Azalea Software, Inc.

Printing Code 128 Bar Codes in Microsoft Access

If you are printing Code 128 barcodes from within a Microsoft Access project, the easiest thing to do is to use our free barcode.dll along with our TrueType fonts. Our barcode.dll adds the start and stop bars to your input string, calculates the necessary mod 103 check digit, and maps the output into our fonts' character set. You need to use the barcode.dll because you can not simply format a chunk of text in a bar code font and create a scannable bar code symbol. The barcode.dll does all of the heavy lifting for you.

1. Download barcode.dll and save it into either your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM or \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory. Download C128sampleinput.mdb, our sample database.

2. In the database window, click "Modules".

Close this database (remembering its path) and open your own.

3. Import the Azalea functions by opening your database and attaching C128sampleinput.mdb From the File menu, select Get External Data/Import. Give the path to the C128samplecode.mdb sample database.

4. In the "Import Objects" window, click the "Modules" tab, highlight "Code128", and click "OK".

5. Select "Queries".

7. Click twice on the field containing your Code 128 input data. Uncheck the "Show" check box (we just want the bar code).

8. Check the "Show" check box. Right-click on the first row field and select "Build".

9. In the Expression Builder left pane, expand "Functions", Expand C128sampleinput"; on the right pane, select "AzaleaCode128B". Note: While this example refers to Code set B, the same holds true for Code set A, Code set C and UCC/EAN-13.

10. Replace "InputString" with the name of the input data field (in our example, "C128" without the quotes). Click "OK". Save and name your query. Select your entire query field, go to File menu/Format/Fonts and select one of Azalea's Code 128 fonts (e.g Code128) and then set the point size.

11. Run the query by double-clicking the name of your query in the main database window.