Barcode scanning with Excel

[Chief1904]

My office is trying to go paperless with our hunting program and issue ID cards with bar codes. I'm trying to have a barcode scanner be able to scan the ID card and pull up their information in excel or access. How can I do this? My boss doesn't want to spend $12,000 on a full setup of software and hardware. Any help would be great!

 

[mohan.r1980]

open Excelsheet
Select Range A1
now you can scan the barcode.
you will get the Card ID

 

[HWL]

Along the same lines, I'm using an HP barcode scanner gun. It obviously scans any barcode and then places the number (or barcode info) into the active cell. Besides using Worksheet_change, is there anyway to control if the scan is accepted? I don't want the scan to accept if the user is on the wrong sheet or wrong cell. I would be nice to be able to tell the scanner where to input the data. Thanks

 

[L. Howard]

Hi Chief,

I'll make some assumptions on a possible solution to your scan-in and get info-back.

Scan the ID card number into A1.

Elsewhere on the Excel sheet you have a data base (table if you will) where all the ID card numbers of the hunters are listed, lets say column F.
In columns G, H, I, J, K are five items (you can have more if needed) of info that relate to the ID number in F. (Name, Address, Telephone No., Expire date of ID card, Blood Type, whatever...)

In the cells where you want to return that info you can use a VLOOKUP formula that will look something like this:

=VLOOKUP(A1,$F$1:$K$50,{2,3,4,5,6},0)

So the formula will take the value in A1 and look for it in column F and when a match is noted, returns the information in columns G, H, I, J, K.

Is this some what like what you are after?

I don't know anything about Access.

Regards,
Howard

 

[HWL]

A barcode reader is like a keyboard in that when you can a barcode the numbers/letters go where ever the cursor is. Depending whether you are scanning directly into a cell in a spreadsheet or into a form textbox, validation of the scan can be done different ways. Either way, the scan will need to be compared to a list/database of barcode numbers and then after that; code to decide what to do with the scan.

 

[L. Howard]

Hi Chief,

Have a look-see at this workbook I wrote for a school book distribution, as a possible solution for your scanning need. Of course it's the concept you will be looking at, not the school book distribution to students.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/blu89n0i6yfs4be/Scan%20Method%20Demo.xlsm

What you will see:

Sheet 1 is the scanned data read out. Note the Student ID no.s in column L to be used for the demo. The button clears the data.
Type a student ID no. in column A, hit enter, see the data that is returned. (this would probably be your hunter barcode scan)
Enter student no. 789 and see that no student has been assigned that number yet.
Don't confuse column D Barcode with anything to do with your barcode scanning, you will probably be scanning the hunter barcodes into column A, as mentioned, and returning pertinent data from sheet 2.

Sheet 2:

Instead of student information, a compiled data base pertinent to your hunters.

Regards,
Howard

 

[hippiehacker]

I remember with symbol barcode scanner you could create your own scan codes and program the scanner that you perform actions like CTRL-C, CTRL-S, CTRL-X and whatever you wanted.
I never tested to send a keyboard key combination to trigger a macro but it should work.

 

[Tim Moore]

i just took the scanner off our Pitney Bowes mail machine we use for scanning Delivery Confirmation racking numbers on out going mail..plugged it in to my pc , opened excel and it scanned every barcode i tried..USPS,FEDEX UPS, DHL..so maybe you dont need a barcode reader program?..

 

[Roderick_E]

No, you typically do not need any special software. A "barcode" is typically just going to return a set of numbers. A scanner is a device much like a mouse or keyboard. You can usually plug it into any computer and it works from the get go.

 

[hamed216]

hi

i have a big problem about linking barcode scanner to excel .

i link it . but when i use scanner , i cant use my PC . because when i use scanner ,and i open each kind of office , serial numbers went there .

now , how can i link barcode scanning to special excel ,worksheet and column . until when i use scanner , other operators can use this system without missing data of scanner.

thanks