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- MAIL MERGE INDESIGN FROM EXCEL HOW TO
- MAIL MERGE INDESIGN FROM EXCEL PDF
- MAIL MERGE INDESIGN FROM EXCEL SERIES
In the Number field for the Bullets and Numbering, insert “Mobile: ” and insert email for the other Paragraph Styles. Do the same for the Mobile and the Email address styles.In the Numbering options, set the Format to “None”, and type in “Office: “. Open the Office Number paragraph style and go to the Bullets and Numbering Section. See also: Formatting tips for Bullets and Numbered Lists In the screenshot below, I’ve used the character style “Blue” for the “Office:” “Mobile” and “Email” address. The second key point is to use automatic numbering in the paragraph styles to insert words like “Office: ” instead of real live text. This is the first key point for solving the blank lines problem. What I haven’t shown you so far is that I’ve threaded my text frames. This would be OK if you have 10 or 20 or even 50 business cards, you could sort them manually and fix them up. But what if it was thousands of entries in a database? It would be a nightmare to get through all those pages of data to find a random person who does not want their phone number, or mobile (cell), or email on their card! The Solution: Use Numbering in your Paragraph Styles to Create Headings In the Data Merge panel menu, you can choose Content Placement Options, and select Remove Blank Lines for Empty Fields.īut since the word “Mobile” is on the line, InDesign does not recognize it as a blank line. Maybe some don’t even have an email address… this is what happens in real life when you create the merge. And not all of them had mobile (cell) numbers. Now imagine you have been given a database with 500 names in it. A Potential Problem: Handling Blank Lines
MAIL MERGE INDESIGN FROM EXCEL PDF
You can either Export to PDF directly (my favourite method), or you can Create a Merged Document. Lastly, you can go to the menu in the top-right corner and create your merged documents. Then you can preview your output by clicking Preview, and cycling through each item using the arrows next to the Preview button. With the Data Merge panel open, you can insert the Type tool into the text frame, then click on the item you want to appear in the space you’ve provided.
MAIL MERGE INDESIGN FROM EXCEL SERIES
For a detailed introduction to Data Merge, see the series of posts by Steve Werner, Automating Data Handling. Set up your document to merge (if you haven’t done so already). Navigate to where you saved your file from your spreadsheet.
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Import your data to InDesign via the Data Merge panel which can be found under Window > Utilities > Data Merge. Check for any characters that have accents on the letters, which can sometimes require special handling. Save your file as a CSV, tab-delimited, or UTF-16, whatever works for you.
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The spreadsheet needs to be as clean as possible, and everything needs to be separated into cells.
MAIL MERGE INDESIGN FROM EXCEL HOW TO
In his article, I’m going to show how to get around a problem with the handling of blank lines (empty cells in the spreadsheet).įirst, set up a spreadsheet and populate it with the data you need. How cool! But occasionally your database entries won’t be consistent and you’ll have to find a workaround to get things formatted properly.
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It allows you to use data from Excel (saved as a tab-delimited, CSV, UTF-16, or other text format) to fill placeholders in InDesign and auto-generate finished documents. InDesign has a fantastic feature called Data Merge.
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