To add to this....
If you are having problems with printing and scanners reading.....make sure
the software print setting...isn't set to stretch or shrink. We had this
problem with our installation and it took a long time to figure out in the
test lab.
Regards,
Janet
===========================
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Ross, Allason, Montgomerie, Wyllie, Clark, Walker, Wallace
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Patrick Cunningham
Sent: February 1, 2007 8:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Looking for a Barcoding Package
I guess the first question is "what format of bar code do they need to
produce?". The second question is "why in the world would you want the
hassle?".
The typical bar code used in RM applications is Code 39 or 3 of 9. Eons ago
(ca. 1992 or 1993), I needed to bar code an entire records center.
Back then our resources were limited and the software that we were using was
very primitive and we could not generate 30,000 bar codes without great pain
and suffering. We looked into having labels generated commercially and were
quoted prices in the $1.00 per label range.
So we poked around Egghead Software (at that time, a brick and mortar
store) and found Avery LabelPro, which came with a Code 39 bar code font.
And, wonder of wonders, since it was an Avery product, we were able to use
off the shelf labels and also design our own box labels with the software,
then mail merge all of the box numbers (this is where my techie friends came
to my rescue). We dumped all the box identifiers (old and new) and box
locations into an Excel Spreadsheet.
We then sorted the spreadsheet by location, cut the file into digestable
parts, and dumped out comma-delimited text files. We then did a mailmerge
into LabelPro and started printing. It took a while (I recall babysitting a
LaserJet IID for several hours a night for a week or so), but we then had a
set of labels for the whole warehouse. I was also able to print all the
location barcodes for the whole warehouse.
The cool part was that we had everything printed in location order (the old
system tied the box number to a permanent location), with the old ID, the
new ID and an eye-readable initial location on the label. Then all we had to
do was barcode the whole warehouse...
I want to say that the whole printing exercise cost us (in cash outlay) less
than $500 (software, labels and toner cartridges). I was salaried and the
tech guys loved the challenge -- and we all got some nice recognition for
the cost savings.
Avery LabelPro doesn't exist anymore, but it looks like Avery has a software
package called DesignPro that has bar codes. If you don't need anything
fancy, you can poke around the internet for Truetype code 39 barcode fonts,
but I'm suspicious of the "free" downloads that pop up in Google. Your
organization may also already have a barcode font that hasn't been deployed.
Microsoft Word incorporates templates for most of the Avery labels these
days.
As I recall, there are a couple tricky things with barcodes for some RMS
systems. Many barcodes have hidden characters that indicate that the label
is a location or a box or a file. You have to make sure that you format the
string properly (again, where my tech friends came in handy). Many readers
also want a string start and string end character in the bar code, so you
want that formatted properly.
If you need to play with the bar codes and see what is behind them, I
strongly recommend what used to be called a "wedge" scanner (one that looks
like a pen and taps -- "wedges" -- into the keyboard interface).
What you can do is open up a Command Prompt window (the old C:\ DOS
screen) and run the pen over the bar code. What will display at the Command
Prompt is the entire string in the bar code. Since the pen simply decodes
the barcode into ASCII characters, you can also use the pen to input the
barcode into a field in your RMS system, in many cases (your mileage may
vary).
What this buys you is barcodes on the cheap -- if the expected outcome is to
be able to generate (in advance) a ton of barcodes for various purposes
(passing out in advance to departments or doing a huge backfile conversion)
that you have on hand for when they are needed (without having to "reserve"
the file numbers or box numbers in the system), then this is probably the
way to go. If you need to produce one barcode at a time, then you want to
look at adding in one of those small roll fed label printers.
Eventually, we had one of our tech guys write a little program that
generated and kept track of the barcodes that we passed out (we always sent
out the barcodes to our internal clients in advance) so that we wouldn't
accidentially duplicate a barcode that someone else had. The little database
kept track of who we sent the box numbers to so that if a box wandered in
without a transmittal, we knew where it came from. I suspect that most RMS
systems today do all of what I've described natively and the investment in
the proper module is probably well worth the expense.
Apologies to those of you horrified by the primitive stroll down memory
lane. But hey, you want to be cheap, you gotta do it the hard way. (I also
just spent a half hour hand wrapping file folder color codes, so it's been a
real retro day for this techie geek.)
Patrick Cunningham, CRM
[log in to unmask]
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
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