Use Data Merge to build personalized documents
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By Terry White for Layers Magazine
You might be asking, “What’s Data Merge?” That’s a valid question as it’s fairly new to Adobe® InDesign®. Data Merge is the ability to create fields in your document that automatically populate from a comma-delimited file (.csv) or a tab-delimited (.txt) file. These files can also reference the paths to images so that the images change, too. It’s mail merge with a graphics professional flair!
In the second half of this tutorial, we’ll take a look at good document hygiene for your InDesign files. Although the world is moving to PDF workflow, there will be times that your printer will want the original source InDesign files to print from. That’s cool because Adobe InDesign CS2 provides more features to make sure that your files are right before you send them to press.
Create merged documents
Step 1: Create your data source.
You can create your data source manually by typing it in a text file, but it’s easier using a program like Microsoft® Excel or FileMaker Pro. Because Excel is common, let’s use it. Open Excel and create a document that has the headings “Name,” “Location,” and “Picture” across the top. Input your records in each column. Do just three records at first to make sure it works. For the Picture column, you have to input the exact path on your computer for each picture, and it’s case sensitive. Example: Mac HD:Photos:SpaceAlien.jpg (PC: c:\Photos\SpaceAlien.jpg). When you’re done, save the file as Comma-Delimited.
Type text in the Name and Location fields and the path to three images in an Excel document.
Step 2: Open the file in a text editor.
Now that you have your data file, you need to make one change to it in a text editor. Open it in TextEdit on the Mac or Notepad on the PC. Once you have it open add “@” before the word “picture” (@picture) and save the file. Excel won’t allow this as it thinks you’re trying to create a function.
Open and edit the Excel document as plain text in a text editing application.
Step 3: Create text and image frames in InDesign.
Create a new InDesign document (choose File > New > Document) and drag out two text frames (one for the Name and one for the Location) with the Type tool (T). Then use the Rectangle Frame tool (F) to create an image frame for the photo that you’re about to merge.
Create 2 text frames and an image frame in a new InDesign document.
Step 4: Display the Data Merge palette.
Open the Data Merge palette, which is located under the Window > Automation menu of InDesign CS2. What’s nice about this palette is that it contains the next three steps directly on the palette.
Choose Window > Automation > Data Merge to display the Data Merge Palette.
Step 5: Choose your CSV file.
Choose Select Data Source from the Data Merge Palette’s flyout menu. This will bring up a dialog asking you to choose the comma-delimited file you created in Steps 1 and 2. The palette should then populate with the three fields: Name, Location, and Picture. The Picture field should have the icon of an image to the left of it which indicates that you successfully put the “@” symbol in front of the word “picture” in the data file.
Choose select Data Source from the Data Merge palette menu to select the Excel document.
