How to create bulk barcodes from Excel file

[mikek41420236]

Hello.

I want to create barcodes in InDesign based on data from an Excel file and I've been googling and googling only not to find what I want.

• I want to use a template InDesign file with some images that don't need to change and a Barcode that is generated from a specific fiels in the Excel file.
• I don't want to save the Excel file as a CSV file, It needs to be a XLSX or XLS file since it's directly linked to our ERP system so we need to be able to update it reguarly.
• I want mutiple pages in the InDesign document, 1 barcode on each page and I want to export each page as separate PDF or EPS files named after a specific field in the Excel file.

Best regards Fredrik

{Renamed By MOD}

[John Mensinger]

I want to create barcodes in InDesign based on data from an Excel file and I've been googling and googling only not to find what I want.

What you want doesn't really exist in neatly packaged form, and certainly not within InDesign's native features.

It may be possible with some failry deep scripting, but I can't help with that.

Otherwise, InDesign's only method for reading external data is it's Data Merge feature. As you appear to already know, that doesn't work with Excel-format files. If you were willing to give in to discrtete-case conversion of your Excel data to an InDesign-compatible format, there is a utility called Chartbot that will produce barcodes from Data Merge-fetched values.

[Kaplaarzuh]

I tested Chartbot and it worked well the first time. It produces a PDF with several pages and each page an net 2D Matrix code (for example, other codes are also available). But when I tried it a second time it produced no PDF but an InDesign document with the sam amount of pages but only one identical code, the first one. After I restarted InDesign sometimes it works good the first time, but then it starts to produce InDesign documents again. It's the only utility I could find 😞

Gr Marco

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

The only barcodes InDesign generates (at least, natively) are QR codes. Its generator is fairly simple but you can use the Plain Text mode to create almost any content in any structured form. I believe that can be scripted.

Here's a full informational piece on InDesign and its QR code capabilities you might find useful.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

First question, what type of barcode (128, 39, UPC, etc.)?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As ID doesn't create any of those, it's kinda moot. 🙂

[Jeffrey_Smith]

ID can work with barcode fonts that could create some of those barcodes, like Code 39. Then the OP could easily accomplish their task.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

True. I wasn't thinking along those lines. A pretty complex approach without the supporting code to order the glyphs. By the time you get into barcode fonts and plugins and such, ID just may not be the tool for this project. 🙂