I am looking for a workflow suggestion for a directory listing. I would like to either use a datamerge, or prepare data for import, (knowing there would be data manipulation required in either process). Below is basic sample data of what I am provided and finished layout. Please keep in mind there are many other columns of data including address, web, email, affliation icons, etc. The basic sample data (spreadsheet) is like this: Company Contact Country ABC Company Name 1 USA ABC Company Name 2 USA Incorporated Name 3 Canada Incorporated Name 4 Canada Incorporated Name 5 Canada The finished layout will look this: ABC CompanyUSA Name 1 Name 2 IncorporatedCanada Name 3 Name 4 Name 5 Open to any workflow suggestions that would minimize manipulation, and hopefully some automation. <Title renamed by moderator>

Community Expert

Question

How to minimize the amount of manual interaction in InDesign?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
January 4, 2023
7 replies
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I am looking for a workflow suggestion for a directory listing. I would like to either use a datamerge, or prepare data for import, (knowing there would be data manipulation required in either process). Below is basic sample data of what I am provided and finished layout. Please keep in mind there are many other columns of data including address, web, email, affliation icons, etc.

The basic sample data (spreadsheet) is like this:

Company	Contact	Country
ABC Company	Name 1	USA
ABC Company	Name 2	USA
Incorporated	Name 3	Canada
Incorporated	Name 4	Canada
Incorporated	Name 5	Canada

The finished layout will look this:

ABC Company
USA

Name 1

Name 2

Incorporated
Canada

Name 3

Name 4

Name 5

Open to any workflow suggestions that would minimize manipulation, and hopefully some automation.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

If you are looking at a large amount of this data. you should look at some of the software plugins that do this sort of work. I do annual directory listings for one project, which is about 200 pages worth of this. I personally used Em Softwares' InData but there are others out there. It takes some time to figure out how to "program" how the incoming data needs to be formatted (using things <<if / then>> type phrases, which does automatic formatting and Styles application, and does things like ignore empty fields without adding an unnecessary carriage returns, etc. Once you get that done, the actual building of a long document takes only minutes. There will still be the odd change you need to do, but you will be 99% there.

For you right now, though, what would make your data work better is to add the extra names as extra columns in the same row (even if there aren't that many names for each listing) like this:

Then, using the built in data merge in ID, you will of course end up with extra carriage returns on the empty name cells, but you can do a simple search & replace to remove extra returns.

Loic.Aigon

Legend

That's my take, being code-able doesn't mean it has to be coded. Those plugins are certainly pricey but they can save so much time for non-tech users making many repeating routines in working on structured documents a joke.

oobie222

Participant

Hi. I do directories and use Adobe Tagged Text Files. My data source (Filemaker) exports a text file with the data bits surrounded by paragraph and character style tags, as well as table tags. These tagged text files are placed in an InDesign document where all the styles have been defined, resulting in a fully formatted listing.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Attached is a super-old PDF on working with data from FileMaiker (could work for Excel too). Originally written in the early nineties, it was meant for PageMaker but could be modified for InDesign.

The Directory Publishing PDF shows how to use the next-style setting for quick formatting.

For the InData Job,

This was the original data from a database and opened in Excel:

I cleaned it up with a series of Excel find/replace macros:

This was the final result in InDesign using InData plugin:

This was a sample of the InData code used:

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Directory_Publishing.pdf

PM_DatabasePublishing.pdf

oobie222

Participant

Hi. It used to be that the Em Data plugins would not allow one to make a document text flow in which every bit of text was completely formatted with Paragraph Styles and Character styles when placed. So, for example, you could make text red, but not with your Paragraph or Character Styles. Is this still the case? Thanks.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

I did not read this entire thread, but Em Software InData would make short work of this. I worked on a project that had much more complex data and, with InData, I was able to layout about 600 pages in an hour.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Author

Community Expert

Although I would like to accomplish this task with Excel and Indesign, I am open to plugins. I mentioned previously in thread that in additonal to data manipulation for either import or merge, I would need to perform a lot of data cleanup. The question would be, can a suggested third party solution accomplish desired layout with little or no manipulation, AND perform the data cleanup as well.

Loic.Aigon had suggested EasyCatalog, and that cleanup can be done as well.

Can InData work with the data file, with little or no manipulation, and also cleanup data?

FRIdNGE

To be more precise, not sure Jeffrey_Smith could need more than basic Grep Queries!

Of course, some Grep knowledges could be needed! 😉

I know it's just a sample but, using a (free) queries-launcher, he will just need here 1 click!

8 (not 5, including para styling) Grep Find/Replace.

Why 8? … Because I've no time to imagine less (but more complex) and it's ever faster to write simple queries!! 😉

Best,

(^/)

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

Nice 🙂 can you explain queries 1 & 3 - where you are adding @?

And how will it looks like - when country's name is more than one word?

FRIdNGE

Robert,

In this "tabulated text", the main markers are of course the tabulations and the carriage-returns.

So, Query 1: ([^\t]+)\r.+\K\t(?=\1)

searches a "tabulation" ! and …

finds first the tab before the second "USA",

finds first the tab before the second "Canada",

finds first the tab before the third "Canada".

The main target of this Query 1 is its beginning: "([^\t]+)\r"

… that means a text without tabulation at the end of a para preceded by a "tabulation".

If I have "Happy New Year" instead of "USA" or "Canada", the Query would find the 3 tabs! 😉

To remove the "duplicated" texts, we need to add to them [queries 1 & 3] a specific temporary marker "@" [I could choose another glyph I won't find in the text]. The Query 1 works with the Query 2 and the Query 3 works with the Query 4.

To apply para styles, we need to add another specific temporary marker "#" [I could choose another glyph I won't find in the text] associated to an arbitrary number to differentiate each para style: "#2" for "Italic" and "#3" for "Regular". No need one for "Bold" because of Query 0.

I know the limits of such brain gymnastics for most people but, btw, learning/knowing Grep is a true time-saver for those who play with it! … Its limit: it doesn't make coffee!

(^/)

Loic.Aigon

Legend

From my experience, while everything can be scripted by all means, mounting structured documents is probably best achieved with commercial plugins such as EasyCatalog or InCatalog. I know better the former and I think that the money you may want to save with a script will be widely saved with those products 😉

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

Don't think such expensive tools are really needed to do this simple thing 😉

Loic.Aigon

Legend

Point is, mounting catalogs and directories often require more than simple tricks. IMHO, for non-developers, it's sometimes more comfortable and invest-prone in the long-term. But I do agree, not only it's my personal opinion and yes as I said, scripting can do much 😉

brian_p_dts

Community Expert

I would just leave subsequent Company and Country fields blank, export your spreadsheet out as a tab-delimted txt, flow it and replace tabs with returns, then find replace blank lines with nothing.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

But Country should be before Contact as well?

brian_p_dts

Community Expert

Sure, flip the columns.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

Either complete overhaul of the spreadsheet - or custom script.

Right now - DataMerge won't be able to process this data as the information for a "single" record is in a multiple lines.

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