Data merge output pdf with addition pdf attachments

This sounds like a general automation task, not specific to Adobe tools (although you could certainly use those too):

1. Pull a list of spec numbers from the Excel,
2. Locate the corresponding product sheet PDFs in a folder, and
3. Append those PDFs’ contents to the end of your main Quote PDF.

Worth searching around online to see if there are existing apps/scripts which do what you want. It’s probably quite a common business task so I’d wager there are and you can find something that’ll work out of the box. Microsoft’s own 365 would be the natural place to start: Excel is MS’s bailiwick and PDFs are used everywhere in business.

If you don’t find something that quite fits your needs, the next step would be to create a script that does. It’s a small, straightforward job for someone with scripting experience and a little familiarity with the file formats involved.

If you know a little JavaScript you can probably lash it together yourself. I’d suggest a quick rummage on npmjs.com, searching for the following phrases:

• xlsx
• pdf merge

That will turn up libraries for reading cell values from Excel files and for merging PDF files together.

(I can’t comment on the quality/appropriateness of specific libraries on npm, but I expect there’ll be something Good Enough.)

If you don’t know any scripting, write up a brief of what you require (basically the list above), with some Before and After example files/screenshots (a picture paints a thousand words), and find someone to write a script for you. From what you’ve described I’d estimate 4 hours coding plus 4 hours to iron out any details in user testing.

HTH

Actually your idea about adding the pdfs to an indesign document (perhaps a new temp document) and then exporting that should work fine. It would need some scripting though. Have you done any scripting? Also the script would need to know which pdfs to import so you'd need a systematic workflow. Have a think about it. - Mark