3800g/3800gHD/3800gPDF User’s Guide 4 - 1
4
Data Editing
Prefix/Suffix Overview
When a bar code is scanned, additional information is sent to the host computer 
along with the bar code data.  This group of bar code data and additional, 
user-defined data is called a “message string.”  The selections in this section 
are used to build the user-defined data into the message string.
Prefix and Suffix characters are data characters that can be sent before and 
after scanned data.  You can specify if they should be sent with all symbologies, 
or only with specific symbologies.  The following illustration shows the break-
down of a message string:
Points to Keep In Mind
• It is not necessary to build a message string.  The selections in this chapter 
are only used if you wish to alter the default settings.  
Default prefix = None.  
Default suffix = None
.
• A prefix or suffix may be added or cleared from one symbology or all 
symbologies.
• You can add any prefix or suffix from the ASCII Conversion Chart (Code Page 
1252) on page A-2, plus Code I.D. and AIM I.D.
• You can string together several entries for several symbologies at one time.
• Enter prefixes and suffixes in the order in which you want them to appear on 
the output.
To Add a Prefix or Suffix:
Step 1. Scan the Add Prefix or Add Suffix symbol (page 4-3).
Step 2. Determine the 2 digit Hex value from the Symbology Chart (included in  
Appendix A) for the symbology to which you want to apply the prefix or 
suffix.  For example, for Code 128, Code ID is “j” and Hex ID is “6A”.
Step 3. Scan the 2 hex digits from the Programming Chart inside the back 
cover of this manual or scan 9, 9 for all symbologies.
Prefix
Scanned Data
Suffix
1-11
alpha numeric
characters
variable length1-11
alpha numeric
characters