Barcodes

[Brandon Y]

How do I incorporate barcodes, if it is possible? I have a project to
do...and I need to set it up to where when the barcode is scanned, it will
show the information stored within the bars. Can anyone help me?!

 

[Jackie L]

In order to print barcodes on your report, you will need to have the correct
fonts loaded. Typically, barcodes are "3 to 9" fonts and can be purchased by
a number of companies on the internet and downloaded to your workstation. By
placing your data field into a formula and then using the 3to9 fonts you can
create the barcode. The scanner will need a start and stop signal so you
will need to concatenate the data into a field such as
= "*" & [DataField]&"*"

You will need additional hardware to read/scan the barcodes.

If all you want to do is scan existing barcodes, you would just need the
hardware. A barcode scanner typically has a keyboard wedge and plugs in
through the keyboard port. By reading, the barcode the scanner just puts in
the keystrokes that it detects into your current program.

Hope this helps.

 

[Brandon Y]

Thanks Jackie. It helped a little bit. I know about the fonts and
purchasing it. But I really dont want to purchase it for the sake that it is
just a project.

Here's my follow up question to anyone:
I dont really understand your formula completely. When the barcode is
scanned, how will the data upload into designated fields, such as in a form
or table?

There's no way for me to test it since, I do not have the hardware for
scanning, but I would still like to know the entire setup. So I can better
explain it.

In order to print barcodes on your report, you will need to have the correct
fonts loaded. Typically, barcodes are "3 to 9" fonts and can be purchased by
a number of companies on the internet and downloaded to your workstation. By
placing your data field into a formula and then using the 3to9 fonts you can
create the barcode. The scanner will need a start and stop signal so you
will need to concatenate the data into a field such as
= "*" & [DataField]&"*"

You will need additional hardware to read/scan the barcodes.

If all you want to do is scan existing barcodes, you would just need the
hardware. A barcode scanner typically has a keyboard wedge and plugs in
through the keyboard port. By reading, the barcode the scanner just puts in
the keystrokes that it detects into your current program.

Hope this helps.

How do I incorporate barcodes, if it is possible? I have a project to
do...and I need to set it up to where when the barcode is scanned, it will
show the information stored within the bars. Can anyone help me?!

 

[Rick Brandt]

Thanks Jackie. It helped a little bit. I know about the fonts and
purchasing it. But I really dont want to purchase it for the sake
that it is just a project.

Do a web search. There are free barcode fonts available.

Here's my follow up question to anyone:
I dont really understand your formula completely. When the barcode is
scanned, how will the data upload into designated fields, such as in
a form or table?

Not fields, but field. Typically when using a scanner connected with a
keyboard wedge you are merely replacing keystrokes that would have occurred
at the keyboard with a scanned "word". So if you had a barcode that
represented a part number (taking inventory for example) then you would make
sure focus was in the part number TextBox on your form and then scan the
barcode. The characters represented by the barcode are then entered into
the TextBox.

If you want the scanning of one barcode to populate several fields at once
then you are looking at more programming requirements. You would have focus
in a "dummy" TextBox and then after scanning you would have to have code
break the resulting "word" into its various parts and then stuff each part
into the appropriate field.

It would be very unusual for a single scan to be able to fill out an entire
form because the amount of data in a single barcode is limited (depending on
the scanner being used).

 

[Jackie L]

I think you are putting too much importance on the barcode scanning. All the
barcode is is data in a field shown as bars instead of letters numbers (due
to the font chosen). All the barcode scanner does is read the bars and enter
it into the program you are working on. It is only saving keystrokes.
Nothing more magical than that. Scanning the barcode produces the same
result as typing on the keyboard. It just saves time. There is no
uploading, etc.

I am not sure if this helps. Let us know if you need a better explanation.

Thanks Jackie. It helped a little bit. I know about the fonts and
purchasing it. But I really dont want to purchase it for the sake that it is
just a project.

Here's my follow up question to anyone:
I dont really understand your formula completely. When the barcode is
scanned, how will the data upload into designated fields, such as in a form
or table?

There's no way for me to test it since, I do not have the hardware for
scanning, but I would still like to know the entire setup. So I can better
explain it.

In order to print barcodes on your report, you will need to have the correct
fonts loaded. Typically, barcodes are "3 to 9" fonts and can be purchased by
a number of companies on the internet and downloaded to your workstation. By
placing your data field into a formula and then using the 3to9 fonts you can
create the barcode. The scanner will need a start and stop signal so you
will need to concatenate the data into a field such as
= "*" & [DataField]&"*"

You will need additional hardware to read/scan the barcodes.

If all you want to do is scan existing barcodes, you would just need the
hardware. A barcode scanner typically has a keyboard wedge and plugs in
through the keyboard port. By reading, the barcode the scanner just puts in
the keystrokes that it detects into your current program.

Hope this helps.

How do I incorporate barcodes, if it is possible? I have a project to
do...and I need to set it up to where when the barcode is scanned, it will
show the information stored within the bars. Can anyone help me?!

 

[Brandon Y]

oh ok...I think I understand it now...thank you all for your inputs

I think you are putting too much importance on the barcode scanning. All the
barcode is is data in a field shown as bars instead of letters numbers (due
to the font chosen). All the barcode scanner does is read the bars and enter
it into the program you are working on. It is only saving keystrokes.
Nothing more magical than that. Scanning the barcode produces the same
result as typing on the keyboard. It just saves time. There is no
uploading, etc.

I am not sure if this helps. Let us know if you need a better explanation.

Thanks Jackie. It helped a little bit. I know about the fonts and
purchasing it. But I really dont want to purchase it for the sake that it is
just a project.

Here's my follow up question to anyone:
I dont really understand your formula completely. When the barcode is
scanned, how will the data upload into designated fields, such as in a form
or table?

There's no way for me to test it since, I do not have the hardware for
scanning, but I would still like to know the entire setup. So I can better
explain it.

In order to print barcodes on your report, you will need to have the correct
fonts loaded. Typically, barcodes are "3 to 9" fonts and can be purchased by
a number of companies on the internet and downloaded to your workstation. By
placing your data field into a formula and then using the 3to9 fonts you can
create the barcode. The scanner will need a start and stop signal so you
will need to concatenate the data into a field such as
= "*" & [DataField]&"*"

You will need additional hardware to read/scan the barcodes.

If all you want to do is scan existing barcodes, you would just need the
hardware. A barcode scanner typically has a keyboard wedge and plugs in
through the keyboard port. By reading, the barcode the scanner just puts in
the keystrokes that it detects into your current program.

Hope this helps.


:

How do I incorporate barcodes, if it is possible? I have a project to
do...and I need to set it up to where when the barcode is scanned, it will
show the information stored within the bars. Can anyone help me?!

 

[Thomas Lutz]

Bar code fonts generally produce very poor quality bar codes and they
also require you to add in start and stop codes as well as calculate
check digits if the type of bar code that you want to use requires
check digits.
For printing bar codes from Access, you would be best off using a bar
code ActiveX control like the one fromTAL Technologies at the
following URL:
http://www.taltech.com/products/activex_barcodes.html
If you need to print bar codes, I would recommend that you download
the demo of the TAL Bar Code ActiveX control from the above URL and
take a look at the sample Access database that is provide with the
demo.


For reading bar codes into an Access application, you have two
choices.
Most 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 scan 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 if the cursor is not in the right
place when the bar code is scanned. You also cannot "lock" a textbox
so that the user cannot type in data and force data to come in from
the scanner only.
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 best way to read bar codes directly to an Access application 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.
You can also set everything up so that the textbox where the data gets
written is locked so that only bar code data can go into the textbox.
In addition, you can minimize your application and have it running in
the background while you use the PC for other tasks and still have all
bar code data go into the database.

TAL Tehchnologies sells a product called WinWedge which is a Software
Wedge for Windows. For interfacing a RS232 bar code scanner to an
Access application, WinWedge is the best tool available.
Visit: http://www.taltech.com/products/winwedge.html
for more information about WinWedge.

TAL also sells a very high quality line of bar code laser scanners at
very reasonable prices. All their scanners are available with either
the keyboard wedge output or RS232 output. For scanners see:
http://www.taltech.com/products/bc_reader.html

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 for a bar code tutorial.