It all started with long product names… they look bad on invoices … so i shorten the product and use order tags…
example:
Long Black Mushroom and Berry with Delicious Rainbow Flavoured Shrimps
I changed it to
Long Black Mushrooms and Berry
With Delicious Rainbow Flavoured Shrimps
So that it looks better on invoices
But I also use the Product Tag to print the order to Chinese for the kitchen.
So my problem is…
The english part gets converted to chinese for the kitchen
Long Black Mushrooms and Berry >> Some Chinese Name
But the Order Tags gets attached to the Chinese Name
Chinese Name
-Order Tags
The Order Tags are in English, and won’t switch languages… i know i could use descriptions next to it…
But 4-5 Chinese Characters is enough to form the whole name…
So because i chose to use Order tags… there isn’t really a direct translations… does any one have a solution for me?
I really don’t even know what I’m asking for… I think… I’m really asking… got any tips… how to shorten the name of the products… OH maybe … print the product name on 2 lines formatted nicely?..
This type of thing would usually be done using product tags which can then be referred to using {ITEM TAG:tagName} in your templates as needed.
Not quite sure what you mean by English converted to Chinese. How have you done this?
I would have a short name for the actual product/button etc.
If you want descriptive type name for printing then use the custom product tags for that and use those in your templayes
I’ve never seen an invoice or ticket with full descriptive menu style product naming.
Short product name keeps buttons clean without custom headers and onscreen ticket simple.
Using product tags (not order tags BTW) would allow that without cluttering onscreen.
Look on forum for dual/multiple language product names and you will find examples.
The two are completely different.
Order tags wouldnt work with product tags in the same way.
For order tags you could look to use the description column of the order tags setup.
So say have english as tag itself and chinese in description and then use the two {ORDER TAG NAME} and {ORDER TAG DESCRIPTION} as needed in template.
There is also ORDER TAG LABEL and NOTE, but not sure exactly what that these relate to.
Product Tag: Chinese
–Order Tag: would be in English
I just prefer the kitchen ticket to be 1 language, therefore Product and Order Tags should be in full Chinese.
This is clearly not possible, especially when I’m designing the English Menu first… it’s the primary interface.
When the Order is taken… the interface could be in english or chinese… but when the order is received at the cash register … it would be in english… invoice would also be printed in english… but the order that’s taken would be converted to chinese for the kitchen.
That one is in the product section hence why it has the :X and you would need to specify the order tag type/group name.
Just ORDER TAG DESCRIPTION without the :X will be within the order tag section of the template (is for each tag in the loop.
Going to take a step back here and just mention a solution to the original question.
If you want to have a long name and have it display across multiple lines this is possible. You can use the <W> printer formatting tag. So for example if you want 3 column layout with quantity, long name over multiple lines and price you can do like this:
<W00:4,* , 8>{QUANTITY}|{NAME}|{PRICE}
Regarding handling English name and Chinese name, on products I have a Custom Product Tag {ITEM TAG:Chinese Name}.
To handle multi language Order Tags I have English name in the Order Tag and use {ORDER TAG DESCRIPTION} for the Chinese name. I’ve done many setups multi language and this works great unless you need to use order tag prefixes which complicate things slightly. I have a solution for that too though I can share if you need it.
Yeah it’s documented in 5.1.62 release notes, this is the best I could find.
Note this of course only works in ESC/POS printer templates but there is already other ways to accomplish the same thing if using HTML or Document Printer templates.
If you print Chinese likely you need to use HMTL or Document Printer to get better formatting for Chinese and English.