How to Generate QR Codes in Microsoft Office Using QR4Office

QR Code or Quick Response code reminds you of black and white patterns, which is quite useful. With the click of a button, you can complete payments, fill out a form or take a survey. QR codes can be quite suitable for sharing links of sites and information content.

What Are QR Codes?

QR code is short for Quick Response code. It is a machine-scannable image containing certain details such as website links or product information that can be read by QR code readers. For starters, you can use your smartphone or a QR Code reader app to use them.

An example of using a QR code is WhatsApp. To use WhatsApp on PC or Mac using a mobile phone, you will need to scan a QR code. Here’s how you can create one for yourself too.

How to Generate QR Code

To generate a QR code you will need the following:

• Windows 10 version 16299 or higher
• Microsoft 365 subscription
• Microsoft Word/PowerPoint/Excel
• QR4Office

Downloading the QR4Office Plugin

The first step when creating a QR code is to download the QR4Office plugin. Here’s how to do this:

Stage 1: Launch any of the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint or Excel)

Step 2: On the ribbon, click the Insert tab.

Stage 3: If you are using Microsoft 2016 or higher, click on Get Add-ons and a new window should open. Click Store for Microsoft 2013.

Step 4: Type a query for QR4Office in the search bar.

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

Generating QR Codes with QR4Office Plugin

To use the QR4Office Add-in, you must launch it in any of the Microsoft Office Suite. Here’s how to do this:

Stage 1: On the ribbon, click the Insert tab.

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

Stage 3: Select the QR4Office plugin to launch it. The add-on should open with a taskbar on the right side of the Microsoft tool.

Step 4: The first item in the QR4Office tool should be a drop-down menu. In the drop-down menu, select http:// or https:// for web links, mailto: for emails, tel: or sms: for phone lines, geo: for locations, and custom to generate a unique QR code.

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

Step 6: Most QR codes are black and white. But you can change the color with the QR4Office plugin. Choose the preferred color of the QR code by choosing from the color palette or adding the RGB color code.

Step 7: After selecting the preferred color, click on set color.

Step 8: Drag the slider from left to right to choose the size of the QR code. When you make changes to the size, URL or text of the QR code, it should display in a preview box.

Step 9: You can set the Error correction percentage of the QR code by selecting the percentage from the drop-down menu. The error correction feature ensures that the QR code can restore data if the code is damaged or contaminated (useful when the code is in hard copy).

Step 10: Click Add to generate the QR code in your Microsoft Office Suite.

Step 11: If Insert is not working, right-click on the preview image and Copy. In the Microsoft Office Suite, select Paste Special and select Paste as Device-Independent Bitmap.

You can also fake Step 11 to paste the QR code into other Microsoft tools like PowerPoint and Excel or embed it on a website.

Testing the QR Code

Before you start using the QR code, it is important to test its functionality. You can do this with a mobile device. If you’re using an iOS device, this is pretty easy as it has a built-in feature that lets it scan QR codes when Camera is activated.

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

Get Google Lens

With that in mind, here’s how to test the QR code’s functionality.

Stage 1: Launch a Camera or QR scanner that allows the tool to capture all 4 corners of the QR code.

Step 2: A popup should come up to open the QR code. Click on it and you can confirm the functionality of the QR code if it redirects you to the website or text added.

QR to Save Time

You can generate QR codes in Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel using the steps described above. QR codes can also be generated for video websites like YouTube or social messaging platforms like WhatsApp.