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The characters that are encoded in a barcode are usually displayed below the barcode as human readable characters. If a barcode reader does not function correctly (or is not installed), the person who performs the data entry can read the human readable characters and enter the information into the computer by using the keyboard.

Use the Human Readable property page to specify exactly how you want the human readable characters to be printed with your barcode (or whether you want them to be printed at all). Like the Symbology and Size property page, the Human Readable property page contains a dynamic area that displays different options depending on the barcode symbology that is selected.

Visibility

Although most barcodes are printed with the human readable characters displayed, sometimes it is more advantageous not to display the human readable characters. One of the main reasons for not displaying the human readable characters is to provide a slight measure of added data security.

The following visibility options are available: 

• Full: Specifies that all of the human readable characters are displayed with the barcode.

• None: Specifies that the human readable characters are not displayed.

• Set per Data Source: Specifies that the visibility of the human readable characters is determined by the data sources that are selected in the Select Visible Data Sources dialog. To access this dialog, click to select this option, and then click Select.

Position

• Placement: Specifies the position of the human readable characters relative to the barcode.

• Alignment: Specifies the alignment method that is used to position the human readable characters relative to the barcode.

• Vertical Offset: Specifies the vertical distance between the human readable characters and the barcode.

• Horizontal Offset: Used with the Alignment option, specifies the horizontal position of the human readable characters in relationship to the barcode. A positive value moves the human readable characters to the right; a negative value moves the human readable characters to the left.

Symbology Specific Options

• Code 39 Translation: Specifies whether the two-character representation of a text character in a Full ASCII Text barcode is displayed with the human readable characters. (Used with Code 39 - Full ASCII only.)

• GS1 Template: Specifies the configuration of the extra spaces and parentheses in a barcode's human readable characters. (Used with Code 128, Data Matrix, GS1 DataBar (RSS), and Composite only.)

• Hide Check Digit: Specifies whether check digits are displayed with the human readable characters. (Used with Code 39 - Full ASCII, Code 39 - Regular, Code 93, Code 128, Interleaved 2 of 5, UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, MSI Plessey, Royal Mail 4-State Customer Code, and Telepen only.)

• Hide Error Correction Digits: Specifies whether error correction digits are displayed with the human readable characters. (Used with Australian Post 4-State Customer Code only.)

• Show: Specifies which parts of a composite barcode are made human readable. If you choose to make both parts visible, the data from the two-dimensional component appears on a separate line below the line for the one-dimensional component's data. (Used with Composite only.)

• Show Start/Stop Characters: Specifies whether the human readable versions of the start and stop characters are printed with your barcode messages. (Used with Code 39 - Full ASCII, Code 39 - Regular, Codabar, and Telepen only.)

• Shrink UPC Split Digits: Specifies whether the first and last digits for a split UPC barcode are printed smaller than the other human readable characters. (Used with UPC-A and UPC-E only.)

• Split UPC Digits: Specifies whether to separate the first and last human readable digits from the other digits in UPC-A barcodes. (Used with UPC-A only.)

Human Readable Transforms

• Character Template: Opens the Character Template dialog so that you can specify extra characters in a data source's text that are not encoded into the barcode.

• Search and Replace: Opens the Search and Replace dialog so that you can create, modify, and test actions for the search and replace transform.

• VB Script: Opens the Visual Basic Script Editor so that you can write Visual Basic Script to perform custom data processing or validation.

• Prefix and Suffix: Opens the Prefix and Suffix dialog so that you can specify the characters to be appended to the selected data source.