API key required

Barcode Add-In for Excel (Microsoft 365)

Embed and automate barcodes in Excel and link barcodes to the content of cells

This add-in makes it easy to work with barcodes. The barcodes are bound to the cell content, so that whenever the cell content changes, the barcode changes as well.

Barcodes in your document are rendered as images directly from the ActiveBarcode API. You can see all parameters passed to the ActiveBarcode API in the formula, making this solution highly transparent, customizable and automatable.

The use of this add-in is optional and free of charge, while the use of the ActiveBarcode API is not. For evaluation purposes, you can use a DEMO key for the API, which provides barcodes with watermarks. For production use and to avoid these watermarks you need to purchase and enter an API key.

This optional Excel add-in makes it very convenient adding barcodes to Excel spreadsheets. The ActiveBarcode REST-API will be used to generate the barcodes but you don't have to understand the details about this process. With the add-in the formulars for the cells and the urls to the API are crafted for you so you don't need to learn the parameters of the API.

ActiveBarcode: Barcode Add-In for Excel (Microsoft 365)
ActiveBarcode: ActiveBarcode Excel Add-In @ Microsoft AppSource

All you need is the REST API. The free add-in creates the formulas for you.

Add dynamic barcodes via the ActiveBarcode REST API into Excel 365 spreadsheets.
It's pure and simple. No Add-On and no script is required with this straight forward approach. Just use the url from the REST API directly in the IMAGE function and that's it. If the content of a cell changes, the barcode changes automatically, too.

=IMAGE(CONCAT("https://api.activebarcode.net/v1/png?code=CODE128&access=YOUR-KEY-HERE&text=";A1))

This screenshot shows the resulting barcode in Excel for Mac that encodes the content of cell A1.
ActiveBarcode: This screenshot shows the resulting barcode in Excel for Mac that encodes the content of cell A1.

And this screenshot shows the resulting barcode in Excel for Web.
ActiveBarcode: And this screenshot shows the resulting barcode in Excel for Web.

Sideloading the Add-In This is a purely optional feature for admins or developers who do not want to use Microsoft AppSource.

Download the manifest.xml file and sideload the add-in.


Sideload the add-in in Excel on Mac


Copy the manifest.xml into this folder:
/Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Documents/wef

Sideload the add-in in Excel for the Web


1. Use Microsoft 365 and open a document in Excel.
2. Select Home > Add-ins, then select More Add-ins.
3. On the Office Add-ins dialog, select the MY ADD-INS tab, choose Manage My Add-ins, and then Upload My Add-in.
4. Browse to the add-in manifest file, and then select Upload.
When you add barcodes for the first time you might see "blocked" instead of the barcodes. You can confirm that images should be loaded and the barcodes will be displayed.


Video: Sideloading the Office Add-in into Excel Desktop (Windows) or Excel Online

Copy the manifest.xml into a shared folder like shown in this video.
The video shows sideloading for Word but it's the same process for Excel. The relevant part starts at 2:30.

🔊 Make sure audio is turned on to follow the instructions. Captions are available in several languages.


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