Comments on: Automating Data Handling

By: bestey38

bestey38 — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 15:31:26 +0000

Hi, I am a novice user of cs5.5, and am using a trial version. I am attempting a data merge, and I have set up the document I am wanting .csv info to merge into. When I select Window/Utilities/Data Merge a panel shows in grey shade with instructions in 3 steps. No. 1 being to choose Select Data Source from the Panel Menu, no. 2 Drag data fields from the panel to frames on the page etc, No. 3 Choose Create Merged Document from the panel below. But I cannot see where to even select the data source. there is not a panel allowing me to do this. Should I contact Adobe? Thanks

By: Felicia Forbes

Felicia Forbes — Thu, 26 May 2011 03:52:53 +0000

Hi Steve
I have viewed a couple of the videos on the indesign site and they have been extremely helpful.
I have an excel column issue. I have a column in the spreadsheet that contains a price and two different room type (m) and (m,e) (madeup or madeup/ensuite). I need to colour code these separately in Indesign. But, I need first to clarify which one will be (m) in the column and which one will be an (m,e) in the column. How do I separate this information in the datamerge for indesign to identify without manually doing it in the spreadsheet?
I’m using CS5. Thanks so much for any advice in advance.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:49:03 +0000

sorry – i did not tell you that i am using Indesign CS4

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:14:05 +0000

Steve,
I have found your site very helpful. I am trying to do something i thought would be so simple. I need to create name badges using an Avery Template 74459. I had planned to use mail merge using an excel spreadsheet with the various information for each name badge. I have successfully created a single name badge using the data merge, but i cannot find the way to make it fill into a template to create over 100 name badges. I have tried to google help using every combination of words possible with no luck.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

By: Jessie Lind

Jessie Lind — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:58:42 +0000

I have an Excel file with links to .rtf files that I would like to Data Merge into an InDesign document. When I save the Excel file to .csv, I get a message that it may contain features that are not compatible with csv, but I save anyway. Then when I try to do the Data Merge, I get a message that says the data source references one or more unsupported files. The files cannot be previewed or merged.

Any suggestions?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:52:37 +0000

You need to put and single apostrophe at the beginning of that field, it will not let you put in the @ because it uses that for it’s own scripts/functions. After you do that to just the column header followed by the @, you should be fine.

By: Carmelina

Carmelina — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:11:49 +0000

Oh sorry i meant the “function” is not valid.

By: Carmelina

Carmelina — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:11:13 +0000

I am working with an Excel file and it is not allowing me to put the @ symbol before text, saying that the “form” is not valid. How do i fix this?

By: Richard terwijn

Richard terwijn — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:10:13 +0000

Im using Data Merge to Print personolized adressed enveloppes.
What to do if some cells are empty in Excel
An error will say some cells are blank, repair???

By: Emma

Emma — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:13:44 +0000

I am creating a listings magazine, where all the information is supplied to me as a CSV file, with columns for venue, description, price etc. I quite happily told the customer that I could set up a template and then populate the booklet easily using the data merge function. After a couple of hours of trying to do this I don’t think I can after all! Can anyone help me out?