Question: How do I go about setting up and using barcodes?
 
Answer:

Barcodes printing is an intricate feature built into the Point Of Sale Software system. This feature can easily be accessed through the reports menu.

Barcodes use true type fonts if you are printing to a bubble jet or laser printer. These must be installed onto your system to operate correctly from within the Point Of Sale Software system. See your Windows help files on how to install True Type Fonts.

Barcode True Type fonts are located in the default folder you installed the Point Of Sale into. They must be installed through Windows to operate correctly!

Barcode type presently supported include, Code 39, UPCA, and Code 128. Most companies use UPC barcodes or Code 128. If you have a need for different types of barcodes, please contact we

UPCB Barcodes

We currently support Bubble jet printers, Laser printers, Eltron and Cognitive Blaster series printers. Eltron and Blaster printers are specifically designed for printing barcodes. These type of printers are very fast and create a super sharp barcode for easy scanning.

If you are using an Eltron or Cognitive Blaster or other type of printer that is designed for printing barcodes - use the Generic / Text print driver that comes with Windows. Do not use the Windows drivers that came with the printer.

You can install and then use the Generic / Text print driver by going to your windows Start button, settings, printers and then add a new printer. You will need your Windows CD to load the print driver from.

You may design a free hand barcode, select a purchase order or select inventory items for printing. These are placed into a holding file so you can see what you are about to print. You will notice a small box area next to left of each line item within the hold grid. If you click this small box, that item will disappear and not print. You may also tell the system how many barcodes of each to print.

Once the holding file is the way you want it, press the Move Holding To Print button. This will move the holding file into the print file. You may add as many holding files to the print file as you want.

Once you have a File To Print, you may print your barcodes. If you are using a bubble jet or laser printer, you can send the print out to screen first for preview.

ASCII dump, this routine will allow you to dump out the print file if you are using another software package besides this Point Of Sale Software system for printing your barcodes. This will create a file called POS.BCF

This file can be delimited with TABS or COMMAS. The layout of this file is such,
Barcode Description Text, Internal codes used by POS, Barcode, Selling Price, Quantity to print.

Certain dumps will create a line for each barcode and others will create one line item with a count at the end. You will have to experiment which works best for you.

WARNING: Once you have selected a printer type and barcode type, changing either of these settings after generating you holding or print file may cause them not to print correctly. If you change barcode type or printer, we suggest re-generating any holding file or print file. Codes are kept in each file for printed output and may not be compatible with any change made. This will not hurt anything, your barcodes just will not come out correctly.

TYPICAL SHIFT CODES FOR BARCODES

ELTRON  Left Position Right Position
1-Up 10 NA
Shelf 10 250
2-Up 5 235
Butterfly 10 310
BLASTER     
1-Up 0 NA
Shelf 0 125
2-Up 0 125
Butterfly 7 132