Universal Barcode Maker

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on June 24, 2009

Barcoding inventory, patient charts, customer files, and more is easy as pie with this handy app. Using it with Excel files for multiple items, or simply creating single barcodes is as simple as printing labels from your own printer.

Universal Barcode Maker launches a drab but very functional interface. Although it displays a number of fields, drop-down menus and radio buttons, the items are cleverly arranged in categories according to the steps to follow in creating barcodes, so understanding how to use the app requires only a minute or so. This neat little app performed nicely in our tests, responding quickly to our prompts. We liked that it offered flexibility in how we could create bars by entering either text--single or multiple lines--or specify a sequence of numbers within a range, or import data from an Excel spreadsheet. We also appreciated that the app didn't lock us into a single display method: the formatting options provided flexibility in the appearance of the final barcode, including fonts, so we could generate different types of codes depending on their use. Printing multiple or single codes to labels was a snap.

Rather than 30 days, the trial period is actually 15 days, which is a bit short, but should be adequate for intensive users. The price may seem steep to casual users, but those who find many uses for these codes will be satisfied with the cost.