Bug#250810: glabels: Package should come with a man page, at the very least

Matthew J. Lockner "Matthew J. Lockner" <lockner@cse.psu.edu>, 250810@bugs.debian.org
Mon, 24 May 2004 23:59:40 -0500


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Package: glabels
Version: 1.93.3-1
Severity: minor


It appears that gLabels suffers from the common malady of nonexistant
documentation. Most distressingly, it has no man page. I have written
one (attached) that at least provides enough instruction to clear up
some things that confused me about using this program.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.20
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages glabels depends on:
ii  libart-2.0-2                2.3.16-5     Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0                 1.4.1-1      The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libaudiofile0               0.2.6-3      Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii  libbonobo2-0                2.4.3-1      Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0              2.4.3-2      The Bonobo UI library
hi  libc6                       2.3.2.ds1-12 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libesd-alsa0 [libesd0]      0.2.29-1     Enlightened Sound Daemon (ALSA) - 
ii  libfontconfig1              2.2.2-2      generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6                2.1.7-2      FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgconf2-4                 2.4.0.1-4    GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libgcrypt1                  1.1.12-4     LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglade2-0                 1:2.0.1-13   Library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0                2.2.3-1      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome2-0                 2.4.0-11     The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0           2.4.0-3      A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeprint2.2-0          2.4.2-6      The GNOME 2.2 print architecture -
ii  libgnomeprintui2.2-0        2.4.2-2      The GNOME 2.2 print architecture U
ii  libgnomeui-0                2.4.0.1-12   The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0              2.4.1-5      The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgnomevfs2-common         2.4.1-5      The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgnutls7                  0.8.12-5     GNU TLS library - runtime library
ii  libgtk2.0-0                 2.2.4-3      The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                     4.3.0-7      Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libjpeg62                   6b-9         The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG 
ii  liborbit2                   1:2.8.3-2    libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0               1.2.5-4      Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0                    1.7-4        lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6                      4.3.0-7      X Window System Session Management
ii  libtasn1-0                  0.1.2-1      Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libx11-6                    4.3.0-7      X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxml2                     2.6.9-1      GNOME XML library
ii  scrollkeeper                0.3.14-8     A free electronic cataloging syste
ii  xlibs                       4.3.0-7      X Window System client libraries m
ii  zlib1g                      1:1.2.1-5    compression library - runtime

-- no debconf information

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.TH glabels 1 "May 24, 2004" "GLabels" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
glabels - Label and business card creation program for GNOME
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B glabels
[labels-file] ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
gLabels is a lightweight program for creating labels and business cards for
the GNOME desktop environment. It is designed to work with various
laser/ink-jet peel-off label and business card sheets that you'll find at most
office supply stores. There is also a template designer for adding new label
sheets according to user specifications.
.PP
Labels may be populated with text, rudimentary shapes, images, and barcodes.
5-digit and 9-digit POSTNET barcode encoding is supported. A merge facility,
using simple delimited text files (e.g., CSV) as a data source, provides for
quickly generating multiple labels.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\-\-help
Display a summary of available (GNOME-provided) command-line options
.PP
One or more existing gLabels filenames may be provided as arguments; each of
these is then opened in its own gLabels window.
.SH CREATING LABELS
To create a new label or business card, press the button labelled "New" under
the menu bar. From there, you can select from a variety of predefined sheet
templates, alphabetically in order of brand name. Note also that a paper size
can be selected from the drop-down list; specifically, user-defined templates
will be listed under whichever paper size was used to create the template.
.PP
To open existing labels, use the "Open" button directly to the right of "New".
Existing gLabels files are saved with an extension of ".glabels" by default.
.PP
Once one of the above is completed, a label editing mode appears, containing a
toolbar with buttons for label objects. In general, press one of these object
buttons, and then add it to the label by left-clicking where you want it to
appear on the label. Each object has properties, which can be manipulated via
the tabbed pane to the right of the graphical label editing area.
.SH USING MERGE
One frequent application of this program is likely the creation of a full sheet
or sheets of address labels, each having a different address printed upon it.
Under gLabels, one uses the merge feature to accomplish this task. Simply
create a delimited text file (select from comma-, colon-, or tab-delimited
text) in which each line corresponds to one record (the record in this case is
probably one label). 
.PP
Use the Edit Merge Properties button on the object toolbar to bring up the file
import window. Select the file format you used, and then select the data file
using the Location bar provided. If the import is successful, you should be
able to preview its interpretation in the bottom pane (in which each record is
given its own expand/elide arrow tool). Press the OK button if you are
satisfied with the import.
.PP
Back in the label editor, you can now associate fields from the data file with
objects on your label. The objects you are most likely to want to associate
with file data are text objects, in which variable placeholders will appear
inside the text, and barcodes, which you probably want to associate with a
field holding a ZIP code. The way to make these associations is to specify
"key" fields in the object properties pane. gLabels numbers the keys starting
from 1, ascending left-to-right.
.PP
It is a wise idea to get a notion of how your labels are going to turn out with
the merge substitutions in effect; use the Print Preview facility for this
(which itself is reached via the Print button on the main toolbar).
.SH TEMPLATE DESIGNER
If the label sheet in use is not found amongst those supplied with gLabels, it
is probably best to design a template for it using the Template Designer. You
may access this feature under the File menu.
.PP
There is some perhaps strange vocabulary in effect here, although the graphical
previews in the right-hand pane are generally sufficient to help you feel out
what is being done. Nevertheless, the astute reader may refer to the
documentation on the project website (see the SEE ALSO section below) for
further details on template design.
.PP
Finally, consider sending your new template to
<glabels-templates@lists.sourceforge.net> so the whole world may benefit from
your tireless labours.
.SH PRINTING
gLabels uses a fairly standard dialog box with well-known printing options for
the most part; just bear in mind that if the labels graphic is all white (none
of the sheet's labels are highlighted), then there is probably something
holding up generating what you expected. Experience has shown that this is
often the result of a file getting outdated with a merge data file it sources
(i.e., the data file for merging has been moved). Just reapply change the file
location under the merging dialog box in this case.
.SH FILES
The $HOME/.glabels directory contains all user-defined templates.
.SH SEE ALSO
The gLabels homepage at <http://glabels.sourceforge.net/>.
.SH AUTHOR
Jim Evins <evins@snaught.com>

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