Comments on: Episode 43: Data Merge (VIDEO)

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:13:00 +0000

@bldg13 — First, my apologies for such a slow reply to your question.

What I typically do in Excel is create two additional columns, then paste the common path for my image files into the first cell at the top of one of those columns. Then I click and drag on the lower-right corner of that cell and drag down the column to populate all cells in that column with the file path.

In the other column, I take advantage of Excel’s concatenation feature to combine the file path with the unique file names. So, if for example, your file path is in column C and your file names are in column D (assuming that each starts in row 2 because you need a header row for the data merge), what you’d put in that blank column to combine the two is: =CONCATENATE(C2,D2)

You should see the result once you hit enter. The cell should now contain the contents of cell C2, immediately followed by the contents of cell D2. If you click and hold on the lower right corner of that cell, then drag down the column, it will combine C3 and D3, C4 and D4, C5 and D5, and so on all the way down. That’s the column you should put the @photos header on in Excel so InDesign recognizes it as image references.

Don’t worry about the other two columns being in the Excel file you eventually use in InDesign. They’ll be available in InDesign’s Data Merge panel, but you don’t need to use them in your document.

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:00:56 +0000

Double-sided is not a Data Merge option. You’d have to do one merge in one document for the front, and one merge in another document for the back, which opens you up to errors when you try to marry them up. You may need to move to an XML-based workflow (something I’m a little weak on), or try to find a printer who can do variable-data printing for you, to whom you’d only need to provide the template(s) and the data set.

By: dianie03

dianie03 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:35:15 +0000

Great tutorial! I have one question. (Don’t we always!)

Is there anyway to use data merging on a double sided document? I’m creating 300 business cards and need to have “variables” on each side of the card. I’m using the Multiple record layout for the fronts and it’s working perfectly, but, I need the backs to match up on a separate page in the same document.

Thanks for all your help!

By: bldg13

bldg13 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:38:05 +0000

This is a really good tutorial. Thanks!

I have a question regarding collecting data in an excel doc. I have a bunch of images (nested in a folder structure) that I want to get into the excel doc so I can do the data merge. Is there an easy way to capture all the image file paths all at once to paste into excel? I’m using OSX and guess this could be done in terminal but not sure just how. Any thoughts?

By: Matthew Laun

Matthew Laun — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:52:30 +0000

A significant issue with InDesign CS4’s Data Merge feature has been fixed in the 6.0.4 update. See the release notes for item #2335625.

——————————————————

An important update to the InCopy and InDesign products has been released today!
To install the update, choose Help > Updates from any Adobe CS4 application, or navigate to the Adobe Updater and launch it:
Mac: /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Utilities/Updater6/Adobe Updater.app
Win: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater6\Adobe_Updater.exe

You can also download the updates from Adobe.com at the following locations:
InCopy Mac: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=30&platform=Macintosh
InCopy Win: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=30&platform=WIndows
InDesign Mac: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=31&platform=Macintosh
InDesign Win: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=31&platform=WIndows

Release notes are here: http://www.adobe.com/go/id6_readme_en

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:47:53 +0000

@ Kyle:

I am facing the same issue. Since InDesign wont do it (at least any way that I can find), why not re-order the actual data? In my case, I am printing 4-up response cards with dynamic data on both sides, so while my “front” side is ordered 1-2-3-4 going from right to left on two rows, my other side simply has to have record 1 become 2, 2->1, 3->4, 4->3. The formula here ends up being add one to the unique ID of odd records, and subtract one from the same value of even numbered records, and reorder.

Just remember to backup an original copy of the data in case of mistakes, the front side data must have an autonumbered sequential ID field (so you can alter it in the “back” side data file). If you get creative with copy and pasting Excel formulas, this becomes a much less daunting task than it seems and improves the functionality of InDesign exponentially (in my opinion).

Just an idea, and I hope it works for you!

By: Janet Lowry

Janet Lowry — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:08:21 +0000

Hi, great tutorial, though I’ve had to tear my hair out over this thing. First the filenames were very difficult. Then I’m having the same problem Karen has. I can get only the single image, and the multiple record is disabled. I also have the educational version. I can’t understand why “Records to Merge” shows 4 records in the range, but when I click either All Records or Range, the “Multiple Record Layout is disabled because Single Record is selected per document page”. But that’s not true.
Since I can do the merge with any one of the single records, I think there may well be something to what Karen said. How would I find this out officially?

By: Crystal Reynolds

Crystal Reynolds — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:33:11 +0000

I have a project challenge and was wondering if InDesign CS4 will be able to help me. It is a data merge issue. I have a client with a catalogue – who creates a separate price list publication. The information is sorted by page number then item description, code, colour, price – since this is an annual change – instead of manually editing – ideally if I could have my client update a spreadsheet with the price/page number/description updates so I can then merge to InDesign. Is this possible?

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:03:08 +0000

I have a problem with multiple records.
I created a document with 12 labels. In the preview everything looks good, every label has a different record, but when I merge the document, then all the records get mixed up. Some records are duplicated, some records are missing. Do you knwo what can go wrong and how to solve this?

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:09:54 +0000

Liz -- As I've suggested to others earlier in these comments, I think the definitive InDesign and XML reference is A Designer’s Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML by Jim Maivald and Cathy Palmer. Every XML-based project is unique, so there's no cookie-cutter answer or step-by-step I can offer here. That book will arm you with all the knowledge you need to establish XML templates and a workflow that suits your specific needs.