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Correct answer Colin Flashman

To somewhat expand on Bob's answer, I'd say "No, not without making your own solution to do so".

Data Merge aside, importing images from http or https into InDesign has been a challenge that one scripter has been working on and the information on this challenge can be found here: https://coppieters.nz/?p=133

I definitely agree with Bob's answer, but if the OP's hand is forced and getting images from the internet must be done, consider checking out the link in the above paragraph.

4 replies

Inspiring
May 14, 2020

I know this is and old post but i just stumbled upon it and wanted to let you know what we do. We have Mydatamerge in use that handles that with ease with a few clicks.

Supported are either full URLS from a datasource or just imagenames (you can add URL inside the app).

Its low cost app for macOS and i recommend it if you need to work with data merge regularly. I wouldn't buy it if its a one time task

Steeve Beach
Participating Frequently
February 7, 2020

It may not be correct for your project but for mine, I was given a list of 200 country flags as URLs in an Excel file. I added this extension to Chrome:

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/simple-mass-downloader/abdkkegmcbiomijcbdaodaflgehfffed/related?hl=en-US

 

And converted URLs to a text file, imported it, and presto. Now I can easily convert those URLs to local paths.

Colin Flashman
Community Expert
Colin FlashmanCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 2, 2018

To somewhat expand on Bob's answer, I'd say "No, not without making your own solution to do so".

Data Merge aside, importing images from http or https into InDesign has been a challenge that one scripter has been working on and the information on this challenge can be found here: https://coppieters.nz/?p=133

I definitely agree with Bob's answer, but if the OP's hand is forced and getting images from the internet must be done, consider checking out the link in the above paragraph.

If the answer wasn't in my post, perhaps it might be on my blog at colecandoo!
TᴀW
Legend
March 3, 2018

Very true Colin. This is definitely doable with a script. Check out my own experimental An InDesign HTML Import Script | Id-Extras.com

... which happily pulls in pictures from a URL.

The solution I'd envisage would be a datamerge that places the URL as text in InDesign, and then an additional script that goes through the document, reads the URLs, and pulls the images in from the web...

Ariel

Visit www.id-extras.com for powerful InDesign scripts that save hours of work — automation, batch tools, and workflow boosters for serious designers.
BobLevine
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 2, 2018

No

Matal57
Matal57Author
Participant
March 2, 2018

Ohhh, so sad. Thank you for that quick response Bob!