The orbital labels when considered as the angular part of the wavefunction can serve as an inclusive principle, which the students can use to construct the spatial shapes of the d orbitals from their labels. The spatial orientation of the different d orbitals guides the crystal field theory which includes d(sub xy), d(sub yz) and d(sub xz) lying between the axes while d[(sub x)(super 2)]-[(sub y)(super 2)] and d[(sub z)(super 2)] are aligned along in the x, y and z direction.