Hi all,

I'm very new indeed to macros so this may be a very simple question - if so, I'm sorry! I've carried out a mail merge on some data to make labels, and I now want to turn the first line of each label into a barcode. I've got a macro that will make the barcode, but instead of looping through the cells in the table it runs on the first cell over and over again. Can anyone help to diagnose what I've done wrong? The code is:

Sub BarcodeLabels()



Dim oRow As Row
Dim oCell As Cell
Dim oTbl As Table

For Each oTbl In ActiveDocument.Tables
For Each oRow In oTbl.Rows
For Each oCell In oRow.Cells

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.TypeText Text:="*"
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.TypeText Text:="* "
Selection.Expand wdLine
Selection.Font.Name = "Free 3 of 9"
Selection.Font.Size = 14
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=3, Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Font.Name = "Arial"
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Next oCell
Next oRow
Next oTbl

End Sub


Thank you for any help you can give!

I've now got to this:





Sub BarcodeLabels()

Dim C As Cell
Dim objTable As Table

For Each objTable In ActiveDocument.Tables
For Each C In ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Range.Cells

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.TypeText Text:="*"
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.TypeText Text:="* "
Selection.Expand wdLine
Selection.Font.Name = "Free 3 of 9"
Selection.Font.Size = 14
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=3, Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Font.Name = "Arial"
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.Move Unit:=wdCell, Count:=1
Next C

Next objTable

End Sub

Which runs through the first page of labels quite happily, and then loops in the last cell in the table without moving on to the next page (which I presume is a separate table). Any ideas? I'd be very grateful for any help!

Since you're using mailmerge, why aren't you applying the barcoding at that time, rather than afterwards? It's a trivial exercise to do it that way and requires no macros.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hi macropod, thanks for the reply.

I did try that initially, but I'm no expert with mail merge either so it may be that I didn't do it right! The problem I had was that if I told the mail merge to use the barcode font for that line, the end of line formatting character in Word gets included in the barcode font as well and the barcode won't scan. That's why I have three spaces in Arial added in after the last asterisk in the macro below, as this means the formatting character is in Arial as well and is invisible. I'm sure it's not the most elegant solution but it works! I tried to tell the mail merge to add those three Arial spaces after the asterisk but every time I copied the format across to the other cells in the mail merge they would disappear or turn into barcode font, meaning again that it wouldn't scan. If you're able to explain how I could make scannable barcode with a mail merge that would be brilliant! I don't really mind how I arrive at the solution as long as I get there

From what I can tell from your macro code, the start/stop asterisks are not included in the data source. In that case, you need a field coded as:
{QUOTE "*{MERGEFIELD barcode}*" \* Charformat}
or:
{QUOTE "*«barcode»*" \* Charformat}
where 'barcode' is you mailmerge field's name and with just the 'Q' in 'QUOTE' formatted in the 3of9 barcode font & point size that you require.

Note: The field brace pairs (i.e. '{ }') for the above example are all created in the document itself, via Ctrl-F9 (Cmd-F9 on a Mac); you can't simply type them or copy & paste them from this message. Nor is it practicable to add them via any of the standard Word dialogues. Likewise, you can't type or copy & paste the chevrons (i.e. '« »') - they're part of the actual mergefields, which you can insert from the mailmerge toolbar.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]