How to Generate Barcodes and QR Codes in Standard Time®

Three Ways to Get a Barcode

A barcode label is just the name of something — an employee, a job number, a task — turned into a pattern a scanner can read. When the scanner reads it, Standard Time® sees the same thing as if someone had typed the name. That means you can make labels for anything you already have in the system, and you never have to buy special software or pre-printed labels.

There are three ways to make them:

• Inside Standard Time — type your text into the Generate Barcode or QR Code window, then copy the image or print it right away. Makes both 1D barcodes and QR codes.
• Download as Word — the same window can open your barcodes in Microsoft Word, where you can resize them, add text, or lay them out on a label sheet.
• A barcode font in Word or Excel — install a free font and type your text between two asterisks. Makes 1D barcodes only; a font cannot make QR codes.

Barcode or QR Code?

Standard Time® offers two formats. Both work for the same purpose — a scan that says "this is Buzz" or "this is job 10200" — so pick the one that suits your scanners and your labels.

Because a QR code keeps all of its lines in a single code, make one QR code for each thing you want to scan — one for the employee, one for the job, one for the task — rather than one code holding all three.

Generate Them Inside Standard Time

The generator lives on the Scan Barcodes page, so it's always one click away from the place you'll use your labels.

Step 1 — Open the menu item

On the Scan Barcodes page, the menu button at the top-left also holds Barcode Required Scans, Barcode Defaults, Barcode Macros, Barcode Rules, Tap To Start, and shortcuts to the "Things to Scan on the Shop Floor" help page. Generate Barcode or QR Code… is in the same list.

Step 2 — Type your text and choose a format

Type each value on its own line. In the example below, three task names — Build, Pack, and Ship — each become their own barcode. The text printed under each barcode is wrapped in asterisks (*BUILD*); those are the start and stop markers that Code 39 barcodes always carry, and Standard Time® adds them for you.

Step 3 — Copy, print, or download

• Copy Image — puts the picture on your clipboard so you can paste it into Word, Excel, an email, a label program, or anywhere else that accepts pictures.
• Print — sends the barcodes straight to your printer. Good for a quick label or two.
• Download as Word — opens a Microsoft Word document with the same barcodes. See the next section.

Barcode labels can only include characters Code 39 supports: letters, numbers, and a few symbols (dash, period, space, $, /, +, and %). Standard Time® prints the letters in uppercase on the barcode.

Download as Word

Click Download as Word and Microsoft Word opens with the same barcodes you saw in the preview, one under the other and ready to edit. From there you can resize them, add a job description beside each one, copy them onto a sheet of label stock, or print as many copies as you need.

This is the easiest way to print labels for many employees, jobs, or tasks at once: type every value in the generator (one per line), download as Word, and print the page.

Make Barcodes in Word or Excel with a Font

If you'd rather build labels yourself — or you already keep your job and employee lists in Excel — you can make 1D barcodes with a barcode font. A barcode font is an ordinary font, like Arial or Times New Roman, except that each letter is drawn as a barcode pattern. Type your text, pick the font, and the text becomes a barcode.

The Generate window even reminds you. When you open it, a Pro tip message appears in the corner pointing to the free IDAutomationHC39M font; click the message to download it.

In Excel, the same idea works for a whole list. Put your employee names, job numbers, or task names in one column. In the next column, join an asterisk, the value, and an asterisk, then set that column's font to IDAutomationHC39M. Fill the formula down and every row becomes a barcode.

A sheet of labels built in Word with the barcode font, ready to print.

Scan Your Labels to Start and Stop a Timer

Once your labels are printed, here is what they do. Employees scan them at a computer, tablet, or phone showing the Scan Barcodes page. A timer starts when someone scans who they are, what job they're on, and what task they're doing — and it stops when they scan STOP. Standard Time® saves the result as a time log.

Starting a timer

The page's Scan in this order checklist walks people through it: Employee, then Job, then Task. In the screenshot below, Buzz scanned job 10200 and task Weld, and the timer started at 3:43 PM.

Stopping a timer

Here Buzz scanned the employee name and then STOP. The message "Timer stopped for Buzz" confirms that the time log has been closed.

Make a STOP label too. Type STOP into the Generate window like any other value and print it. Many shops post a large STOP label at every scan station.

To see the finished time logs, open the Time Logs grid — Time Logs: The Results of Barcode Scans shows exactly where they land. For everything else you can scan — pauses, multiple timers, job status, inventory — see Things to Scan on the Shop Floor and the full Shop Floor Barcode Scanning walkthrough.

Tips and Common Surprises