Barcode in Excel - barcode

Question

wondering if someone can help me out with the following problem.
I have staff stock areas with items regularly. As part of the stocking they are required to also charge whatever they send out. The issue is that when they charge they do the repetitive task of data entry for each item they charge out.
In my ideal setup, they can scan a barcode and the task would be completed in seconds since the barcode would contain all the data that needs to be entered.
To automate this, I was thinking of creating one barcode that can capture all the required inputs along with the tab, and enter keys they are required to input And then when the barcode is scanned from a paper print out the info would be automatically charged.
The data driving the barcode is in Excel so I'd like to create the barcode in Excel. This is where I need help, I've tried to add barcode font but it's not working and I have no experience in VBA if that is required.Any guidance would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

You may use barcode generation component to generate barcodes from VBA (as pictures) and insert these pictures into Excel.
Below is the sample code for ByteScout BarCode SDK (commercial component compatible with VBA) sample. Basically, if you want you may replace it with any other component that is capable of creating pictures when called from VBA.
' IMPORTANT: This demo uses VBA so if you have it disabled please temporary enable
' by going to Tools - Macro - Security.. and changing the security mode to ""Medium""
' to Ask if you want enable macro or not. Then close and reopen this Excel document
' You should have evaluation version of the ByteScout SDK installed to get it working - get it from https://bytescout.com
' If you are getting error message like
' "File or assembly named Bytescout SDK, or one of its dependencies, was not found"
' then please try the following:
'
' - Close Excel
' - (for Office 2003 only) download and install this hotfix from Microsoft:
' http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B0BFB35-C252-43CC-8A2A-6A64D6AC4670&displaylang=en
'
' and then try again!
'
' If you have any questions please contact us at http://bytescout.com/support/ or at support#bytescout.com
'==============================================
'References used
'=================
'Bytescout Barcode SDK
'
' IMPORTANT:
' ==============================================================
'1) Add the ActiveX reference in Tools -> References
'2) Loop through the values from the Column A for which barcode has to be generated
'3) Parse the value to Bytescout Barcode Object to generate the barcode using QR Code barcode type.
'4) Save the generated Barcode Image
'5) Insert the Barcode Image in the Column B
'6) Repeat the steps 3 to 5 till the last Value in Column A
'
'==================================================================
Option Explicit
' declare function to get temporary folder (where we could save barcode images temporary)
Declare Function GetTempPath _
Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetTempPathA" _
(ByVal nBufferLength As Long, _
ByVal lpBuffer As String) As Long
' function to return path to temporary folder
Public Function fncGetTempPath() As String
Dim PathLen As Long
Dim WinTempDir As String
Dim BufferLength As Long
BufferLength = 260
WinTempDir = Space(BufferLength)
PathLen = GetTempPath(BufferLength, WinTempDir)
If Not PathLen = 0 Then
fncGetTempPath = Left(WinTempDir, PathLen)
Else
fncGetTempPath = CurDir()
End If
End Function
Sub Barcode_Click()
'Fetch the Worksheet
Dim mySheet As Worksheet
Set mySheet = Worksheets(1) 'Barcode_Data Sheet
'temp path to save the Barcode images
Dim filePath As String
filePath = fncGetTempPath() 'Change the Path But should end with Backslash( \ )
'Prepare the Bytescout Barcode Object
'====================================
Dim myBarcode As New Bytescout_BarCode.Barcode
myBarcode.RegistrationName = "demo" 'Change the name for full version
myBarcode.RegistrationKey = "demo" 'Change the key for full version
'Barcode Settings
myBarcode.Symbology = SymbologyType_QRCode ' QR Code barcode, you may change to other barcode types like Code 39, Code 128 etc
' set barcode image quality resolution
myBarcode.ResolutionX = 300 'Resolution higher than 250 is good for printing
myBarcode.ResolutionY = 300 'Resolution higher than 250 is good for printing
myBarcode.DrawCaption = True 'Showing Barcode Captions in the Barcode Image
myBarcode.DrawCaptionFor2DBarcodes = True ' show captions for 2D barcodes like QR Code
' first clean the B column from old images (if any)
Dim Sh As Shape
With mySheet
For Each Sh In .Shapes
If Not Application.Intersect(Sh.TopLeftCell, .Range("B1:B50")) Is Nothing Then
If Sh.Type = msoPicture Then Sh.Delete
End If
Next Sh
End With
' now generate new barcodes and insert into cells in the column B
' Repeat the steps for each row from 2 to 6
Dim myVal As Integer
For myVal = 2 To 6 'change the code to all rows with values
'Parse the Value from the Column A to Bytescout Barcode Object
myBarcode.Value = mySheet.Cells(myVal, 1).Text
'Fit the barcode into 80X30 mm rectangle
myBarcode.FitInto_3 80, 30, 4 '4 refers to units of measurement as millimeter
'Save the barcode image to a file in temporary folder
myBarcode.SaveImage filePath & "myBarcode" & myVal & ".png"
'Insert the Barcode image to the Column B and resize them to fit the cell.
'==========================================================================
With mySheet.Pictures.Insert(filePath & "myBarcode" & myVal & ".png")
.ShapeRange.LockAspectRatio = True ' lock aspect ratio
.Left = mySheet.Cells(myVal, 2).Left + 1 ' set left
.Top = mySheet.Cells(myVal, 2).Top + 1 ' set right
.PrintObject = True ' allow printing this object
.Placement = xlMove ' set placement mode to move but do not resize with the cell
.ShapeRange.ScaleHeight 1, True ' set height scale to 1 (no scale)
.ShapeRange.ScaleWidth 1, True ' set width scale to 1 (no scale)
End With
Next myVal ' move to next cell in the column
' Release the Barcode Object.
Set myBarcode = Nothing
End Sub
Disclaimer: I'm relatd to ByteScout