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Changing Selected Text To A Bar Code:
The following is a simple example of a Microsoft Word macro that copies
the currently selected text to the clipboard, opens a DDE link to B-Coder,
generates the bar code and finally pastes the bar code into the document
replacing the selected text.
Note: B-Coder must be running when the following macro is run from within
Word.
Sub MAIN
Selection.Copy ' Copy the currently selected text to the clipboard
' In Word 6.0 use the following EditCopy command instead of Selection.Copy
' EditCopy
Chan = DDEInitiate("B-Coder", "System") ' Initiate
DDE link with B-Coder
DDEExecute Chan, "[Paste/Build/Copy]" ' Create the bar
code using data in the clipboard
DDETerminate Chan ' Terminate the DDE link
Selection.PasteSpecial DataType:=wdPasteMetafilePicture, Placement:=wdInLine
' In Word 6.0 use the following EditPaste command in place of the above
Selection.PasteSpecial line
'EditPaste ' Paste the bar code into the Word document
End Sub
Prompting The User For A Bar Code Message
The following macro pops up a dialog box asking for input of a bar code
message. After the user enters a bar code message, the macro launches
B-Coder, sends it the bar code message entered by the user, generates
the bar code, closes B-Coder and finally pastes the bar code from the
clipboard to the open document in the Microsoft Word window.
Sub MAIN
Msg$ = InputBox$("Enter A One Line Bar Code Message", "Bar
Code") ' get bar message
If Len(Msg$) Then
Shell "C:\B-CODER3\B-CODER.EXE", 6 ' Run B-Coder Minimized
' Note: make sure that the path for B-Coder is correct in the above command
Chan = DDEInitiate("B-Coder", "System") ' Initiate
link with B-Coder
DDEExecute Chan, "[PrintWarnings=off]" ' Turn off printer
messages
DDEExecute Chan, "[MessageWarnings=off]" ' Turn off message
warnings
DDEExecute Chan, "[Barcode=" + Msg$ + "]" '
Generate the bar code
DDEExecute Chan, "[APPEXIT]" ' Tell B-Coder to quit
Selection.PasteSpecial DataType:=wdPasteMetafilePicture, Placement:=wdInLine
'In Word 6.0 use the following EditPaste command in place of the Selection.PasteSpecial
line above
'EditPaste ' Paste the bar code into the Word document
End If
End Sub
Note:
B-Coder can be forced to load a specific configuration file when it is launched by
specifying a configuration file name on the command line used to activate it. For example,
you could first create a B-Coder configuration file that sets up B-Coder to use a specific
bar code symbology and/or any other parameters. You could then launch B-Coder with the
name of your configuration file on the command line so that it would be already configured
for your particular application when it is launched. Suppose you wanted to modify the
above macro so that it automatically starts up pre-configured to use the PostNET bar code
symbology. You could create a configuration file for B-Coder with the PostNET symbology
selected and then save the configuration file with the name POSTNET.BCF. To pre-load the
POSTNET.BCF configuration file In the above macro, you would simply change the 4th line to
read:Shell
"C:\B-CODER\B-CODER.EXE POSTNET.BCF",0
Adding Bar Codes To Labels or a Mail Merge Document
In Word
A typical application for B-Coder is to either add bar codes to mailing
labels or to insert bar codes into a mail merge document. The easiest
way to do this is to use the "Mail Merge"
tool in Word to create your merge documents or labels and then use B-Coder
to add the bar codes to the final merged documents containing all of your
merge data.
You would first set up your mail merge in Word as normal using the mail
merge tool. After you set up your data source and insert your "merge
fields" in the main merge document, you could select the merge field
(or any static text) in your main merge document that you want converted
to a bar code and change its style to a new style named "barcode".
(To create a new style, open the "Format" menu, select "Style"
and then click the button marked "New" in the style dialog box.
In the "New Style" dialog box, enter the name "barcode"
and click the OK button.)
Next, you would complete your mail merge as normal by selecting "Merge
to New Document". This will produce a final merge document with all
of the data from the data source inserted into your labels or documents.
Any merge fields or static text that you assigned the style "barcode"
to in your main merge document would also have the style "barcode"
in the final merge document. To fill in the bar codes, you could simply
run a macro that searches through the final merge document looking for
any text with the style "barcode" and replaces that text with
a bar code created by B-Coder. The following page contains an example
macro that does just this.
The following WordBasic macro (for Word 6 and Word 7) searches through
a document looking for any text with the style "barcode". If
it finds any, it converts the text to a bar code.
Sub MAIN
Shell "C:\B-CODER3\B-CODER.EXE", 6 ' run B-Coder Minimized
' Note: make sure that the path for B-Coder is correct in the above command
Chan = DDEInitiate("B-Coder", "System") ' open
DDE link to B-Coder
' initialize B-Coder here - send dde commands to set up your Bar Codes
' DDEExecute Chan, "[Code128]" ' tell B-Coder to use Code 128
' DDEExecute Chan, "[messagewarnings=off]" ' turn off warning
messages
' DDEExecute Chan, "[printwarnings=off]"
' DDEExecute Chan, "[height=.5]" ' set bar code height
StartOfDocument ' move to top of document
On Error Goto bye ' quit if an error occurs
While 1 = 1 ' loop forever
EditFindStyle .Style = "BarCode" ' find style "BarCode"
EditFind .Find = "", .WholeWord = 0, .MatchCase = 0, .Direction
= 0, .Format = 1
If EditFindFound() <> - 1 Then Goto bye ' if not found then
quit
BCData$ = Selection$() ' otherwise get bar code data
If Right$(BCData$) = Chr$(13) Then BCData$ = Left$(BCData$, Len(BCData$)
-1)
' the above line removes the carriage return at the end of the selected
text
DDEExecute Chan, "[BARCODE=" + BCData$ + "]" '
generate a bar code
' ----------- option 1 - replace the text with a bar code
EditClear ' delete the current selection
' option 1 works best when adding bar codes to a Merge Document
' ----------- option 2 - put the bar code below the text
' EndOfLine ' move to end of line
' LineDown 1 ' move down one line
' StartOfLine ' move to the start of this line
' option 2 works best when adding PostNET or other bar codes to mailing
labels
' you may need to change the above three lines to get the bar code where
you need it
EditPaste ' paste in the bar code
Wend ' go find the next one
bye: ' all done
DDEExecute Chan, "[Appexit]" ' tell B-Coder to quit
On Error Goto 0 ' remove error trap
End Sub
Bar Code Merge for Word 97/2000:
The following is a subroutine for Word 97/2000 that searches through a
document looking for any text with the style "barcode". If it
finds any, it converts the text to a bar code.
Sub MergeBarCodes()
Shell "C:\B-CODER3\B-CODER.EXE", 6 ' run B-Coder Minimized
' Note: make sure that the path for B-Coder is correct in the above command
Chan = DDEInitiate("B-Coder", "System") ' open
DDE channel to B-Coder
' initialize B-Coder here- send dde commands to set up Bar Codes
' DDEExecute Chan, "[Code128]" ' tell B-Coder to use Code 128
' DDEExecute Chan, "[messagewarnings=off]" ' turn off warning
messages
' DDEExecute Chan, "[printwarnings=off]"
' DDEExecute Chan, "[height=.5]" ' set bar code height
On Error GoTo bye ' quit if an error occurs
Set MyRange = Selection ' define a range object
MyRange.SetRange Start:=ActiveDocument.Content.Start, End:=ActiveDocument.Content.End
' set the range to start at the top of the document and end at the bottom
While 1 = 1 ' loop forever
With MyRange.Find ' set Find object properties
.Forward = True ' search forward
.Wrap = wdFindStop ' stop at end of document
.Style = "barcode" ' look for style "barcode"
.Execute ' do it now
End With
If MyRange.Find.Found = False Then GoTo bye ' quit if style not
found
BCData$ = Selection.Text ' otherwise get bar code data
If Right$(BCData$, 1) = Chr$(13) Then BCData$ = Left$(BCData$, Len(BCData$)
- 1)
' the above line removes the carriage return at the end of the selected
text
DDEExecute Chan, "[BARCODE=" + BCData$ + "]"
' send to B-Coder
' Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1, Extend:=wdMove
' to put the bar code on the line below the text, un-comment the above
line
MyRange.PasteSpecial DataType:=wdPasteMetafilePicture, Placement:=wdInLine
' paste in the bar code
Wend ' go find the next one
bye:
On Error GoTo 0 ' remove error trap
DDEExecute Chan, "[Appexit]" ' tell B-Coder to quit
End Sub
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