Data Merge With Multiple Entries

Question

Hello,

I'm working on a program and I have over 400 student names, majors, etc that I have to include. I have all the information broken out in separate columns in an Excel doc. I need for every entry to be formatted in a certain way as follows and set in mixed weights. Here is an example:

First & Last Name
Major
Thesis Advisor:
First & Last Name

I also need the individual text boxes threaded between pages within the document. Is Data Merge the best approach to resolve this? And if so, how should my Excel doc be formatted?

Thanks for your help!

Dave Creamer of IDEAS · Accepted Answer

You could do something a little simplier (although it doesn't sound simple just reading it...):Save your Excel file as tab delimited. Open in Word and replace the tabs with returns using Replace.Be SURE to keep any empty fields for now.Place in InDesign (auto-flow text with a shift-click during place).Create your InDesign styles for each line. For example: 1_StudentName, 2_Major, 3_Advisor, 4_AdvisorName.Then go back and set the Next Style setting in the paragraph style (1_StudentName's next style is 2_Major, 2_Major's next style is 3_Advisor, etc.) IMPORTANT: The last style should loop back to the first: 4_AdvisorName's next style is 1_StudentName.Select all your text and right-click on the 1_StudentName style and select Apply "1_StudentName" then Next Style.Finally, run the GREP Find/change to remove multiple returns.

Colin Flashman · Answer

My peers have provided great solutions, but for posterity I thought I'd add my own solution. You will need a free plug-in to do this listed in step 4 below.

Set up a one page record in one text frame exactly how you want it to appear with the appropriate formatting.
Save your excel file out as either a CSV or tab delimited TXT file so that it can be used with InDesign.
Use the data merge feature to replace the formatted text with the fields from the data merge file; and then merge the file to a new InDesign.
This will prepare many pages with one text frame per page, but the stories won't be linked. To link the stories, use the TextStitch for InDesign Plugin from Rorohiko: https://rorohiko.com/wordpress/textstitch-for-indesign/ - The site is really good at explaining the install instructions.
Prior to running the autostitch feature from the plugin above, in InDesign to to API, TextStitch, Configure, and make sure the two options in red are on:

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