Using a Barcode Scanner to Input Data Into Excel

Hi. I am using Excel 2013 and would like to input data into my spreadsheet using a barcode scanner. I've created some barcodes using an online barcode generator (Code 128-B). My barcodes are text as opposed to numeric. I initially tested it out using Access and it scanned the information just fine. However, when I try to scan in a code into Excel nothing happens, no error, no data, no nothing. Is there something I need to set in the options of Excel to recognize the barcode scanner as the input device? Or is there some other reason why the scanner might not be pulling in the data? Thanks.

Amit,

Yes, I am using a handheld scanner attached to my computer via a USB cable to scan a barcode I printed from a website that allows you to type in whatever you want and it generates a barcode. I typed in several things and generated 10 different barcodes. All are text (as opposed to numeric).

When I first tried this I opened Access first and it worked perfectly. It scanned fast (maybe a second or two max) and inputted the correct text. I then tried Excel which is where I really want to move with this project. I selected the cell I wanted and nothing happened. So after I got your response I tried several other programs to see what happened:

MS Word: Inputted the correct text but it took multiple attempts (I tried the same thing, i.e. multiple attempts, and it still didn't read)
MS Publisher: Inputted information rapidly but it inputted as a numeric value (ie changed the text to the numeric code). There may be a way to have Publisher do this right, but since this is not the program I care about I did not investigate further.
Notepad: Inputted the correct text rapidly
Wordpad: Inputted the correct text rapidly
MS Powerpoint: Inputted the correct text rapidly but sometimes it did nothing. This was a hit or miss proposition for Powerpoint.
MS Onenote: Inputted the information as numeric data
MS Outlook: Inputted the correct text rapidly
MS Access: Works as I expected

I tried a couple of Adobe products. When I scanned, the scanner beeped indicating it recognized the information but it did not put it into the document. This might be an issue with the software but more than likely it was an operator issue. They were two programs I do not use often and where I thought I was scanning to might not have been a location that accepted data input (e.g. maybe it was looking for a keystroke or mouse input and was just receiving a meaningless set of numbers). But the point is it beeped, which is more than I ever got with Excel.

After going through all of the above, I started thinking that there was no reason why all the other MS products would work and not Excel. So I tried again and it worked at least for some of the codes. So it may be that I was just picking the ones that the scanner and Excel were struggling with. It looks like the ones it has the most issue with are the longer codes so it may be my scanner just cannot scan a code as wide as the ones it is having issues with. I will do some more looking and see if I can figure out if that is the problem.

I appreciate your response by asking me to check Notepad. This got me to try Notepad and other programs which when they worked it told me that Excel should work too. The good news is I can adjust what I have in the barcode so that if length is an issue I can work around it.

Thanks again.

Steve

Arron,

I was using a Nuscan 1000U handheld USB scanner. I don't think there was anything particularly special about it. Amit is probably right that any USB handheld scanner would probably work.

Steve

This makes sense to me, but need help with a specific setup for a small inventory. I am far from IT proficient. I hope to use a scanner and develop my own barcodes where needed. I want to scan in and out and adjust inventories in an excel file. Very basic stuff I would think. Please e-mail/msg me if you think you could help me. Thanks GaryDM1