use your new choices as new defaults. You can also change the default setting of the number of artists/albums on one tape by this method.
If you paste a block of text into an empty area, the pasted text will keep the same font, size, style and color as the old.
PRINTING
More Than One Label On a Page
To print more than one label at a time, open all Tape Label files you'd like to print, close all you don't want to print, and select “Print All…” from the “File” menu. First you will first get a Page Setup dialog box. YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THE LANDSCAPE/SIDEWAYS PRINTING OPTION IF YOU WANT TO FIT AS MANY LABELS AS POSSIBLE ON THE SAME PAGE. Fortunately, Tape Labeler sets this for you automatically (unless you confuse it by choosing different printers in the middle of a session). After that you are presented with the usual Print dialog and all your labels will be printed.
ImageWriter
If you have an ImageWriter, you must print in Tall Adjusted mode (available from the “Page Setup…” menu item) to print in the right proportions. Fortunately, Tape Labeler sets this for you automatically (unless you deliberately confuse it by choosing different printers in the middle of making a label).
Copying The Label As A Picture
If you want to spruce up a label before printing, you can copy it to the clipboard and then paste it into your favorite Draw program (Paint programs will lose the higher resolution) by choosing “Copy Label” from the “Edit” menu.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. Enjoy!
CUSTOMIZATION
You can have a personalized version of Tape Labeler, with the tape brands and kinds of your choice available directly from the menus. Send $10 (U.S.) and a list of the tape types you want included in the menu to the address above.
IMPROVEMENTS Planned for the future:
• undo
• font styles for individual text characters
• DAT label format support
• System 7 Savviness
• printing the spine, front, or back upside down
• importing background pictures
History (and Bug Fixes):
1.0:
•Written in interpreted Microsoft Basic when it was the only programming language running on the Mac.
2.x, 3.x:
•Written and compliled in ZBasic. The compiler code did not withstand the test of time and system upgrades very well. Will not run on recent computers or systems.
4.0beta1 & 4.0beta2:
•First versions written in Think Pascal (with TCL). Not widely distributed.
4.0beta3:
•Side Identifiers “A” and “B” were printed in white on a black backgroud, but there were many printer incompatiblities.
••Fixed by printing “A” and “B” in black on a white background.
•Without reading this documentation, it was not obvious that you could change the fonts, styles, etc. of an individual text block.
••Fixed by adding an extra Hints… menu option under the apple menu.
•The Print… menu item had a command-T as its keyboard shortcut and the Plain menu item had a command-P as its keyboard shortcut. According to Inside Macintosh volume 6, these should be reversed.
••Fixed: The Print… menu item now has command-P as its keyboard shortcut and the keyboard shortcut for Plain is command-T. A keyboard shortcut for Print All… (command-Y) was added.
4.0beta4:
•Many unintenional bugs were introduced by compiling with a faulty version of the compiler. Not widely distributed.
4.0beta5
•The dialog box asking if you want to save changes to a modified label might not come up if the changes were only to the Font, Style, Size, or Justification.
••Fixed: Any and all modifications to a document are duly recorded
as such.
•Changes to the Font, Style, Size or Justification of the Title or Artist text box (using the option key menu), if the text were highlighted, could result in writing to the wrong part of the screen.
