UPC, EAN, JAN, Bookland (ISBN), and ISSN Bar Codes in Access
Whenever you need to print UPC barcodes from within a Microsoft Access database, you can make it easy by using Azalea’s free barcode.dll along with our UPCTools TrueType fonts. Our barcode.dll adds the start and stop bars to your input string and then it maps the output into our fonts’ character set. To make a UPC barcode, you’ll need to use the our DLL because you cannot simply format a chunk of text in a bar code font and create a scannable bar code symbol. Azalea’s DLL will do all of the heavy lifting for you and make it effortless.
1. Download barcode.dll and save it into your\WINDOWS\SYSTEM or \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory, as appropriate. Then you’ll want to download UPCAsampleinput.mdb, our sample database. Open Microsoft Access.
2. In Access, open the database window; then click “Modules”.
Close this database and make sure you remember its path and then open the database with your information that you need to barcode.
3. Import your UPC functions by opening your database and attaching UPCAsampleinput.mdb. Open the File menu and select Get External Data/Import. Enter the path to the UPCsampleinput.mdb database.
4. Provide the path for upcasampleinput.mdb; then in the “Import Objects” window, click the “Modules” tab, highlight “AzaleaUPC” and then click OK.
5. Begin your query design by clicking “Queries”.
6. Then double-click “Design view”. Select the table you wish to print bar codes from. Choose “Add” and then “Close”.
7. In the small window pane, click twice on the field containing your UPC, EAN/JAN, Bookland or ISSN input data. Uncheck the “Show” check box (we just want the bar code).
Right-click on the first row field and select “Build”.
8. In the expression builder window on the left pane, expand “Functions”, then expand “UPCsampleinput”. On the right pane, select “AzaleaUPC_A”. (or another function name listed on the right pane that you want to print).
9. Replace “InputString” with the name of the input data field (in our example, “UPCA” without the quotes). Click “OK” and then make sure you save and name your query. To select your entire query field, go to File>Menu>Format>Fonts and select one of Azalea’s UPC fonts (e.g UPCTallThin) at size point 73 (this meets GS-1 UPC standards).
10. Run the query; double-click the name of your query in the main database window. Check your output…if the output result differs or you see boxes or odd characters, please send a screenshot to technicalsupport at azalea dot com and we’ll be happy to help you get it sorted out.