Archived from groups: comp.sys.handhelds (More info?)

Hi,

I'm new to pocket pcs, scanners, etc. I'm sorry if this is the wrong
group; I saw a mention of socket here.
I've created an application that's running on a viewsonic pocket pc
and a socket hand scanner that plugs into the viewsonic. We are not
using labels but creating a word mailmerge that prints an 8 by 11 sheet
with a barcode on it. The barcode is a merge field using the
IDAutomation.com Code39 font field.

The barcode font seems to print correctly on the sheet. However the
scanner won't scan it. As a test we went to another barcode that is
also using barcode 39 but is on a label created in loftware software.
The same scanner could read that barcode.

I've read a number of pages on the internet and elsewhere and the
information is somewhat confusing: some say to put asterisks around the
merge field to produce a valid barcode 39 field. Idaautomation says, in
it's documentation, to place exclamation points around the merge field.
And from what I can see, the loftware generated labels don't have an
asterisk.

I'm wondering if perhaps something special has to be done to get the
socket scanner to read the barcode or if perhaps the barcode 39 that
loftware is creating on our labels is a bit different from the one we
created in our mailmerge with IDAutomation.com Code39 font field.

Any help would be appreciated.

Neil