Troubleshooting
OnMerge Barcodes

If your concern isn't listed below, please contact support.

OnMerge Barcodes buttons/controls don't show up after installation

  1. This problem is usually resolved by setting Word's security options.
  2. Close all copies of Word and Outlook and OneNote; once they're all closed, you can restart them.
  3. If all else fails, restarting Windows will almost always solve the problem.

OnMerge Barcodes controls don't appear on startup, but did in the past

Word 2007: Click the Microsoft Office (Circle) button, then click Word Options (at bottom). On the Tools menu, click Trust Center, then click Add-ins. Proceed on to All Word versions 2007 & later, below.

Word 2010 & later: Click File in the menu, then click Options in the left column. In the dialog box, click Add-ins in the left column. Proceed on to All Word versions 2007 & later, below.

All Word versions 2007 & later: Locate OnMerge Barcodes in either Active Application Add-ins or Inactive Application Add-ins section.

If OnMerge Barcodes is in the Active Application Add-ins section, contact support.

If OnMerge Barcodes is in the Inactive Application Add-ins section:

  • In the Manage box, click Disabled Items, click Go.
  • Click OnMerge Barcodes and click Enable.
  • Click Close.
  • Close all open Word and Outlook sessions and re-open them.

Security Alert pops up for Add-in: OnMerge Barcodes

Select Enable all code published by this publisher then click OK.

Barcode size is incorrect

See How to Size an OnMerge Barcode.

NB It's difficult to precisely nail down the exact width of a barcode since OnMerge Barcodes may automatically change it slightly depending on varying data (if the barcode used data from a database), and depending on the resolution of the printer where it's printed.

Positioning or formatting a barcode disables OnMerge for that barcode

You cannot position OnMerge Barcodes in a fixed place, nor use Words various text-wrapping styles on an OnMerge barcode. OnMerge Barcodes can only be placed "in-line with text." To work around this, put the OnMerge barcode inside a 1x1 Word table, then position or format the table the way you need to. You can create Tables:

Word 2002/XP & 2003: use the Table + Insert menu; it's often useful to select the Autofit to Contents option when creating the table.

Word 2007 & later: use Insert, then Table then Insert Table; it's often useful to then select the table and click Layout, Properties, Options, then check the Automatically resize to fit contents box.

See here for more information.

Merging stops after exactly 1 or 2 data records

Certain types of data source files can cause Word to prematurely end a merge. It's due to a bug in Word and only applies to only certain data file types, most notably tab- and comma-separated (TSV, CSV, txt) files. Most file types are not affected, such as Excel, Outlook, Access, SQL.

Option 1: Use OnMerge's CSV Loader to load the file, insead of Word's Select Recpiients.

Option 2: Open the data file in Excel and save it as an .xlsx or .xls file. If the data has any field(s) with more than 255 characters, you must pad out that column's header (title) with blanks to 256 or more characters before you save it. Otherwise, Word will cut off the ends of data fields after 255 characters.

Spreadsheet data is cut off after 255 characters

Word guesses the maximum width of each data field based on the first 8 rows of data. It assumes a 255-character limit for a column if it has less than 255 characters in all of the first 8 rows. Each column's maximum width is independent of other columns.

If that's a problem, pad out the spreadsheet column's name (top row of the spreadsheet) to 256 or more characters.

How can I get rid of the box with error message that shows up in the document when the field doesn't match the database?

See this help page.

How can I produce a bunch of individual PDFs from one merge, and optionally e-mail those PDFs to different people?

  1. Do the merge to one big, new document.
  2. Convert the new document to a PDF
  3. Use PDFsam (free), AutoSplit or AutoDocMail to split and/or email the individual PDFs.

Acrobat PDFMaker is failing to print

Don't use PDFMaker. Instead, merge to "print" and select Acrobat Distiller as the printer.

Invalid data error on QR Code

For binary data in QR Codes only, OnMerge Barcodes only allows ASCII characters codes 0 through 127 in data.

Invalid data error on Data Matrix

For binary data in Data Matrix only, OnMerge Barcodes does not allow the NUL (ASCII code 0) character in data. Codes 1 through 255 as OK.

Printed resolution seems wrong for the printer; Barcode bars look uneven

  • If Resolution is set in Barcode Setup, double-check that it matches the printer.
  • If Resolution is not set and you're using Word 2002 (XP), 2003 or 2007:
    (Not applicable to merging directly to the printer -- only plain printing) This is probably because you're switching to an alternate printer with a different resolution when you start the print operation. Word doesn't give OnMerge an opportunity to rebuild the barcodes for the new resolution before printing. You can either:
    1. Bring up the print dialog; choose the new printer; click Close; bring up the print dialog again and print.
    2. Set the barcode's Resolution in the Barcode Setup tab. This has the disadvantage that you may not remember to change the Resolution if you have multiple printers or when you get a new printer.
  • Failing the above, Word is not correctly recording the printer's resolution.
    • Set the Resolution setting in the Barcode Setup to the appropriate setting.
Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Soft Horizons 06. All Right Reserved.