ExcelBanter - barcodes

It may be possible to use a bar code font in Excel however
bar code fonts are not only difficult to use, they also produce
extremely poor quality bar codes. The only easy to use bar code font
is a Code 39 bar code font because Code 39 does not require any check
digit calculations to be performed on the data that you are encoding.
Code 39 does however require that you put an asterisk (*) at the
beginning and the end of the string of characters that you are trying
to encode. Even if you do this, you can still end up with very poor
quality bar codes that can be difficult to read.

The best solution would be to use a bar code ActiveX control instead
of a bar code font. A good bar code ActiveX control will
automatically add the start and stop codes to either end of the bar
code and it will also automatically calculate and add any required
check digits. It will also produce a very high quality graphic image
of a bar code that should print perfectly no matter what printer you
print to.

The best bar code ActiveX control on the market is available at the
following URL:
http://www.taltech.com/products/activex_barcodes.html
You can download a demo version of the product from the above URL and
the demo even comes with a sample Excel spreadsheet that demonstrates
how to use it in Excel.

If you only need one or two bar codes, then you could also use the web
site www.freebarcodes.com to generate your bar codes on-line and
download them as images that you could then insert into your
spreadsheet.

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 14:49:22 -0800, "JJ" wrote:

Does anyone know of an add-in that would change alphanumeric data in a given
cell to a barcode for printing on plain paper? We have this pain in the butt
customer that makes airplanes in the Seattle area. Honestly, I think if they
want the paperwork barcoded, they should provide us with whatever program
they'd want us to use... we're a small business and they are not. Feel me?