Postnet Barcodes

[RRRANN]

If Microsoft Word (Windows) can print barcoded labels, there's obviously a postnet barcode font installed on my computer. Now I'm trying to print mailing labels with FMPRO with the +4 ZIP Barcode above the "Name" field, but I couldn't find any posts about how to do this. I'm using FM 6.03 for Windows on an XP OS. Any suggestions, or do I have to buy a plugin?

I hate to have to export the file in "DBF" format, then use Word's MailMerge feature to do the printing with the postnet barcode. Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Thanks.

Bob Rann

[LiveOak]

Postnet is a font. I did a google search and came up with a bunch of hits. One at random was www.bizfonts.com/POSTNETFont/.

There is some additional pocessing required, as postnet requires zip + 4, two additional digits that come from the address/rural route/P.O. Box, two frame bars, and a correction character such that when you add up the digits of the zip code and the correction character, you get a multiple of 10. How the font packages deal with this special character, I'm not sure having never implemented postnet.

A google search or the USPS web site will probably provide exact information.

-bd

[RRRANN]

I already have the postnet font on my computer. What I need to know is how to implement it when printing mailing labels in Filemaker. I'm amazed that this isn't built in somehow.

Any suggestions? I found a plugin, but it's 129.00, and for that kind of money, I might as well export to a DBF file, then do a mailmerge into Microsoft Word.

Bob Rann

[slstrother]

To implement a ZIP+4 postnet barcode, you need to create a text string that contains a start character, a 5 digit zip, the ZIP+4 code, the correction digit and a stop character. As an example, a string would look like /9050210076/ This example uses a / as the start and stop character. You will need to look at the documentation for your font for the correct character. The correction digit is a number that when added to sum of the other numbers in the string, will result in a number divisible by 10. Using the example above, the sum of the ZIP and the ZIP+4 code is 24 which requires a correction digit of 6.

You can use 3 calculation fields to implement this.

The first to calculate the sum of the ZIP and ZIP+4 codes. This calc assumes that you have the ZIP and the ZIP+4 codes in separate fields.

ZIP_Sum=

Left(ZIP,1)+Middle(ZIP,2,1)+Middle(ZIP,3,1)+Middle(ZIP,4,1)+Right(ZIP,1)+Left(Plus4,1)+Middle(Plus4,2,1)+Middle(Plus4,3,1)+Right(Plus4,1)

Then you will need to calculate the correction digit. I use the following calc, I am sure there are others that will work.

Correction_Digit=

If(Right(ZIP_Sum,1) > 0,10-Right(ZIP_Sum,1),0)

Then you will need a calc to create a single string to use as the barcode. The result of this calc needs to be text.

Barcode=

"/"&ZIP&Plus4&Correction_Digit&"/"

Place the barcode field on your layout and change the font to your barcode font.

You can find the barcode requirements from the USPS here .