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Loftware Web Designer vs Desktop Designer

Target Audience: Advanced User, IT Manager, Basic User

Article #:13591

Summary

Loftware NiceLabel Web Designer does not support every feature found in the desktop Designer application. For example: labels that use relative positioning (tying one object’s placement to another object, e.g. anchoring text to move with a barcode) will trigger an “unsupported elements” warning when opened in Web Designer and cannot be edited there.

Situation and Symptoms

  • Opening a label in Web Designer shows the message: “Your label contains elements not supported by the current edition of Designer.”
  • Error detail: “Feature not supported in this product level: Horizontal relative position.”
  • Error detail: “Feature not supported in this product level: Vertical relative position.”
  • The label preview renders correctly, but the “Open” action is blocked in favor of “Edit on Desktop.”
  • Can occur even on new/blank labels if relative positioning was applied to any text object.

Explanation

The Web Designer lacks many features that are only available in the Desktop Designer. EBI recommends using Loftware Desktop Designer especially for complex labels. One feature called Relative positioning lets one label object’s X/Y placement be defined relative to another object rather than to fixed coordinates on the label — useful for dynamic content where field lengths vary. This layout capability is only available in the desktop Designer application; Web Designer (browser-based) is a lighter-weight editor and doesn’t expose or support relative-position logic at the current product/licensing level. Any label built or edited with relative positioning enabled will not open for editing in Web Designer, even though it will still print correctly.

Solution

  1. Click Edit on Desktop (or open the label directly in the desktop Designer app) to make changes to labels using relative positioning.
  2. If relative positioning isn’t actually required for the label, remove it (switch the object back to absolute/fixed positioning) in desktop Designer, save, and the label should then open normally in Web Designer.
  3. For teams who need Web Designer access for day-to-day edits, avoid using certain desktop-only functionality on labels regularly maintained via the web

Additional Comments

Issue Found: 8/10/2026
Inspired By: Clients having issues editing with Loftware web designer

Author

Nick Goulart

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