FileMaker Pro Code 39 Barcode Generator: No Fonts or Plug-Ins Required

By Doug West, Product/Project manager for Excelisys.

Yet another FREE FileMaker Pro Tips-n-Tricks demo file from Excelisys, showing you how to generate code 39 bar codes with no need for fonts or plug-ins!

This FileMaker Pro file demonstrates the use of conditional formatting with a repeating field to draw the bars of a Code 39 (Code 3 of 9) barcode. This FileMaker Pro code 39 barcode generator uses a series of 16 “slots” per character which appear as wide or narrow bars. The intermediatebarcodeBitFlags field simply tells each repetition of the repeating field whether or not to use a background fill color, creating the bars.

For the repeating field to display properly, the width must be set to 1 pt for each repetition that’s displayed. You will need 32 repetitions for the start and end characters (16 for each), in addition to 16 repetitions for each of the characters in the input field. An auto-enter calculation is used on the input field to remove invalid characters.