Barcode 2.5.4

23 Oct 2023

OK, Barcode 2.5 is now ready. Keep reading if you didn’t try the beta, otherwise simply grab the latest version with some final touch-ups.

Exported Files Naming

Starting from version 2.5 Barcode always name the exported files by their content. We tried really hard to manage two styles of naming, but the most requested feature was to make it easier. Done. What you export now depends on the content and it doesn’t matter how you named them the last time.

If the barcode data has errors or missing elements and you see them added in preview (like a missing check digit) — the same will be done when you save a file. Both in manual and batch modes.

If you really miss the old behavior — you can turn it back in settings.

Customizing Exported Names Further

Another feature that was often requested is the ability to add custom suffixes and prefixes to the exported filenames. This then quickly grew up to having barcode symbologies and customer’s names there, too, so we ended up with a very flexible, but a slightly complicated solution: scripting.

You can now process the name which is used to export the barcode with JavaScript and add any information you need there or implement a completely different behavior (including the old–style one). You can process different symbologies in a different way, so that’s a pretty flexible thing.

Locked Barcodes

Barcodes can be “locked” by right–clicking their thumbnail and selecting the Lock option.

A locked barcode is not saved when you finished with it, it gets restored to its initial state. That’s convenient when you have a pre–configured template and need to change just the data or something minimal. You open the locked barcode, change what you need, export it and done! The next time you open it — it will look exactly the same as when you locked it.

Variables in Barcode Data

This one is good for batch processing. You can now specify the barcode data as “hello {value1} from {value2}” and although this might look weird and even make some symbologies report an error, this actually opens up some new options for batch processing.

When making barcodes in bulk, just make sure that you have the columns named the same as the words in curly braces and they will be automatically replaced by the cell values.

This works pretty much the same way as variables in custom texts, but for barcode data.

Besides the normal barcodes, you can use that in WiFi or VCard QR codes which opens up some new possibilities for batch barcode generation.

QR Codes

QR codes get a new Mask parameter, so you can change their appearance without changing the content.

Have a look at our QR codes tutorial…

Another new feature for QR codes is the Empty Space that lets you put artwork in the middle of the barcode.

Other Changes

Besides everything listed above, here’s another list of minor (and not so minor) changes in this version:

Customer name and Comments fields are added to the second tab;
URL field is added to VCard QR Code;
Barcode metadata is now added to barcodes in PDF, PNG and TIFF formats;
Excel files importing is improved for the files with complex formulas;
Tooltips with some basic information are now shown for barcodes;
Better statistics is displayed after batch generation, errors are highlighted;
Window size and position is properly restored on restart.

For those who uses the latest beta–version, the only difference in this release is the better alignment of the non–centered empty space in QR codes to improve their readability.

Cheers!

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