UPC

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The best way to print bar codes from Excel is to use a bar code
ActiveX control. Fonts produce poor quality bar codes that can be
difficult to read. With fonts, you also have to add start and stop
codes to the bar code data and you also have to calculate check digits
yourself. A good bar code ActiveX control will do everything for you
and it will also be much easier to use - in addition to printing much
better quality bar codes.
The best bar code ActiveX control available is the TAL Bar Code
ActiveX control. You can download a trial version from complete with a
Excel spreadsheet sample that shows how to use it:
http://www.taltech.com/products/activex_barcodes.html


Bar code readers are available with one of two output options. The
first option is called "Keyboard Wedge" output where you unplug your
keyboard, plug the bar code reader into the keyboard port on your PC
and then plug your keyboard into the bar code reader. This arrangement
makes the bar code reader appear as it it were simply a second
keyboard. Your original keyboard continues to work as normal however
when you read a bar code, the data encoded in the bar code appears to
any application running on your PC as if it were typed in.
The keyboard wedge interface is extremely simple however it has a few
drawbacks. If you swipe a bar code, the cursor has to be in the
correct input field in the correct application otherwise you end up
reading bar code data into whatever application has the focus. This
can cause all sorts of potential problems as you can imagine. The
keyboard output also is limited in that you cannot modify the data in
any way before sending it into the program that is to receive the
data. For example, if you needed to parse a bar code message up into
pieces or remove some of a bar code message or add in a date or time
stamp you would not be able to with a normal keyboard wedge reader.

The other possible output option is to get a bar code reader with an
RS232 or "Serial" interface. With these types of bar code readers, you
connect the reader to an available serial port on the back of your PC.
You would then need a program called a "Software Wedge" to take the
data from the bar code reader and feed it to the application where you
want the data to go. The disadvantage to this approach is that it is a
little more complex however you gain much more control over how and
where your data ends up when you read a bar code. With a Software
Wedge, you can control exactly where the data goes in the target
application and you can also perform all sorts of modifications on the
data before it is sent to the application.

TALtech also sells a product called WinWedge which is a Software Wedge
for Windows.
Visit: http://www.taltech.com for more information.




This web site is also an extremely good place to obtain information
about bar coding in general. Be sure to look in the Resources section
of the site.
 
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