How to create Barcodes with Excel

First, you’ll need to download a barcode font. The most common font — and the one we’ll use in this tutorial — is code 39. You can download a version of the font from a number of places, including Dafont, Free Barcode Font, ID Automation, or Square Gear. Once you download the font, follow Microsoft’s instructions on how to install a font for Office to get it working with your version of Excel.

Below are a couple of notes about installing fonts:

• You may need to quit and restart Excel for the font to appear in your font list.
• Not all fonts work perfectly for all OSs and versions of Excel. If one doesn’t operate well, delete it and try another. 
• Code39 has worked best during the research for this article.

Once you install the font, it’s easy to create barcodes in Excel. Simply follow the steps below.

Step One: Create two columns in a blank spreadsheet.

Title the columns 'Text' and 'Barcode': 

Place the alphanumeric data in the Text column (this is the basis for the barcodes). The barcodes will appear in the Barcode column. 

Step Two: Format the cells in the Text column.

Select the Text column, then right-click on it. Click Format Cells, click Number, and click Text. This will prevent larger numbers from displaying in scientific notation as well as preserving leading zeros: 

Step Three: Enter the following formula: ="*"&A2&"*" in the first blank row of the Barcode column.

In this step, we’re assuming that the cell in the Text column is A2; if not, adjust the formula accordingly. If there’s no text in the first column, the second column will display two asterisks.

Step Four: Fill the Barcode column down.

Step Five: Change the font in the Barcode column.

From the font menu, select the downloaded and installed barcode font. It’s a good idea to use the same font for the header row as you do for the rest of the spreadsheet, but that’s up to you: 

Step Six: Enter alphanumeric data into the Text column.

The Code 39 font can encode 1-9, A-Z (the font considers uppercase and lowercase the same), the en dash (-), dollar sign ($), percent sign (%) period (.), slash (/), plus (+), and a space. The font also encodes the asterisk (*), which is used as an indicator for the beginning and end of the sequence (this is also why the formula in Step Three adds an asterisk before and after the text is entered). The Barcode row will automatically populate with barcodes.

What Versions of Excel Can Make Barcodes?