Comments on: The InDesigner – Episode 43: Data Merge

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:07:00 +0000

I have the same problem as Ralph Wirth above. Trying to print seperate documents instead of a stitched booklet:

I produce a 4-page newsletter that printed on both sides, folded and stapled and each folded page size is 8.5? x 11?. (a four page booklet on 11×17 paper) I want to print our 250-name mailing list on the outer cover but have discovered that it only prints the whole thing then staples it or I need to manually print each issue per address.

David recommends third party software, but this was in 2008. I am using CS 5.5. Is there a better solution now in Data Merge?

If we have to use a third party software, would you let me know what to look for? Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.
Amy

By: sean Jones

sean Jones — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:25:46 +0000

@Evan.

Try creating a new doc with the exact same page size and margins and cut and past your fields back into the master page. This works often to help reset a data merge indesign file. Also if you changed your CSV by adding columns or rows (with the exception of at the ends of the file) it can really mess with the way indesign see’s the csv data even though your field header names remain the same.

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:22:23 +0000

Question on Datemerge. HELP!!

Hi there,
thanks for your great videa, very useful!
However i’m encountering a difficulty. When trying to open either the Text tab format or the CSV format in indesign CS4, it reads:

“The data source cannot be opened.
Confirm that the file exists and that you have rights to open it, then choose the Select Data Source command again.”

Any idea?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help…

evan.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:46:31 +0000

Cat: No, InDesign has no built-in way to do that. You could probably work with a scripter to create a custom solution, though, or perhaps there is some third-party plug-in that would do it. If it’s a big enough project to hire a scripter, contact us at the Contact link above and we’ll find someone you could work with.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:07:50 +0000

Hi Michael,

Thanks so much for your incredibly helpful site!

We have been told that we can use InDesign to automatically populate text into multiple documents with a single csv file including font style, size and colour.

E.g. the CSV file would contain many lines of information, each may be for a different template/document. In-design would identify the template/document and populate the customised text and be saved as a printable PDF etc.

We are having trouble identifying how this is built or if it is in fact even possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Cat.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:11:06 +0000

@Joe: The path needs to be really, really precise. To get the exact path, try opening TextEdit, making a new doc, choosing Format > Make Plain Text, and then dragging the image from the Finder into the TextEdit document. It should display the file path! If that path doesn’t work, try swapping out the slashes for colons instead.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:51:30 +0000

Hi,
I am trying to use data merge to produce different pictures.
I do as what I’ve seen (using “@” before “picture”, saving as txt, typing in the path for the picture, etc)
However, I am getting an error that says I am trying to link missing images. What Am I doing wrong?

Note: I am on a mac, using InDesign cs4.

Thanks,
Joe

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Mon, 30 May 2011 12:54:50 +0000

@Liviu: Did you try .csv (comma-delimited) instead of text? I suggest using the Forums (click forums in the nav bar above) so more people see your questions.

By: Liviu

Liviu — Mon, 30 May 2011 10:29:44 +0000

Hello!
I encountered a big problem when using data merge in inDesign. My data has special characters, like diacritics, and when trying to save the excel to a tab delimited txt file, those get replaced by question marks. I know this is because the encoding used to save the txt file is ANSI, and this encoding doesnt include those special characters.
I managed to export a UTF-8 tab delimited txt file, but the new problem is that inDesign doesn’t like this encoding, and I get the error message that this file type is unsupported.
I don’t want to believe that Data Merge is only used for the English language users and I am sure that there must be a solution for this, because, without the ability to import these type of characters, I really have no use for Data Merge.
Please help!

By: jason

jason — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:11:23 +0000

I work with pet food packaging and the one problem we have is the constant changing of ingredients and or analysis. I have this info set up in tables, because for me it is easier to control a clean look. I create a master page with the table on it and it shows up on page one like it should. If i preview it previews perfect, if i mail merge no problem all data is entered, even the percentages after the tabs work perfect. My problem comes when trying to update the content in data fields. If i update the table disappears from page one, but remains on the master, if i click preview on the master all the information is perfect. If i reapply the master page to page one the table shows up again perfect, but then i have to do a data merge again, creating a new document, which i don’t want. i want the data in the existing document to update and not add a -1 after it. My current work around is to create a master document in indesign and insert it into the product labels, but this only works on items where this info can be scaled proportionately, but it is a big time saver on those files. I need a solution that works cleanly across all documents. Using a plugin that does it at the print level may or may not work, as i print the labels to PDF and send them to the print house. maybe data merge isn’t meant to be used with this type of document, but the fact it works the first time and doesn’t work to update is what stumps me. here is the log data generated when it fails: Log of Update Data Fields.

Document Name: Shrink09222window-1.indd
Date of update: 3/23/11
Data Source: F1Pellet.txt
Deleted page items: 1
Modified records: 1

Details:
Record 0 (key = autokey0) was modified.

Here is an example of how my .txt file is set up. I use the quotes so i can generate text with commas included after merging.

Ingredients,Protein,fat,fiber,moisture,ash,phosphorous
“Shrimp, pacific krill, sardine, wheat flour, fish eggs, lecithin, spirulina, salmon oil, garlic, minerals (potassium iodide, iron oxide, manganese sulfate, magnesium oxide, zinc sulfate), fish meal, dried fish protein digest , L-lysine, DL-methionine, L-trytophan, vitamins [ascorbic acid (vitamin C), vitamin B12 suplement, nicotinic acid, riboflavin (vitamin B2), thiamine mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), alpha-tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), betaine hydrochloride], calcium propionate (preservative), potassium sorbate (preservative), ethoxyquin (preservative), astaxanthin color, canthaxantin color, dried yeast.”, 41.1%, 9.0%,14.5%,2.5%,10.5%,0.5%