Azalea Software, Inc.

Printing UPC Bar Codes in Excel

You can create UPC barcodes from within Excel using Azalea Software's barcode fonts. Our Excel plug-ins add the necessary guard bars, calculate the check digit, and map the result into our fonts' character set.

Begin by making sure that you have AzaleaBarCodes.xla into your XLStart directory (Program Files/Microsoft Office/OFFICE11/XLSTART) and barcode.dll in either your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory (XP) or \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory (WindowsNT and Windows2000). The UPCTools setup program installs both of these files by default. You're free to download and install both files in order to evaluate and play with UPCTools and Excel. The correct strings will be generated but you won't see a bar code without the fonts installed. You can also download and play with the sample file used below.

1. To create a UPC version A symbol, you'll need your list of 11-, 12-, or 14-digit numbers in one column. If you have an 11-digit company prefix/item number, we'll calculate the check digit that appears in the lower right corner. You can also use a 12-digit number that includes the check digit as well as 14-digit GTIN numbers.

2. In the column you want the bar codes, type an "=". Select Insert/Function.

3. Use the category pop-up to select the "User Defined" functions. Within the list of Azalea bar code functions, select "AzaleaUPC_A". Click OK.

4. The Inbuff value is the column that includes your bar code numbers, A1 in this case. Leave the Supp value blank unless you want a 2- or 5-digit supplemental code too. Click OK.

5. Select the B column and select Edit/Fill/Down (Ctrl-D).

6. Use Format/Cells/Font to set the font to one of the UPC fonts at the correct point size. Adjust the size and alignment of the column as needed.

You can download and play with the sample file used above.