Access 2010 - Barcodes in Forms

Barcodes in an Access 2010 database formular

Here we show you how to add a barcode into a Access database and bind it to a data field. First launch Access and create a new database or open an already existing database in what you want to add a barcode. A simple database could look like this:

Next create a new form. This is easy and we do not explain this functionality of Access further. If you have questions about this, please have a look into the Access Online Help

Now add the ActiveBarcode control to the form. You must be in "Design Mode" to do this.

Select the "Developer tab". Click on the button "Insert ActiveX control" from the range of "Controls".

A dialog will appear. Select "ActiveBarcode" here and click OK. Now the barcode object will be placed in your form. This will be a standard barcode of EAN-128 type. This is the default type.

Now you can modify this barcode. You can change the type, text, colors etc. For this click inside the barcode with the right mouse button. A pop up menu will open. Select "ActiveBarcode-Object" and then "Properties...". The property dialog of ActiveBarcode will open. Here you can modify the barcode as you like. For example you can change the type to any barcode type supported by ActiveBarcode: Codabar, Code 25 Industrial, Code 25 Interleaved, Code 39, Code 39 Extended, Code 93, Code 93 Extended, Code 128, Data Matrix, DUN-14, EAN-2, EAN-5, EAN-8, EAN-13, EAN-14, EAN-18, EAN-99, EAN 128, EAN-Velocity, GS1-128, GTIN-8, GTIN-12, GTIN-13, GTIN-14, Identcode, ISBN-10, ISBN-13, ISBN-13 Dual, Bookland, ISSN, ISMN, ITF-14, JAN, Leitcode, MSI, NVE, PDF417, PostNet, PZN, Royal Mail SCC-14, SSCC-18, UCC-128, UPC-A and UPC-E

Next we bind the controls text property (the barcodes content) to the data field "Productnumber" of the database.

Select the "Developer tab". Click on the button "Property page" from the range of "Tools".

Have a look for the entry "Control Source" and change it to "Productnumber". This is the data binding:

Now close the design mode of the form and watch the result by simple opening the form:

The barcode control is bound to the data base field and shows the product number of the current data set as EAN-128 barcode.

Embedding and binding an ActiveBarcode control into reports is very similar.

One last hint: A report is designed in a lower resolution that it is using while printing. So it is required that you create the barcode control with a much bigger font size than you would normally use. Otherwise the text line under the barcode may be very very small in your print.

The ActiveBarcode Control is 32bit and can be used with the 32bit (x86) version of Office 2010 only.

Microsoft itself recommends to install the 32bit (x86) instead of the 64bit (x64) version of the Office 2010 package. This is valid, even if you use a 64bit (x64) operating system.

Related video:

Video (Flash)	Description	Size
	Access 2007: Use ActiveBarcode in an Access 2007 report.	2,1MB