Can barcode fonts and other bar code products be used on Pocket PC and Windows CE?

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Can barcode fonts and other bar code products be used on Pocket PC and Windows CE?

Solution(s):

ActiveX components will not work on the Pocket PC OS in their present form. IDAutomation has been able to use the Linear Barcode Control for the .NET Compact Framework on a Pocket PC. And it may be possible to use IDAutomation's Java Applet or Barcode Class Libraries with a Java VM to print barcodes from Pocket PC or PALM OS. IDAutomation's TrueType barcode fonts have been tested and do function properly on Pocket PC 2002 operating system. These fonts need to be copied to the \Windows\Fonts directory of the target device. IDAutomation.com does not produce a Pocket PC installation utility for this process, so it will be necessary to manually copy these files from a desktop computer to the \Windows\Fonts directory on the target device using either Windows Explorer or ActiveSync.

Unfortunately, Pocket PC 2002 does not support VBA automation for Microsoft products. This means that the font automation tools will not work in products such as Pocket Excel, Pocket Word, Pocket Access, etc., directly on the Pocket PC. The font automation tools are necessary to encode the data into the proper format for the fonts and the scanners that will read the barcodes. In general, this means that the data contained in the barcode cannot be dynamically changed while on the Pocket PC. The data will have to be manipulated on the desktop computer, then the spreadsheet, document, etc., must be copied to the Pocket PC device.

One exception to the aforementioned rule is IDAutomation's Code 39 Font Advantage Package that contains Code 39 fonts. Because these fonts do not require specific encoding or complex check digit calculations, they can be used with ease in the Pocket PC environment by simply adding the start and stop characters (asterisk) before and after the data to encode. For example, in Access the following formula would be used =("*"&[Table.Field1]&"*") to add the start and stop characters to the data. The fonts can also be used in a custom application built with a compiler made for the Pocket PC operating system such as Embedded C++ or Embedded Visual Basic. These development platforms are specifically designed to develop applications on the Pocket PC platform, and, as such, can be used in conjunction with the TrueType fonts to produce barcodes for the Pocket PC environment. IDAutomation offers helper functions for these development environments that can be use in the application to encode the data and add the start and stop characters to the data. See the links below to access these functions.

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