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Barcode

In PrintShop Mail Connect Designer, you can add a variety of barcodes to your template. The supported Barcode types include 1d barcodes (the striped ones) and 2d barcodes (encoded horizontally and vertically).

Adding a Barcode

When generating Print output, you can add extra barcodes and OMR marks. The reason why you would do this, is that at merge time more information is available about the actual output document. The page count, for example, is not available at design time.
To add barcodes and OMR marks on the fly when generating Print output, select File > Print and check the option Add additional content (see Additional Content) in the Print Wizard. To have this done automatically, save this and other output options in an Output Creation Preset: select File > Print presets > Output Creation Settings (see Output Creation Settings).

Before adding a Barcode, load data or at least a Data Model; see Loading data. You will need the field names when adding the Barcode. Then, to add a Barcode to a section, Master Page or snippet:

  1. Select Insert > Barcode on the menu or click the Barcode toolbar button
  2. Choose the desired barcode type. The list is divided between 1d and 2d barcodes.
  3. An ID is required. You can change the given ID and, optionally, add a class.
  4. Use the Location drop-down to select where to insert the Barcode:
    • The option Absolute on body inserts the barcode in an absolute-positioned box inside the <body> of the HTML, but outside other elements.
    • At cursor position inserts it where the cursor is located in the template.
    • Before element inserts it before the HTML element in which the cursor is currently located. For example if the cursor is within a paragraph, the insertion point will be before the <p> tag.*
    • After start tag inserts it within the current HTML element, at the beginning, just after the start tag.*
    • Before end tag inserts it within the current HTML element, at the end, just before the end tag.*
    • After element inserts it after the element in which the cursor is currently located. For example if the cursor is within a paragraph, the insertion point will be after the end tag of the paragraph (</p>).*

    * If the current element is located inside another element, use the Elements drop-down to select which element is used for the insertion location. The list displays every element in the breadcrumbs, from the current selection point until the root of the body.

  5. Under Script, select the field that contains the barcode value, or select the fields that together compose the barcode value. When you select more than one field, the script puts the values of the selected fields in one string and passes that to the barcode generator. The barcode type dictates the length and exact format of the required value.
    For barcodes that require a Checksum, the Designer can calculate a Checksum if that isn't provided by your data. Then script result should be the required value minus the Checksum. Edit the barcode properties to include the calculated Checksum with the barcode value, after adding the barcode to the template; see below.
    For a detailed description or for background information on a specific barcode, please refer to the documentation provided by the individual barcode supplier. Note that some barcode readers may require specific parameters as well.
  6. Click OK to close the dialog.

In the template the barcode shows up as a gray box. The barcode script is added to the Scripts pane. To see the barcode script working, toggle to the Preview tab in the Workspace.

Changing a barcode

Barcode script

The barcode script determines which value is fed to the barcode generator. Double-click the script on the Scripts pane to change which field(s) are added to the barcode value.

Barcode properties

A barcode is always added with the barcode type's default properties. To change those properties, such as the scale and color, open the Barcode properties dialog: right-click the barcode (on the Design tab in the Workspace) and select the respective barcode on the shortcut menu.

Click the barcode type below for information about its properties.

As of version 1.5 it will be possible to change the type of a barcode in the template as well, when changing the properties of a barcode.