How to use QR4Office to generate QR codes

QR codes are pretty useful black and white images. You can complete payments, submit a form, or take a survey with the click of a button. QR codes can be quite handy for sharing links to websites and informational content.

Prerequisites

To generate a QR code, you need the following:

Download QR4Office add-in

The first step when generating a QR code is to download the QR4Office add-in. Here’s how to do this:

Step 1: Launch any Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint or Excel)

Step 2: Above Ribbon, click the tab Insert.

Step 3: If you are using Microsoft 2016 or later, click the option Get Add-In and a new window will open. For Microsoft 2013, click option Store.

Step 4: In the search bar, enter a query for QR4Office.

Step 5: When the results are displayed, select Add to include the add-in in the Microsoft tool.

Generate QR codes with QR4Office add-in

To use the QR4Office add-in requires launching it in any Microsoft Office application. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Above Ribbon, click the tab Insert.

Step 2: If you are using Microsoft 2016 or later, click the drop-down menu next to My Add-ins. For Microsoft 2013, click the drop-down menu next to My Apps.

Step 3: Select the QR4Office add-in to launch it. The add-in will open with a taskbar to the right of the Microsoft tool.

Step 4: The first item on the QR4Office tool should be a drop-down menu. In the drop-down menu, select http:// or https:// for Weblinks, email address in mailto:, phone number in tel: or sms:, position in geo: and customize to generate unique QR codes.

Step 5: To the right of the drop-down menu, enter the URL or text for the QR code.

Step 6: Most QR codes are black and white. However, with the QR4Office add-in, you can change the colors. Select the preferred color of the QR code by selecting from the color palette or inserting an RGB color code.

Step 7: Click Set color after choosing your favorite color.

Step 8: To select the size of the QR code, drag the slider from left to right. When you make changes to the size, URL or text of the QR code, this will be displayed in the box. Preview.

Step 9: You can set the percentage Error correction for the QR code by selecting in the drop-down menu. The error correction feature ensures that the QR code can recover data if the code is damaged or dirty (useful when the code is printed).

Step 10: Click Insert to generate a QR code in your Microsoft Office application.

Step 11: If Insert doesn’t work, right click on the preview image and copy it. In the Microsoft Office application, select Paste Special and choose Paste as Device Independent Bitmap.

You can also simulate step 11 to paste the QR code in other Microsoft tools like PowerPoint and Excel, or embed the code in a web page.

Check QR code

Before putting a QR code to use, it is important to test its functionality. You can do the same with mobile devices. If you are using an iOS device, this is quite easy because Camera there is a built-in feature that allows scanning of QR codes when enabled.

For phones running Android 7.0 or lower, download a third-party app to scan the QR code. However, for phones running Android 8.0 or later, Google Screen Search or Google Lens will work to scan QR codes.

Here’s how to test the functionality of a QR code.

Step 1: Launch Camera or QR scanning tool to make sure it captures all 4 corners of the QR code.

Step 2: A pop-up window to open the QR code will appear. Click on it, and if it redirects you to a webpage or inserted text, then you can attest to the functionality of the QR code.

Hope you are succesful.