Text content replace all the carriage return line feeds in excel with a Pipe | or other hardly used ascii character(s). Do a grep find and replace for | with with InDesign. may have to use a text editor (sublime) to fix the csv. All be done with find and replace too. you can also GREP styles and apply character styles to specific characters to put superscript back. build several page product layouts all on a master page for all possibilities on many many different layers (should look like a hot mess). After the merge, for each page, turn required layout component off and on. make sure the step 1 linefeed is 100% working.
Most of those issues have solves in excel. It just depends if you want to do handwork in excel or in indesign. I’d prefer to do most of it in excel in case I have to rerun the merge. A data merge should get you as close to 100% as possible.
You can solve all of these problems using GREP so you get a 100% automated document. For example, as @BoiceBailey mentioned, use the pipe | symbol and a space after it to define a line break and tell InDesign GREP style to find the pipe / space combination, set the pipe to 'no color' and make the space-character a 1000% wide. This will push all following characters to the next line. And for the sizes: you don't have to have InDesign not showing the empty circles, you just have to make sure that they are 'not visible' (fill / line = no color) also to be done with GREP styles.
Hi Axel, great videos thanks to you I realised that if I want to create for example a wine price list in indesign and later to be easy to update the info using data merge is not possible because is like the example you show with sizes. In this case were are talking about hundreds of wines with its name and price. There is any wat to bring this info form excel and updated later in indesign? I really appreciate if you could give any advice about how would you approach this problem. Thanks for your help
I would like to create a catalog with several lines of text (art. Description, info... image) I left some image cells empty, because only one image refers to multiple lines. How do I avoid indesign showing the placeholders of the images with empty cells anyway, and thus bringing only the lines of text closer together?
Hello, I can see data merge working for calendars if you spend the time preparing. Personally I haven’t tried it on calendars, maybe someone here in the comments can help. As far as I know any software as long as you can save it as a CSV (comma separated values) So basically Excel, Numbers (IOS), Word, and probably Notepad. On Word you would separate every field by a comma. Example: Name, Title, Phone, Email
Excellent video Axel. Really great info. One thing I am having difficulty with is copying the Images text in the gathered folder, each time I select all the files and copy - when I paste into a Numbers column the picture pops in as opposed to the actual text. How can I copy JUST the text file name from a folder? Any help would be most welcome, thanks. Richard ROC Design Ireland.
Thank you! I have to prepare a large document (200p) in 3 different languages. Multiple data stays the same for each language but the text blocks change for each language. Any idea on how to proceed without redoing the entire document completely for each language? My idea was to make a new blank document with only the concerned text blocks to data merge the new languages in, and then merge this with the existing document - where i removed the original text blocks - is there any way to do that?
The Data merge functions biggest drawback is the inability to assign a url to a field. So If I have hundreds of records and I want each title to have a url link, it cannot do this automatically, it is still a manual job.
YES, you can! Just add another image field. *Note:* the only thing that is not variable is the apostrophe and the at symbol ('@) you can put anything after that and it will still register as an image. For example if you're working on a document for real estate with multiple images you can name each field differently. '@exterior | '@interior | '@livingroom | '@bathroom etc... Let me know if this helps. Thanks for your comment!
With the paragraph error, I believe it's because you created paragraphs. It would be simpler if you don't create paragraphs in excel and simply format in InDesign
Text content replace all the
carriage return line feeds in excel with a Pipe | or other hardly used ascii character(s). Do a grep find and replace for | with
with InDesign. may have to use a text editor (sublime) to fix the csv. All be done with find and replace too.
you can also GREP styles and apply character styles to specific characters to put superscript back.
build several page product layouts all on a master page for all possibilities on many many different layers (should look like a hot mess). After the merge, for each page, turn required layout component off and on.
make sure the step 1 linefeed is 100% working.
Most of those issues have solves in excel. It just depends if you want to do handwork in excel or in indesign. I’d prefer to do most of it in excel in case I have to rerun the merge. A data merge should get you as close to 100% as possible.
You can solve all of these problems using GREP so you get a 100% automated document. For example, as @BoiceBailey mentioned, use the pipe | symbol and a space after it to define a line break and tell InDesign GREP style to find the pipe / space combination, set the pipe to 'no color' and make the space-character a 1000% wide. This will push all following characters to the next line. And for the sizes: you don't have to have InDesign not showing the empty circles, you just have to make sure that they are 'not visible' (fill / line = no color) also to be done with GREP styles.
Hi Axel, great videos thanks to you I realised that if I want to create for example a wine price list in indesign and later to be easy to update the info using data merge is not possible because is like the example you show with sizes. In this case were are talking about hundreds of wines with its name and price. There is any wat to bring this info form excel and updated later in indesign? I really appreciate if you could give any advice about how would you approach this problem. Thanks for your help
I would like to create a catalog with several lines of text (art. Description, info... image)
I left some image cells empty, because only one image refers to multiple lines. How do I avoid indesign showing the placeholders of the images with empty cells anyway, and thus bringing only the lines of text closer together?
New subscriber! Awesome tutorials. Can you use data merge for calendars? And is data merge only for Excel?
Hello, I can see data merge working for calendars if you spend the time preparing. Personally I haven’t tried it on calendars, maybe someone here in the comments can help.
As far as I know any software as long as you can save it as a CSV (comma separated values) So basically Excel, Numbers (IOS), Word, and probably Notepad. On Word you would separate every field by a comma. Example:
Name, Title, Phone, Email
Excellent video Axel. Really great info. One thing I am having difficulty with is copying the Images text in the gathered folder, each time I select all the files and copy - when I paste into a Numbers column the picture pops in as opposed to the actual text. How can I copy JUST the text file name from a folder? Any help would be most welcome, thanks. Richard ROC Design Ireland.
Thank you! I have to prepare a large document (200p) in 3 different languages. Multiple data stays the same for each language but the text blocks change for each language. Any idea on how to proceed without redoing the entire document completely for each language? My idea was to make a new blank document with only the concerned text blocks to data merge the new languages in, and then merge this with the existing document - where i removed the original text blocks - is there any way to do that?
Can you show the same example with XML ? Including images . Thanks
Thank you for the video, Can we link the button to URL in the mail merging ?
Hi, I'm Sorry I'm not understanding your question or context. Can you please explain a little more to see how I can help?
How do I add flags of several countries to Excel through a single website link and export it to in Design?
The Data merge functions biggest drawback is the inability to assign a url to a field. So If I have hundreds of records and I want each title to have a url link, it cannot do this automatically, it is still a manual job.
I saw a tiktok of someone using ChatGPT to develop a script to have InDesign do something similar, hope you can find something like that!
Nice Video
@axelbydesign Is it possible to place more then 1 image?
YES, you can! Just add another image field. *Note:* the only thing that is not variable is the apostrophe and the at symbol ('@) you can put anything after that and it will still register as an image. For example if you're working on a document for real estate with multiple images you can name each field differently. '@exterior | '@interior | '@livingroom | '@bathroom etc... Let me know if this helps. Thanks for your comment!
what software do you recommend for auto pdf generation from excel?
With the paragraph error, I believe it's because you created paragraphs. It would be simpler if you don't create paragraphs in excel and simply format in InDesign
Great advice, thank you!
how do you format individual pages after adding the data? It doesnt let me edit the text
Many thanks for the tutorial, this really helped me to build my brochure solution ua-cam.com/video/VSLtV34ATvI/v-deo.htmlsi=pTmiUyHf-gPio46c