Enable Pick List Mode for 2D Scanner Precision
By: POSGuys - 6/6/2019

![Pick List Mode Zebra Scanner][1][][]

[Print Pick List Mode Barcode][2]

[123Scan Configuration Utility (Windows 32-Bit)][3]

[123Scan Configuration Utility (Windows 64-Bit)][4]

Transcription: Hi, this is Travis with POSGuys.com. Today we're going to talk about adding precision to your 2D barcode scanners. So we've pushed 2d barcode scanners for quite a while. They scan much better than 1D scanners, they scan in all conditions, good barcodes, bad barcodes. It [they] read a lot better. Overall it's a much better product. But one advantage that older laser scanners had over first-generation 2D scanners was the fact that it was much more precise. So if you had a label like so, where you have a bunch of barcodes grouped together and you were having to scan just a certain one, like a serial number, then you either had to cover up barcodes (I think we've all done that), or you had to find ways to get more precise, or use a laser barcode scanner.

Well Zebra in their current generation of 2d scanners, added a really easy-to-use function called **Pick List Mode**. So I'll put the link to the barcode in this video. But essentially, as soon as you scan the **Pick List Mode**, it enables precision in the barcode scanner. So using the reticle, wherever the circle is, is what will scan. SO I have that same label here. If I want to scan just the serial number, I just put the circle over the serial number and scan and it scans just that serial number. If I want the country code, I scan that. If I want the part number, scan that. So you can see it's very, very precise. The version of the **Pick List Mode** that I picked makes it just regular in the stand, so once you put it back in the stand it'll scan the first barcode it sees. So it can rapid-fire scan that way, and then when you need to get precise you just take it out of the stand. So that's the first way to add precision to a 2D barcode scanner.

The second way to add precision to a barcode scanner is to add Barcode Priority. In order to do barcode priority, you're going to have to download the 123Scan. I'll put a link below to our website where you can download 123Scan. You'll need to plug in your scanner, connect it into the program, and then select your scanner. There's a 123Scan tutorial video that I'll put a link to as well, for kinda the basics of how to use 123Scan. In 123Scan, what you're going to need to go to is Symbologies, or barcode types. So you click on that and it's going to bring up a new tab, and it's going to ask you to Select Symbology to Modify. So one of the easy ways to be very specific on what barcodes you're scanning is to disable all the symbologies you don't want to use. So if you're only doing UPC codes, disable everything except UPC codes and then that's all you can scan. But if you want to do some UPC codes, some Code 128 (which is normally the serial number) or PDFs or QR codes, you know, if you want to do a little bit, then you'll have to just set a prioritization. So under Select Symbology, you can select Preferred Symbology. Enable it,  and then under Options you can select the codes that you want to prioritize. So click the Edit button, and for this box that we have, there is both PDF417 and Code 128 on it. I'm going to prioritize the PDF417. Normally you want to do the 1D code, so usually like the UPC or Code 128. But just for this example I'm gonna do the PDF417. I'm gonna save that.

One other thing you can do is you can put in criteria. So if you go to View/Edit here. So what you can do is kinda do a string matching or a size matching type of thing. So if you know the barcode[s] you prefer all starts with the number 100, you know, it starts "one-zero-zero", then you can put that in and you can prioritize barcodes that start with the number 100. Additionally, if it always has a barcode at a certain position, you know, in the 4th spot there's always a 4, you can put something like that in. You can get creative, you can just set links, you know, you prioritize 10-digit barcodes all other barcodes are secondary, you can put that in as well. So if you have the same Symbologies but patterns you want to match, you can do that. It also adds precision. Multicode we're not gonna worry about here. That's if you're trying to scan like every label on the box at once, and then you want to put it out in a certain order. Then Multicode can scan every barcode at the same time, and always output it the same way. Which is pretty cool, but that's not what we're trying to do here. Right now we’re just trying to pick one out of many barcodes. So, you can add this in, and also add **Pick List Mode** at the same time, and you can change any other features you want to, and we're going to load this up into our scanner. Click Load to All Scanners. If you have multiple scanners then you can plug them in using the same configuration file, and then pick which scanners you want to have the configuration. Alright, we're done, and I'm going to exit out of 123Scan. Go back to notepad here. Let my scanner reinitialize. So now when I take that box there's a PDF417 on there, and it should prioritize that. Which it is. So the PDF417 contains all the data in the 1D barcodes. And you can see it's giving me the part number, the country code, and the serial number all in a single scan. Try it again… I'll even scan off the side, and we'll see if it picks up the PDF417. That one picked up the serial number. That picked up the barcode where I kinda put it in the center, right there is where I put the dot.

So that's kinda two ways, three ways actually, to be more precise with your 2D barcode scanner. The easiest thing is to enable **Pick List Mode**. Second way is to disable symbologies you don't use. And the third way is the add symbology with preference. So hopefully that helps you and makes your 2D barcode scanner even better. This is for Zebra model barcode scanners only. For Datalogic or Honeywell, they have a different way of getting more precise. Kinda cheaper 2D scanners that aren't from a major brand don't really have any of these features at all. They are like the older gen 2D barcode scanners that you're just going to scan everything. There's not a way to make it more precise. So that's one of the reasons we really like the current generation of barcode scanners, especially the new Zebra ones which are quite affordable for really good performance.

For more information on barcode scanners or to purchase, please visit us at POSGuys.com. Thanks!

[1]: https://posguys.blob.core.windows.net/content/images/blog/33/picklist.PNG
  [2]: https://posguys.com/download/picklist-mode-zebra.pdf
  [3]: https://posguys.com/download/Zebra_123Scan2_%2832bit%29_v4.01.0006.exe
  [4]: https://posguys.com/download/Zebra_123Scan2_%2864bit%29_v4.01.0006.exe

Enable Pick List Mode for 2D Scanner Precision By: POSGuys - 6/6/2019

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Enable Pick List Mode for 2D Scanner Precision
By: POSGuys - 6/6/2019