The printing facilities within ESL are limited to a single font ASCII text, so to enable the use of multiple fonts, including the “Code 128” true type font needed to display and print barcodes within a document, a fully encapsulated module has been created. The Barcode include file contains all the routines required to;

•Launch an Office application (currently limited to Excel)

•Open a specified Template

•Merge named data items from the ESL Application

•Print the resultant document

•Close the template, if required, as multiple templates can be handled

•Close Excel without the User needing to respond to a confirmation message.

The module has been written on the assumption that the ESL Developer will have limited knowledge of the DDE routines and protocols, as this is encapsulated; however, the module will report DDE errors, which may need to be referred to the ESL Help Desk to resolve any issues.

It is assumed that the ESL Developer will know, or will have access to, the process of setting up an Excel Template that contains the required framework for the document to be produced, as well as know how to name regions that will be populated by the merge process and be able to set the font required for any barcode items.

During development of the Barcode module, certain limitations were found:

•Microsoft word was not suitable for use, as the merged barcode data became corrupted,

•The DDE macro within Excel is limited to printing on the default printer.

Additional information, including installation and running the application, is available in the "ESL Barcode Readme" pdf, which is located with the sample.