When Size mode is set to Manual the barcode element can be freely resized, through the use of the mouse or by manually changing the values in the Width and Height text boxes.

Note:
Sizes shown here will be in inches or centimeters according to the Unit of measure setting defined in the General tab of the Option dialog box.
Inch fractions can be entered through a popup menu, as explained in the topic manage inch fractions.

When Size mode is set to one of the three possible Anchor values (Anchor left, Anchor center and Anchor right), the size of the barcode element will be automatically calculated using the barcode specification of the selected symbology. This way you can be sure that the generated symbol will preserve its readability.

In this case, all manual resizing is disabled: the Width and Height text boxes are disabled and you'll only be able to use the mouse to reposition the element but not to resize it.

This functionality is intended for two purposes:

1. The symbol is encoding static data and you want to make sure its size is properly setup to ensure correct readability.
2. The symbol is connected to a data source that contains variable length data, and you want the size of the symbol to shrink or expand according to the encoded data, so that readability is preserved.

In this last scenario the size of the barcode changes at each location, the Anchor point selection will determine which side of the element will be kept Anchored and which will vary:

• Anchor left: The left side of the element is fixed and the right side is changed according to contents.
• Anchor center: both the left and the right side are changed to preserve the horizontal center point of the element.
• Anchor right: The right side of the element is fixed and the left side is changed according to contents.