The InDesigner

Since watching this tutorial, I now use this method to create my clients monthly product offer sheets. They simply email me an excel spreadsheet with Product code/description/link to the relevant images/price/new price/sizes in stock/any other info needed… which is all exported direct from their SAGE accounting system in one easy report. The relevant images (i have stored locally in one folder as part numbers, which match the image links from the clients sage package).

Then i use the same process on the final flyer to add the recipients addresses, again exported into excel/csv from SAGE by the client.

A basic 100 product A3ds flyer can be produced ‘in minutes’ giving me more time to be creative and punchy with the overall layout. Plus, Any last minute price changes are no longer an issue!

THANK YOU!

Dan — Thanks for sharing your experience. The whole point of the podcast is to reveal those features that make the work itself easier so that we can all spend time making it better. It’s always great to hear these “case histories” from the audience, and very rewarding for me to know that the ideas are being incorporated into people’s everyday projects.

Hi Michael, thanks for your message. Yes the count of items are not the same on every page, a page might have only 12 items but on the next will have 20. The catalog is sorted by brand name so it depends how many products can fit on a page. We have like shirts, jackets, caps, shoes, accessories, etc. I think I have to do it manually since the number of items on a page is not the same always. Sorry for me If you have other solution just let us know. Thanks very much!

Amaltra — As a die-hard Mac guy (and one who is still using Office 2004), I can’t exactly pinpoint why you’re not seeing this option, but when I do a “Save As…” the pull-down menu I see looks like this:

If you have no luck finding it that way, keep this in mind: when you copy and paste from Excel into a text file, you’ve automatically converted it to tab-delimited text. The columns are swapped out for tabs that way. So if you run out of other options, cut and paste what’s in your excel file into a plain text file, then save it as a text file. There’s really nothing special about the “tab-delimited” format itself. It’s just a plain text file.

Linda –

I don’t think that starting your spreadsheet off on the PC is the culprit here, but if the images you’re referencing are on that PC, you’re going to have an issue with the file paths, because PCs require backslashes between directory levels, not colons. But if these images are all on your Mac, and you definitely have the “at” symbol as the first character in the header for the column that lists your images, I suggest trying to do a truly “absolute” path for the files, rather than just starting at “Desktop.” Since each user has his or her own “Desktop” folder, I find it’s safer to make my file paths bullet-proof, as follows:

Macintosh HD:Users:myusername:Desktop: and so on…

Give that a shot and let me know if it works.

Hi Michael
we have been trying to produce name cards for a customer event. Have followed all the steps in your Data Merge video, which was fantastic. BUT, while we can preview the 3 pages with names in correct order etc, so preview is perfect; when InDesign actually creates the document it only has one name repeated on everycard.
Please help!!! We can not figure out why this happens.

Thanks
Nora

Nora –

Sorry for the delay. I’ve been traveling.
Just out of curiosity, do those templates include other elements on the page?
I’ve had experiences with Data Merge where the preview looks great but another object on the page causes the merged file to appear entirely differently. You may still be able to use that template, but with some modifications.

Ahamed –

The solution for what you need is not Data Merge, unfortunately. To get repetitive data to flow continuously through one frame (or a series of threaded frames), you’ll want to work with XML instead. Using tagged XML data, and by putting formatted placeholder tags in an InDesign file, you can flow those 500 listings one after another, as well as keep them linked to the source data file.

Michael

Excellent tutorial!

What I’m trying to do is Group the output. For example, like a Company Telephone Directory where people are listed by Department.

Department Name
Name1 - Email
Name2 - Email
etc

Next Department Name
Name1 - Email
Name2 - Email
etc

Can this be done with ID? thanks

zu

I know it’s kinda late to respond to this thread but I’m curious to know if it’s possible to create a template that is different on each side of a spread (eg images away from spine and text towards spine)

I know it’s been said before but your tutorials are absolutely amazing. I love the in-depth knowledge. Keep up the good work.

I doubt that this is the case, Karen. More often than not, the graying out of the Multiple Records option is due to some error in the setup of the file that acts as the merge source. If you troubleshoot your layout for potential errors and eliminate them, I think you’ll find the Multiple Records option will be available to you. There’d be very little use to Data Merge without that feature.

Michael,

I have a question that you may have already answered so I apolgize if this is repeat info. I am using data merge with a .csv file and I have the follwing layout

Name
Address 1
Address 2
city, state zip

In some cases I do not have a Address 2. Is there a way to automatically move up the city, state zip line if there is not address 2, rather than having a blank space in the address field?

Thank you for your help.

Linda

Christian –

In all honesty, my best recommendation to you is to find a variable-data printing service that can handle this job for you. It would probably cost you a little bit of money, but it would save you a ton of time and eliminate the need to produce a 20,000 page document. That, in my opinion, is too large for Data Merge’s intended use.