ACT | education

PLAN Pre-Identification Labels

The PLAN Pre-ID labels will be printed

• on self-adhesive sheets with 30 labels per sheet.
• in the order displayed on the Student worksheets unless you provide instructions for grouping the labels. (See Task 13, step 4.)

Sample:

How to Order Pre-ID Labels from ACT

Before You Begin

1 Check your version of Excel

2 Check the Security Level in Excel

Downloading the Pre-ID Template

3 Download and save the template

4 Open the template

Completing the Order Form

5 Display the Order Form

6 Complete the Shipping Information

7 Tell ACT where to ship your labels

8 Complete the File Information

9 Validate the Order Form

Adding Student Data to the Student 1 Worksheet

10 Add sample data

11 Validate the data

12 Correct any errors in data and formatting

13 Add all of your student data

Validating the Student Worksheet(s)

14 Verify then validate

15 Correct any errors

Encrypting and Sending the Order Form to ACT

16 Encrypt the file

17 Send the encrypted file to ACT

Resetting Excel's Security Setting to its Original Level

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Before You Begin

ACT encourages you to read the entire document before you download the Pre-ID Label template.

Task 1—Check your version of Excel

Determine which version of Excel you have:

1. In Excel, click Help on the menu bar.
2. Click About Microsoft Office Excel.
3. Check the version listed at the top of the next window.

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Task 2—Check the Security Level in Excel

Excel's Security Level must be set to Medium to display the template's custom toolbar and to enable the macros in the worksheet to function properly.

Determine your Security Level setting:

1. Click on the Tools menu.
2. Select Macro.
3. Select Security.
4. If the security level is set to High or Very High, set it to Medium.
5. Click OK.
6. Close Excel to apply the changes.

If you are unable to adjust your security level, contact your institution's system administrator.

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Downloading the Pre-ID Template

Task 3—Download and save the template

1. Click this link to display the page where you can download the Pre-ID label template: http://www.act.org/education/order/preid/index.html
   (If the above link doesn't work, open your Internet browser—Internet Explorer, for example—and then copy and paste the link into the address box, and press ENTER.)
2. Click PLAN Pre-ID Label Order Form, Instructions, and Template (Excel)
   
3. When prompted, click Save and save the template to your PC. Make a note of the location where you saved the file.
   

Task 4—Open the template

1. Navigate to where you saved the template on your PC and open it. You will see the following window:
   
2. Click Enable macros.
   Result: The template opens displaying the Instructions tab.

Notice the custom toolbar—When the template opens, you will see a custom toolbar above the grid. As you fill out your Pre-ID Label order, you can use its buttons to automate various tasks.

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Completing the Order Form

Task 5—Display the Order Form

Click the Order Form tab at the bottom of the template.

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Task 6—Complete the Shipping Information

Fill out all of the fields in the Shipping Information section.

• Provide street addresses for receiving materials.
• NOTE: ACT cannot ship the labels to P.O. boxes.

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Task 7—Tell ACT where to ship your labels

Answer the question: Where do you want your Pre-ID labels shipped?

Select one of these choices:

• "The address provided on this form"—to ship the entire order to one address.
• "The same address(es) as my test materials for the school(s) listed below"—to ship the order to more than one address, meaning the schools listed in the test material order associated with the Order Number provided.

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Task 8—Complete the File Information

Under File Information, provide your PLAN School Site Code (not district code):

Type your school name and site code in the boxes provided for each institution that will receive the labels.

How to locate your PLAN Site Code:
If you do not know your PLAN site code(s), go to http://www.act.org/education/order/preid/index.html

Take care to select your school code(s) rather than your district code.

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Task 9—Validate the Order Form

To validate the Order Form:

1. Click in any blank cell.
   NOTE: Validation will not run while the cursor is blinking in the cell in which you are typing.
2. Click the Validate Order Form button on the custom toolbar to check for errors.
   
   
   A message box appears telling you that errors are marked in red. Click OK.
   
3. Cursor over any red cells to see an explanation of what is wrong.
4. Correct the errors.
5. Click in any blank cell of the worksheet.
6. Click the Validate Order Form button again. The red shading will disappear from the cells that you have corrected.
7. Repeat steps 1–6 until all errors have been corrected. You will then see a message confirming that the order is valid.

To validate the contents of an individual cell:

1. Click the cell, and then click the Validate Selection button.
   
2. Perform steps 4 and 5 above, and then click the Validate Selection button.

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Adding Student Data to the Student 1 Worksheet

Task 10—Add sample data

ACT strongly recommends that you test a sample of your data before loading all of it. This method can save you time because it allows you to correct any discrepancies between the way your data is formatted and the way the template requires it to be formatted before adding the all of it to the Student I sheet. (See the Layout tab for valid field descriptions.)

1. Click on the Student 1 worksheet tab.
2. Enter student information into the first ten blank rows under the column headings. You may copy and paste the data or import it from another file.

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Task 11—Validate the data

1. Click Validate Student Sheet(s) on the custom toolbar.
   
   
   A message will tell you how much time the validation might take:
   
2. Click Yes to continue.
   If there are no errors on the worksheet, you will see this message:
   
   Click OK and proceed to task 13—Add all of your student data.
   
   If there are errors on the worksheet, you will see this message:
   Click OK and proceed to step 3 below and correct the errors as described.
3. Cells with errors are shaded red. Cursor over a red cell. A message will tell you what is wrong. In this example, the cell contains more than the maximum 15 digits. (Due to the column width, you can't see all the numbers.)
   

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Task 12—Correct any errors in data and formatting

Correct any data errors manually.

1. Enter the correct data into the cells containing errors.
   Example:
   
   The studentID field has been reduced to 9 digits and now conforms to the field requirement of less than 15.
2. Click Validate Selection.
   The error is corrected and the cell color returns to white:
   

Use the Tool Kit to correct formatting errors.

1. Select the cells you want to correct (convert).
   In this example, the four trailing zeroes at the end of each birth date must be trimmed to leave 6 digits.
   
2. Click the Tool Kit button on the custom toolbar.
   
   
   The Select Conversion box is displayed:
   
3. Select the operation you wish to perform from the list:
   • Convert Date to MMDDYY format.
     (NOTE: Make sure the cells are in text format.)
   • Remove periods, apostrophes, and surrounding blanks.
   • Remove the right end of the string to obtain the chosen length.*
   • Remove the left end of the string to obtain the chosen length.*
   • Zero pad the left end of the string to the chosen length.*
   • Trim consecutive blanks.
4. Click Convert.
   *Starred Operations: For the items listed above marked with asterisks, the Input Number box is displayed. Type the number of characters or spaces to remove or add and then click OK.
   
   
   Nonstarred Operations: If the operation you selected is not starred in the list above, the operation will be performed. Proceed to step 5.
5. The Select Conversion box is displayed. Click Close.
   
6. With the cells still selected, click Validate Selection. The red shading is removed.
7. Repeat all error correction steps listed above until no errors remain on the worksheet.

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Task 13—Add all of your student data

Add your student data to the Student 1 sheet by doing the following:

1. Correct discrepancies: First, correct any discrepancies in your student data file before loading it into the template. Discrepancies may be easier to correct in your original file rather than after the data is loaded into the Student 1 worksheet.
2. Load your student data: Load all of your student data into the blank rows under the column headings. You may either copy and paste the data or import your .csv or .xls file using the custom toolbar buttons.

To import your student data file, use the toolbar buttons.

• Click the appropriate button: Import CSV File or Import Excel File
  
• In the File Selection dialog box, navigate to where you have stored your student data file, select it, and then click OK. Example:
  

3. Enter required data: These are required fields. Ensure that these rows contain data and that the data conforms to the parameters given on the Layout worksheet.

4. Group labels for printing (e.g., Rm 101, Sec 11)
   Type the instructions in the labelPrintgroups column for the records that you want to group. See the Layout worksheet for what is allowed in this column.

5. (optional) User-defined fields: Enter data in columns AF through AH (or 32 through 34, if Excel is set to R1C1 reference).
   • User-defined fields 1–3 are reserved for your institution's specific use. You may enter institutional codes, derived values for race/ethnicity, and so forth. This information will only appear in the data files sent to schools and districts. It will not appear in any reports.
   • NOTE: ACT will not calculate or modify these fields in any way.
6. Delete any blank rows between the first and last rows of data. Blank rows will stop the validation process.
   • Inserting/deleting rows—You may insert and delete any row except the first.
   • Inserting/deleting columns—You may not insert or delete columns.
7. Delete blank worksheets:
   • To avoid validation errors, delete any blank worksheets that you may have added but did not use. Click the Delete Sheet button on the custom toolbar. The highest numbered sheet will be deleted.
   • NOTE: You cannot delete the first sheet or any middle sheet in the workbook.

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Perform Additional Checks:

Eliminate duplicate entries for students
Please ensure that each student is entered only once as part of a district Pre-ID file submission.

If there are multiple instances of the same student, a label will only be generated for the first instance. As a result, there may be students for whom you may not receive a Pre-ID label. ACT strongly encourages you to share this information with your school administrators.

Confirm that student information is correctly gridded on the answer folders
To facilitate the processing of the student answer documents, make certain that the information is correctly gridded on the answer folders.

Destroy Pre-ID labels for students no longer at your school
If you receive a Pre-ID label for a student who is no longer at your school, destroy the label and do not forward it to another school.

If you have any questions, please contact Customer Services at 877-789-2925.

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Validating the Student Worksheet(s)

About validation

Validate then encrypt—Because the encryption process will not work if there are errors in your file, you must first validate the workbook before encrypting it. The validation process finds the errors and allows you to correct them.

What is validated—All worksheets containing student information will be checked during validation.

Time required to run validation—The time required may be lengthy depending on the version of Excel being used, the operating system, and the amount of memory on the computer.

• Tip: Validate the worksheet periodically as you enter data in order to identify and correct any errors as you work.

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Task 14—Verify then validate

1. Verify:
   • that the required fields contain data,
   • that there are no blank rows in the middle of the worksheets, and
   • that there are no blank worksheets. (See Task 13, step 7.)
2. Validate the Student worksheet(s):
   • Click on any blank cell on the Student 1 worksheet.
     NOTE: Validation will not run while the cursor is blinking in a cell.
   • Click the Validate Student Sheet(s) button on the custom toolbar.
     
3. A message box appears warning you that validation may take some time and asks you if you want to continue. Click Yes to proceed or No to cancel.
4. After the validation process is complete…
   • if there are no errors, a message box tells you that the student sheet(s) are valid. Click OK.
   • if there are errors, correct them.

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Task 15—Correct any errors

See Task 12—Correct any errors in the sample data.

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Encrypting and Sending the Order Form to ACT

About Encryption

Encryption protects the privacy of the student records during transmission to ACT.
Do not send an unencrypted file to ACT.

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Task 16—Encrypt the file

1. On the custom toolbar, click Encrypt and Send to ACT to automatically save the current unencrypted file to the location that you specified in Task 3, step 3. The Encrypt File Folder dialog box will appear and show this location.
2. Click OK to save an encrypted version of the file to this folder.
   Do not enter anything in the Folder name field at the bottom of the form.
   NOTE: If you need to store the encrypted copy in a different folder, first go to that folder, and then click OK.

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Task 17—Send the encrypted file to ACT

Email the encrypted file to ACT. Use either of these two methods:

• Automatic method
  Your computer may automatically open a new email form addressed to planpreid@act.org and attach the encrypted Pre-ID Order Form file to it. Click Send.
• Manual method
  If your computer does not automatically open a new email form addressed to planpreid@act.org, a message may pop up telling you that the file was saved but that the program cannot email the file for you.
  • Open a new email form and attach the file manually.
  • Send the file to the following address: planpreid@act.org

Resetting Excel's Security Setting to its Original Level

Task 18—Reset (if needed)

After you have encrypted and sent your Pre-ID order file to ACT, you may wish to reset Excel's security setting to its original level. To do so, click the Tools menu - Macro - Security, and select the appropriate level of security; then, close Excel to apply the new setting.