Barcode

Barcoding using a Dymo printer, as described here, is the strongly recommended approach.

One of the most valuable features of CellarTracker is the ability to print individual barcode labels for each bottle in your cellar. Using these barcodes, you can easily and accurately record consumed bottles as well as exercise the ability to batch update location and bin with the assistance of a barcode scanner. You can also add wine to your cellar by scanning an Existing UPC.

Using Labels

There are three screens where CellarTracker barcodes can be used:

  • Scanning a single bottle into the Search control takes you to the screen to drink that bottle.
  • Or click Scan barcode labels to scan multiple bottles at once for relocation or consumption.
  • Or click Click for bulk entry to scan even more quickly or gather input from memory based scanners.

As mentioned above, you can also add wine to your cellar by scanning an Existing UPC.

There are three types of labels:

  1. Unique per-bottle barcodes. This is what is pictured on this page.
  2. Per-wine/size barcodes. You can optionally generate these. They are less specific than the prior labels. If you have 7 x 750ml bottles of the same wine, you will have 7 different per-bottle barcodes. However, you will have only 1 per-wine barcode (which you would print out 7 times in concept). Please note that these are NOT supported on the dual-barcode labels and in fact ONLY print on the 30336 label template.
  3. You can also generate barcodes for your storage locations and bins. This allows you to scan bottles. You can then relocate these bottles by scanning a location or bin.

Generating Labels with a Dymo Printer

The strongly preferred barcode printing solution is to use a Dymo printer, as this offers the most automated and easiest solution.

Recommended Equipment

  • BARCODE PRINTER: LabelWriter 450 (~$90) or LabelWriter 450 Turbo (~$120).
  • BARCODE LABELS: There are several Label Types with the default Dymo 30336 (White 1" x 2-1/8" Labels), ~$14.95 for 500 labels, (NOTE: you will not find these at Office Depot.)
  • (OPTIONAL, OPTION A) WIRED BARCODE SCANNER: CipherLab 1070 (~$40, USB, model #A1070CBS0U001); Buy on BarcodeDiscount.
  • (OPTIONAL, OPTION B) WIRELESS BARCODE SCANNER: CipherLab 1560 (~$260, USB base, model #A1560CBK0H002); Buy on BarcodeDiscount.
  • (OPTIONAL, OPTION C) WIRELESS POCKET LASER BARCODE SCANNER: Scanfob® 2002 for Windows (Scanfob® is a registered trademark of Serialio, LLC), Mac OS X, iOS: Bluetooth (~$299); Buy on serialio.com.
    (NO built-in Bluetooth on Windows or Mac? Also get this USB Bluetooth adapter: (~$49 ); Buy on serialio.com)

NOTE: The Dymo labels currently use Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF) as the barcode format for single-bottle labels and Code 128 Auto for per-wine labels, so make sure any barcode scanner you plan to use supports this symbology and it is currently enabled in the scanner.
People using Socket barcode scanners also need to enable support for scanning ANY LENGTH of ITF barcode. That can be done with PDF configuration file here. Just scan the proper barcode.

Steps for Windows Users

Installation - Automated install troubleshooter

  1. You need to install the latest DYMO software. The simplest solution is to install the 8.3 or later software, and then no further configuration should be required in ANY major browser.
  2. Alternatively model 400 and earlier printers do have legacy support for 32-bit Internet Explorer and FireFox so long as you are running version 7.8 or 8.2 of the Dymo software. However extra browser configuration is required. Internet Explorer: Because the Dymo ActiveX control is unsigned, you might need to accept the ActiveX control or add CellarTracker to your list of trusted sites. (definitely required on Vista) FireFox: Install the XPCOM extension. (You may need to do some tweaking and troubleshooting here.) For best results, download and install the Arial Narrow font if it is not on your system. This is installed with Microsoft Office.

Instructions

  1. Go to CellarTracker! and click on Print barcode labels in the Actions section of the navigation bar.
  2. Press the PRINT USING DYMO button. This will give you a preview.
  3. To take things in smaller bite-sized chunks you may want to do 100 at a time. Fill out the "Show # of labels" edit control on that first page of pending labels. Press the PRINT USING DYMO button to commit the print job.
  4. Once you are caught up, the label printing user interface, by default, will only show you bottles for which you haven't yet printed labels. You can however toggle to show all labels.

Steps for Macintosh Users

Installation (Install Dymo 8.3.1 for support in Safari, FireFox, Opera, and Chrome below version 22) - Automated install troubleshooter

  1. Install the latest Macintosh version of the Dymo label software, at least version 8.3.1 to use non-Safari browsers or 8.2.2 for Safari. Also please note that the "Check for Updates" functionality within the Dymo software itself will not reliably point you to this version. You MUST manually download and install this. (NOTE: Dymo has released 8.3.1 as a requirement for OSX Lion. Safari should be run in default (64-bit) mode. Make sure that the “Open in 32-bit mode” checkbox is unchecked (right click on Safari icon in “Applications”, select “Get Info”.)
  2. You MUST RESTART YOUR MACINTOSH after you install the Dymo software.

NOTE: Sadly, per Dymo, Chrome versions 22 and higher have broken the way they implemented their library. There is no fix until Dymo makes a new version of their library, and right now they are saying this is Q2-2013.

Instructions

  1. As of May 8, 2010, at last, the rest is the same as above for Window users. You can print directly from the CellarTracker website with no special scripts required.

Label Customization

The site allows you to control many aspects of the information that will appear on the labels, so make sure to click on the link to Change Label Settings. More adventurous users can also modify the label templates that are loaded by the Dymo software as described here.

Generating Avery Labels with a Regular Printer

The preferred solution is to use a Dymo printer, as this offers the most automated and easiest solution. However, if you do not own a Dymo, you can also export data from the site to be used for a Microsoft Word mail merge to comparable Avery labels using the site, but this is ONLY recommended for those users who are quite technical.

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