Short IDs and labels

When a new thing reaches the server it gets a short ID: six letters and digits, like 7KQ-4MZ, never reused. Until then it shows ID pending. A label carries the ID as text and, on every stock but narrow label-maker tape, in a QR code that opens the thing. A label keeps its code for good, so a lost one reprints the same.

Lists, search results and the ⌘K palette show a thing by its name. Its code shows there as amber label tape only once it has a printed label: a label confirmed with Printed OK?, or a blank label claimed for it. A moving box’s contents sheet counts too, once confirmed the same way (Moving house). Amber means “this one is labelled”. On its own page a thing or place without a printed label shows its code small and grey, after the rest; one with a label shows the tape. A thing with more than one label (a blank label claimed for it, say) shows the code of the one printed last. Search and the scanner find a thing by any of its codes.

Printing

Printing (Labels in the menu, or Label on a thing): choose what to print (a selection, Label everything unprinted in a location or place, or a Blank sheet), choose the Label stock, pick where to start on a partly used sheet, and print from the browser. The Sheet preview is the print itself, smaller: the same QR codes, names and places, broken over the same lines. A name is never cut short: a long one wraps and its type gets smaller, and one that still doesn’t fit is listed before you print, with a link to rename it. The page is set to the sheet’s paper with no margins, so the print dialog’s defaults (scale 100 %) put every label in its cell.

The label stocks:

Stock	Size	Each label
A4 sheet, 24 labels	70 × 37 mm, 3 × 8	QR code, short ID, name and place
A4 sheet, 65 labels	38 × 21 mm, 5 × 13	QR code and short ID
Letter sheet, 30 labels (Avery 5160 layout)	67 × 25 mm, 3 × 10	QR code, short ID, name and place
Label printer rolls	50 × 30, 40 × 30 and 62 × 29 mm	QR code, short ID, name and place
Label-maker tape, 9 and 12 mm (Brother TZe and similar)	40 and 50 mm long	Short ID in large type, and the name. No QR code
Label-maker tape, 18 and 24 mm	50 and 60 mm long	QR code, short ID in large type, and the name

Rolls and tape print one label per page, at the label’s size: in the print dialog, choose your label printer and that size. For a label-maker app that takes images, Share as images makes one PNG per label. Narrow tape has no room for a QR code that scans, so it carries the short ID large instead: the scanner reads it from the text (Scanning a code with no QR code).

Afterwards, Printed OK? asks about the batch you just printed and records it; from then on those things and places show the amber tape. Recent batches shows what each one holds, when and where it was made and whether it printed; one not confirmed yet can be marked Printed OK or Not printed there, and reprints with the same codes. Printing the same things again while their sheet is unconfirmed offers that sheet instead of a new one. Things whose ID is still pending can’t be printed yet.

Scanning

Scan on Home and Search opens the camera.

You scan	Kept
A Kept label for something you can see	Opens it and marks it seen just now
A Kept code printed with no QR code (narrow tape)	Opens it, read from the text, or asks Is this the code? first when the read isn’t clear (below)
A blank label	Offers New box here, Attach to an existing thing or Attach to an existing place (a room, shelf or spot)
A product barcode	Offers to add it as a new thing; with barcode lookup turned on by the admin, it’s named from Open Food Facts, Open Products Facts or Open Beauty Facts
A serial number or asset tag that a thing has	Opens that thing
A barcode a thing has	Opens that thing; several things ask which
A code nothing has yet	Names its type and offers to add it as a new thing, keeping the code as its barcode or its serial number
A Homebox label, after a Homebox import	Opens the imported thing
Anything else	Says it isn’t a Kept label

A label claimed for a place shows on it as amber tape, like one printed for it. Claiming works offline: it waits on the phone until it syncs, and if another phone claimed the same label first you’re told what has it. Members, admins and owners can claim; viewers can’t.

To label a place you’ve already stuck a blank on, open the place and choose Add a label code (under Manage): the scanner opens, and the blank you scan offers that place first.

The codes Kept reads, and where a new thing keeps them:

Code	Usually on	Kept keeps it as
QR code	Kept labels, Homebox labels	The label
EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E	Products	Barcode
Code 128, Codabar	Shop, asset and library labels	Barcode
ITF-14	Cartons	Barcode, when its check digit is right; otherwise you pick
Code 39, Code 93	Asset tags, IT stickers	Serial number, or Barcode if you pick it
Data Matrix	Electronics, chargers, parts	A GS1 code: its GTIN as the barcode and its serial as the serial number. Plain text: you pick
PDF417, Aztec	Shipping labels, warranty cards, tickets	You pick; text too long for either field (64 characters for a barcode, 100 for a serial number) isn’t kept

A Kept label wins in any of these. A serial number matches exactly as it was stored, and only online: the phone’s offline copy holds no serial numbers. GS1 codes typed with brackets, like (01)04006381333931(21)K7Q2X9, are read the same way.

A worn label, or no camera: Type the code. The Capture camera recognises Kept labels too, and offers to open that box or capture into it.

Scanning a code with no QR code

A label with no QR code (narrow tape) scans by its printed short ID. Point Scan at the code, so it fills about a third of the camera’s width, and hold still for a moment: Kept reads the six characters from the text and opens the thing, as it would from a QR code, and a message says which code it read.

• On the phone, offline too. The reading happens on the phone; the picture is never sent anywhere. It works without a connection for anything in the phone’s copy.
• Never a wrong thing. Kept opens a code only when it read every character clearly, twice in a row, and the code is one of yours. When it isn’t sure, it shows the code it read and what it opens, and asks Is this the code? before opening it. A code that matches none of your labels opens nothing: Scan again, or Type the code.
• Kept’s own print only. It reads the short ID as Kept prints it, in its own typeface. A code typed into a label maker by hand, in the label maker’s font, may not read: type it instead.

Only Scan reads printed codes. Scanning sessions, the box check and the Capture camera read QR codes and barcodes only.

Related

• Scanning sessions for scanning a whole box at once.
• Tags for saying what else a thing is.
• Everyday use for the wider picture.