B-Coder works extremely well with all versions of PageMaker and all Microsoft Office
applications however there is one important step that you will need to follow in order to
insure that all your bar codes will print perfectly from the 32 bit versions of these
programs.
The default graphic format used by B-Coder is the standard Windows MetaFile
format. (B-Coder also supports many other graphic file formats however
the standard MetaFile format is ideal for creating high quality bar code
graphics). In all 32 bit versions of Windows, Microsoft has added support
for a new MetaFile format called "Enhanced MetaFile". Most
32 bit Windows programs (including Word 97 and PageMaker 6.5) fully
support
both the WMF and the EMF file formats however Word 97, Excel 97 and all
32 bit versions of PageMaker automatically convert MetaFiles to Enhanced
MetaFiles. When you paste bar codes from B-Coder into these programs
by selecting "Paste" from their EDIT menu, the bar code will
be automatically converted to an Enhanced MetaFile and subsequently
may not
print correctly. For these applications you must select "Paste
Special" and in the "Paste Special" dialog box choose
either
"Picture" or "MetaFile" (instead of "Enhanced
MetaFile") as the format. If you paste bar codes from B-Coder
into Word 97 and PageMaker 6.5 using this technique, you will get perfect
bar codes every time. Microsoft Access 97 does not support the Enhanced
MetaFile format therefore you can simply paste bar codes into Access
from
B-Coder as you normally would by selecting Edit & Paste.
Technical note:
The Windows MetaFile format is ideal for creating bar codes however
the new Enhanced MetaFile format has several major design flaws that
render
it inadequate for creating extremely high resolution graphics (as required
when printing bar codes). Microsoft is purported to be working on a
solution
to the problems and it is expected that all will be corrected in
the next release of Windows. Until the problems are rectified, B-Coder
will not support the Enhanced MetaFile graphic format. As soon as they
are, we will offer an update to B-Coder that fully supports Enhanced
MetaFiles.
Please note that Microsoft has made it clear that it has no intention
of ever removing support for the standard MetaFile format therefore you
can rest assured that any bar codes that you create today with B-Coder
will always print perfectly with any future versions of Windows.
 Download
our Free Macros for using B-Coder with Word 97/2000.
Raster vs. Vector Graphics
Inserting Bar Codes Into an Excel 97 Worksheet
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