The easiest and best way to print bar codes from an Excel Spreadsheet
is to use a good quality bar code ActiveX control that produces a
vector graphic image of a bar codet. Bar code fonts generally produce
low quality bar codes that can be difficult to read and they also
require you to manipulate the data that you need to encode before
applying the font. For example, with a Code 39 font you need to add
asterisks at the beginning and end of the data that you want to
encode. With other bar code symbologies, the job gets much more
complicated because special checksums must be calculated and in many
cases, a complex algorithm must be applied to the data first.
Your life will be greatly simplified by using a good bar code ActiveX
control. Your bar codes will also be much higher quality. Basically
they work exactly like a textbox control in your spreadsheet except
that instead of seeing text, you will see a bar code. The checksums,
start and stop codes and any other algorithms that need to be applied
to the data are all taken care of by the ActiveX Control so all you
need to do is drop the control on the spreadsheet, set a few simple
properties and print.
If the ActiveX control generates a vector graphic image, it will also
be completely device independent meaning that you should get perfect
bar codes that read quickly and easily no matter what printer you
print them on. Be careful when selecting a bar code ActiveX control
because some of them use bar code fonts or generate bitmaps to produce
the bar code image. Fonts and bitmaps tend to produce poor quality
output that can be highly dependent on the printer that you print to.
The best bar code ActiveX control that I know of is the one from TAL
Technologies
http://www.taltech.com/products/activex_barcodes.html
I would recommend that you download their demo version and give it a
try. The demo is fully functional and it also comes with a sample
Excel spreadsheet that shows exactly how to use it in Excel.
