Not sure if this is the place to ask about barcode systems but its
worth a try. Could anyone suggest what type of barcode system would
be ideal for a small business. I am the manager of a small IT company
which speacializes in network support and pc repair. There are only
two other employes in the company so we are talking about a small
business. Even so controlling stock has become a problem at times.
Problems arise when we are extremely busy. At the moment we just
write down the item we are taking from the store. However if things
are busy we may not write things down at all or we put writing the
items down off until the next day when we are not so busy. Naturally
there are mistakes. I would like to but a barcode system in place
where we can quick scan an item as we take it out of stock.

Thanks John

"John Flanagan" <bobhat (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Buy a barcode scanner from Maplin - this plugs into the keyboard port of a
PC.

Print a card of command barcodes - eg check out, book in, numbers 0 - 9 etc.

Write a command line application which links to a database, reading
commands, quantities and product IDs.

To check 7 items out of stock, scan the "check out" barcode, the "7" barcode
and the product barcode.

etc.

Using bar codes is extremely easy. You need to come up with a simple
numbering scheme to identify the items that you want to keep track of
and then use those numbers as the key field in the database that you
will use to keep track of everything. You then need to print the bar
codes on labels and stick the labels on the appropriate items and
finally you need to hook up a bar code scanner to input the bar code
data into your database.

You should be able to print your bar codes directly from your database
using either a bar code font or a bar code ActiveX control. I strongly
recommend ActiveX controls if your database supports them. Bar Codes
contain start and stop codes as well as check digits that need to be
calculated and fonts are not capable of adding the start and stop
codes or check digits for you. Fonts also produce poor quality bar
codes that can be difficult to read.

The best bar code ActiveX control on the market is available from TAL
Technologies at:
http://www.taltech.com/TALtech_web/p..._barcodes.html
I would recommend that you download the demo from the above URL and
look at the included sample applications

For inputting bar code data into an application, you have a couple of
choices.
Most bar code readers are available with one of two output options.
The first option is called "Keyboard Wedge" output where you unplug
your keyboard, plug the bar code reader into the keyboard port on your
PC and then plug your keyboard into the bar code reader. This
arrangement makes the bar code reader appear as it it were simply a
second keyboard. Your original keyboard continues to work as normal
however when you read a bar code, the data encoded in the bar code
appears to any application running on your PC as if it were typed in.
The keyboard wedge interface is extremely simple however it has a few
drawbacks. If you swipe a bar code, the cursor has to be in the
correct input field in the correct application otherwise you end up
reading bar code data into whatever application has the focus. This
can cause all sorts of potential problems as you can imagine. The
keyboard output also is limited in that you cannot modify the data in
any way before sending it into the program that is to receive the
data. For example, if you needed to parse a bar code message up into
pieces or remove some of a bar code message or add in a date or time
stamp you would not be able to with a normal keyboard wedge reader.

The other possible output option is to get a bar code reader with an
RS232 or "Serial" interface. With these types of bar code readers, you
connect the reader to an available serial port on the back of your PC.
You would then need a program called a "Software Wedge" to take the
data from the bar code reader and feed it to the application where you
want the data to go. The disadvantage to this approach is that it is a
little more complex however you gain much more control over how and
where your data ends up when you read a bar code. With a Software
Wedge, you can control exactly where the data goes in the target
application and you can also perform all sorts of modifications on the
data before it is sent to the application.

TAL Technologies also sells a product called WinWedge which is a
Software Wedge for Windows.
Visit: http://www.taltech.com for more information. This web site is
also an extremely good place to obtain information about bar coding in
general.

You can also find very high quality bar code laser scanners at the
above site for under $200 with either keyboard wedge or RS232 serial
output.



On 29 Jul 2003 08:32:50 -0700, bobhat (AT) hotmail (DOT) com (John Flanagan)
wrote:

bobhat (AT) hotmail (DOT) com (John Flanagan) wrote in message news:<40604f9d.0307290732.1c1b2bfb (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>...
If you are using MS Access or any other Office like App you could use
a barcode font in a report, which is ok if you settle for a simple
code symbology, like Code 39. This would cost next to nothing or at
least a few bucks.

Also appropriate may be an ActiveX control, see here for a
step-by-step how-to for using such a control in an Access report:

http://www.xircuit.com/Samples/Linea..._linear_i.html

My own site also describes various other printing and scanning options
(see the various scanner types and connection options):

http://www.axelwolf.org

Cheers, Axel