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The most powerful Data-to-Label engine on the web.
Our software replaces manual data entry. By processing a direct CSV UTF-8 export from your WMS, Shopify, or Odoo ERP account, you guarantee 100% mathematical accuracy across thousands of physical warehouse tags.
How to Format Your Excel File for Barcodes
Preparing your data correctly before uploading ensures perfect mapping to your warehouse thermal labels or high-resolution image exports. Here are the technical rules for a flawless import.
1. Define Your Header Columns
Our parsing engine reads the first row of your spreadsheet to understand your data. While the importer allows manual mapping, naming your headers clearly will trigger our auto-mapper:
- Barcode Value / SKU: This column contains the actual alphanumeric data that will be encoded into the barcode lines.
- Title (Optional): Human-readable text (like a product name or bin location) that will be printed cleanly above the barcode graphic.
- Quantity (Optional): A numeric value dictating exactly how many physical copies of this specific label need to be generated in the PDF.
2. The Leading Zero Problem (Formatting as Text)
A common frustration when generating retail barcodes (like UPC-A or EAN-13) from Excel is the "leading zero" problem. If your barcode number is 012345678905, Excel's default math engine will see a number and delete the leading zero, changing it to 12345678905. This will cause a formatting validation error in our software because UPC-A strictly requires 12 digits.
The Fix: Before pasting your data into Excel, highlight the entire Barcode column, right-click, select "Format Cells", and change it from General/Number to Text. Alternatively, you can type an apostrophe (') before the number (e.g., '012345...) to force Excel to treat it as text. To avoid this entirely, export your data natively from your ERP as a CSV UTF-8 file, which preserves string integrity.
3. Choosing the Right Symbology
Once your Excel file is uploaded into our workspace, you must select the correct barcode language (symbology) to encode your data:
- Code-128: The default choice for logistics, shipping, and internal SKUs. It supports letters, numbers, and dashes.
- EAN-13 / UPC-A: Strictly for physical retail packaging. Your Excel data must be purely numeric and meet strict length requirements.
- QR Code: Best for URLs, long text strings, or high-density warehouse bin locations scanned by modern 2D imagers.
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