3 of 9 font that works in Word

[FunkyDexter]

There doesn't seem to be an apropriate forum to post this question in so I've fallen back on General Developer as a last resort. Mods, if there's somewhere else I should have put this then please move it, thanks.

I'm trying to find a 3 of 9 barcode font that will work properly in word.

We've used "Free 3 of 9" quite extensively on labels which we print via Crystal Reports and it works fine. However, we now want to start print barcodes on our outgoing letters which are produced via a word mail merge. Unfortunately the character spacing in word seems to mess up the trailing asterisk (it loses some of it's lines) so the barcode scanner won't recognise it as a bar code. It's pretty wierd, if you look at the displayed veriosn in the character spacing dialog it's correct but it's wrong in the actual document.

I have managed to find a font by ID Automation that works fine so I know it's technically possible but it's not free for an organisation of our size. At about $1500 it's a bit too pricey for us to justify (geddit... font... justify... OK, never mind).

Does anyone here know of a free (or reasonably priced) 3 of 9 font that works correctly in word?

Thanks.

[FunkyDexter]

Forget it, the problem wasn't the trailing asterisk.

The problem is that word puts a trailing carriage return onto whatever I type in and when I select the code to set the font it's auto-selecting the carriage return so it's setting the font on that too. The barcode representation of a carriage return is very similar to the representation of an asterisk, hence my confusion, but just different enough to prevent the scanner from working.

If I add a trailing space to the code I can stop word auto-selecting the carriage return so I only set the font on the actual code - it works fine.

Now all I've got to do is make sure I can make that work properly in a word mail merge if the merge field is at the end of a line...

[Jenner]

Yea, I had two free CODE39 fonts. One didn't have a symbol for <CR> so it worked fine, but the other one did and I had the exact same problem. You're probably using the same Free3of9 font I am now.

[RobDog888]

You may want to check out this company's fonts.
http://www.barcodingfonts.com/bar39.htm

I have used it on a clients projects and it worked well.

[MWPollard]

I am also using a Free 3 of 9 Extended font (FRE3OF9X). I found that Word was in fact auto-selecting and barcoding the CR - even if it was not selected.

My font apparently includes a space character as well as a CR character - but both foul up scanning with my Symbol/Motorola scanner. The solution was not only to add a space, but to show hidden formatting (on Office 2013, this is on the Home ribbon, Paragraph section, ¶ icon). Start with a readable font, and add a space after the barcode. Select what you want barcoded - and ensure that the space character (•) is not selected. Then change the font to Free 3 of 9 Extended (which is displayed in the list as a barcode, but where you expect the 'F's to be). It should work now.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Why are you looking for 3 of 9? I always thought that 7 of 9 was a more attractive font.

[FunkyDexter]

She was certainly an attractive front, I know that.

[RobDog888]

My font apparently includes a space character as well as a CR character - but both foul up scanning with my Symbol/Motorola scanner. The solution was not only to add a space, but to show hidden formatting (on Office 2013, this is on the Home ribbon, Paragraph section, ¶ icon). Start with a readable font, and add a space after the barcode. Select what you want barcoded - and ensure that the space character (•) is not selected. Then change the font to Free 3 of 9 Extended (which is displayed in the list as a barcode, but where you expect the 'F's to be). It should work now.

This is a 5 year old thread. If you are having issues please post a new thread and not reviving old threads. Thanks

[Shaggy Hiker]

I didn't even notice the date. Fortunately, my reference was to a show that is even more dated than the thread.