Generate Free Barcodes on barcode.tec-it.com

TEC-IT's free online barcode generator was relocated recently. The new URL for this convenient service is now http://barcode.tec-it.com.


The online barcode generator currently supports approximately 60 different barcode symbologies. Among them are:

• Linear barcodes (like EAN, UPC, Code39, Code128, ....)
• 2D-codes (QR-Code, Data Matrix, Aztec Code, PDF417, MaxiCode, ...)
• Postal barcodes (USPS PostNet, Intelligent Mail barcode, Royal Mail 4 State, Australian Mail Postal Code, ...)
• GS1 DataBar (GS1 DataBar Stacked, GS1 DataBar Limited, GS1 DataBarExpanded, ITF14, GTIN, ...)
• ISBN, ISMN, ISSN codes (Barcodes for books, periodicals and media)

Important bar-code parameters like the module width, the output resolution of the barcode image and finally the image type are freely adjustable. 


Just check it out! Free Online Barcode Generator

P.S.: If you have special requirements or enhancements requests just let us know: support@tec-it.com.

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New: QR-Code Business Card Creator - Video

Today, TEC-IT has launched a new video which explains how to create QR Code business cards - online and for free. In just five steps you get your personal business card.

It's Simple and Easy
Just select a pre-defined business card template, enter your contact data, generate a PDF, print it and scan the bar codes with your the barcode reader of your smartphone (Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, ...). That's it!

You will never need enter contacts or URLs manually! Most camera-equipped mobile phones are able to decode the QR-Code (meCard, vCard, URL 2D barcodes) on these business cards. Common (and most likely free) bar code reader applications are i-nigma, beetagg, QuickMark, NeoReader, UpCode, Snappr, Camclic, 2d sense, codescan, zxing, optiscan, semacode etc.

Try it and visit TEC-ITs Free Business Card Generator Service!

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Create Business Cards Online for Free - with QR-Code and DataMatrix!

TEC-IT has launched a free online business card printing service on www.tec-it.com!

It's Free!

Using this free service the creation of business cards with QR-Code or DataMatrix 2D codes has never been easier!

It's Simple!

Launch the online business card creator from TEC-IT and choose one of the pre-defined business card templates. Now enter your data like name, email-address, phone number, etc. That's all you need - and you will receive a full-colored PDF file which can be printed immediately. QR-Codes - ready for mobile bar-code readers - are included automatically.

It can be Personalized!

If you wish to design your own layout, create it with the label and reporting software TFORMer Designer. Use the free demo version for this purpose (download it here: label design software). If you have finished your layout, send it via email to webmaster@tec-it.com. TEC-IT approves the layout and publishes it for future use.
One note: if you would like to embed your own logo in a business card: Upload your company logo to some picture hosting service (like Picasa) and specify the URL to the logo.

Merry Christmas!

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Barcode Generator for SQL Reporting Service

To generate bar codes (ALL barcodes - meaning linear barcodes, 2D barcodes like DataMatrix and GS1 DataBar codes) all you need is an internet connection. Advantage: no additional software is needed and no Visual Studio is required. The basic idea is to insert an barcode image generated by the online barcode generator of TEC-IT. This barcode generator is customizable via the URL - so it is possible to create each bar-code as required.

1) Create the required barcode using the online barcode generator
2) Scroll down to the section "Free Use of This Barcode Generator". Copy the URL (see screenshot below) into your clipboard:

3) Start the MS SQL Server Report Builder
4) Create a new report
5) Insert a Picture object and change the “Image Source” property to “External” (see screenshot below)

6) Click on the “fx” button to set the URL for the barcode image (see screenshot below)


Function used in the example above:
=”http://www.tec-it.com/online-demos/tbarcode/barcode.aspx?code=Code128&data=” & CStr(Fields!UserName.Value) & "&dpi=96&rotation=0&modulewidth=fit"

This creates an Code128 barcode using our online barcode generator. The data encoded in the barcode is stored in the UserName field:
CStr(Fields!UserName.Value)

7) Close all dialogs with OK

That’s all you need to do to insert barcode functionality to the Microsoft SQL Reporting Service.

Interested?

If you like this method for barcode creation you can use the online barcode generator for free (for non-commercial use only). For commercial users TEC-IT recommends a local barcode server in the companies intranet.

Technorati-Tags: MS SQL Reporting Service,Barcodes,Online Barcode Generator,TEC-IT

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Conduct Your Own Online Poll - Free Survey Widget!

A few months ago a colleague of mine implemented a generic widget for simple web-based customizable surveys. This widget is hosted on www.widgetbox.com. Despite the fact that the widget did not store survey results permanently (instead it sent one email for each vote to the owner of the survey) it got quite a good user feedback. So let me introduce ....

Free Online Survey Widget Version 2 !

This post gives you a short introduction how to set up the widget for your own web-page. But let me start with it's features first:

• Complete customizable survey widget (number of questions, text for questions, feedback type (one-off, many-off), colors, fonts, basic behavior, etc.
• Voting results are available as diagram within the widget (customizable)
• Voting results are stored on tec-it.com. You do not need a database or special web-hosting service
• It is free
• It only requires a unique email address, no complicated registration is required

How to use This Online Poll?

All you need is to embed the widget into your web-page (see screen-shot - or the life survey on the right). An online survey is identified by an email-address. This email address (YOURS!) must be entered in the widget configuration. After the widget configuration was finished you need to VOTE AT LEAST ONE TIME TO INITIALIZE the widget.

Why is Initialization Required?

Simply because we want to avoid spam. The widget sends the owner of the survey a confirmation email if the first vote was received. If the survey owner confirms this email the online survey is ready for user votes. If no confirmation is received within 24 hours - you have to setup the widget again ;-).

How to View Survey Results?

The online survey widget offers you three options for result viewing:

• Always: Results for the online survey are visible to everyone at any time.
• After Voting: Results for the online survey are visible to everyone after voting.
• Never: Results of the online survey are not visible. TEC-IT may provide a web-interface for the survey owner to view the results in the future

What's about Privacy?

The following data is stored per survey:

• Email address of the survey owner / this email address will be kept confidential)
• Survey basic data like title, description, questions, ...

And this information is stored per vote:

• Survey reference (for which survey was voted?)
• Timestamp of vote
• Selected answer(s)

We do NOT store the IP address of the voter (this is also a small draw-back: a single user may vote multiple times. In the future we will improve this by using a cookie on the users machine.)

Does it Work With all Browsers?

The online survey widget was designed to work with Internet Explorer, FireFox and Chrome. Others may be support - but are not tested by TEC-IT. JavaScript must be activated!

Liability and Warranty - Legal Information

Please keep in mind that TEC-IT provides the online survey widget and the data-warehousing service for free. Please understand that we therefore do not guarantee for functionality, reliability, availability and so on. In legal terms this reads as follows:

• The user of this service explicitly accepts that TEC-IT does not provide any warranties of any kind by using the service or parts of the service.
• TEC-IT make no representations or warranties, and disclaim all warranties of any kind, either express or implied, regarding the service or service’s performance, accuracy, sufficiency or suitability or the documentation or other materials provided including, without limitation, all warranties of merchantability, durability, performance, quality, capacity and technical compatibility, and any warranty of fitness for a particular use or purpose, title or non-infringement of third party rights.
• To the extent not prohibited by law, in no event will TEC-IT or its contractual partners be liable for any lost revenue, profit or data, or for special, indirect, consequential, incidental or punitive damages, however caused regardless of the theory of liability, arising out of or related to the use of or inability to use the service, even if TEC-IT has been advised of or TEC-IT has pointed out the possibility of such damages.

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Useful Test Data Generator

A colleague of mine just stumbled over a very useful generator for test data. He used it for preparing some test cases for our label printing and reporting software TFORMer. Below are 2 screenshots - the first one shows how to adjust the general characterics of the test data to be generated:

The second one shows the results:

Hope this tool is also helpful for you!

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Free Barcodes for OpenOffice

Part 2: How to generate barcodes with OpenOffice. Also check out part 1: Using Barcodes in Google Docs

Introduction

OpenOffice is a free software suite which mimics (more or less) Microsoft Office. In Microsoft Office bar-code creation is possible via various methods (using barcode fonts, pre-created barcode images or by using a barcode add-in like TBarCode). Until now no quality bar-code add-ins are available for OpenOffice and 2D barcode creation using fonts is terrible. So I'll outline a possibility to create bar-codes without any barcode fonts and without any additional barcode software.

How to Create OpenOffice Barcodes for Free

To generate bar codes (ALL barcodes - meaning linear barcodes, 2D barcodes like DataMatrix and GS1 DataBar codes) all you need is an internet connection. The basic idea is to insert an barcode image generated by the online barcode generator of TEC-IT. This barcode generator is customizable via the URL - so it is possible to create each bar-code as required.

Note: Works on Windows only!

1) Create the required barcode using the online barcode generator
2) Scroll down to the section "Free Use of This Barcode Generator". Copy the URL (see screenshot below) into your clipboard:



3) Start OpenOffice Writer
4) Create a new document (File -> New)
5) Insert a Picture from a File (Insert -> Picture -> From File)
6) Copy the URL as created in step 2 into the filename
7) Press Enter, FINISHED

That's all. Steps 5 to 7 are outlined in the screen-shot below.

How Does it Work?

The barcode image is created online at TEC-IT.COM, you do not need to store the image locally on your hard-drive (Windows takes care of this automatically), you do not need to install software - and you can trust the generated bar-code (it will be correct!). You can open this document on each computer, the bar-code will always be visible (and printable). Of course - internet connectivity is required.
Another point of interest: This method works for all programs part of the OpenOffice suite.

Optimizing the Barcode

In order to ensure perfect readability of the bar-codes you may need to play around with the settings (especially barcode resolution and module width). readability depends on barcode symbology, data density - and of course your output device. I recommend you to create the bar-code with at least 300 dpi. Important: Whenever possible DO NOT scale the resulting bar-code image in OpenOffice.

Example

URL used: http://www.tec-it.com/online-demos/tbarcode/barcode.aspx?code=DataMatrix&data=Powered+by+TEC-IT&dpi=300&rotation=0&modulewidth=fit
Barcode: DataMatrix ECC200

Interested?

If you like this method for barcode creation with OpenOffice you can use the online barcode generator for free (for non-commercial use only). For commercial users TEC-IT recommends a local barcode server in the companies intranet.

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Pidgin 2.5.5 RPM for Ubuntu 8.10 (x86)

As of today no pre-built binary for the Instant Messaging client Pidgin 2.5.5 for Ubuntu 8.10 was available on the internet.

A colleague of mine just compiled the latest release of Pidgin and published a RPM.

Download it here: pidgin-2.5.5-0.i386.rpm

Install it with rpm -i pidgin-2.5.5-0.i386.rpm

Enjoy!

P.S.: No guaranties, no warranties, no support. Download at your own risk only.

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