Participant

Question

Is it possible to import a sheet from Excel keeping the fonts, sizes and colors?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 27, 2025
4 replies
818 views

In case my question was too confusing, I will provide some context.

I need to update an art that will be printed and distributed across different departments in the company where I work. This artwork contains the birthdays of several employees, and the original file is an Excel sheet provided by HR. The thing is, we are looking for a way to make the changes each month as quickly and efficiently as possible. Despite already helping, I still need to make the changes (font, colors, size) manually.

Is there a way for InDesign to import the sheet with the settings I just mentioned, so I don’t have to manually change everything?

Sorry for any grammatical errors. English is not my first language.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Gabriely_Vitoria Silv2950

Do it as a Data Merge.

Your XLS / CSV file will be a database - that you'll use as a DataSource for your template.

If you've ever done Data Merge in WORD - it works pretty much the same:

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/indesign/using/data-merge.html

G

Gabriely_Vitoria Silv2950Author

Participant

I tried that! Altough it didn't work for what i need, it's an incredible and useful tool.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

I tried that! Altough it didn't work for what i need, it's an incredible and useful tool.

By @Gabriely_Vitoria Silv2950

What do you mean "it didn't work"?

You need to prepare template - and then just use Data Merge to replace placeholders.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

To answer your question about retaining the formatting, yes you can maintain the formats. They will come in reasonably close to Excel but keep in mind that Microsoft programs only use RGB colors and the measurement system is different between the programs. Also make sure you are using a cross-platform font if going between Mac and Windows.

You can still link to the Excel file as @Jeffrey_Smith mentioned. Just be sure to turn the preference off after you place the Excel file(s), so you don't link to anything you don't intend to. Also, if you link, any edits you make in InDesign will get wiped out when you update; edits must be made in Excel.

Excel:

Import Options:

InDesign:

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

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Gabriely_Vitoria Silv2950Author

Participant

I see. But my doubt is if i use custom fonts (Nunito and Rubik) in Excel Desktop, InDesign did not import the fonts, but instead, converted them to Calibri, without the proper size. I tried the same steps you took in the screenshots, and it did not work.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Can you provide a step-by-step process of what you did? When I get back to my office I'll double check using custom fonts. Where did you get the font you mentioned?

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

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

Work with InDesign styles. Don't expect formatting to transfer from any MS product. MS applications use fonts in their applications which are not available to other apps. You can copy those fonts to your system level, but other limitations will provide many other probles. Therefore I strongly recommend to dismiss the Excel formatting.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

@Willi Adelberger What fonts are you referring to? If working on the same platform (even different physical computers) most fonts should be available. (An exception my be Aptos but that can be downloaded from Microsoft*.) If going cross-platform, this may happen but that's more of an OS difference and not Office apps.

* https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=106087

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

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

You can link an excel spreadsheet when it is placed in Indesign. This will update the data while retaining the styling that has been applied. The first thing you need to do is turn on the Preferences > File Handling > "Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheets Files". This creates a link to the excel file, and when the excel file is updated, the placed spreadsheet can be updated or relinked to a new file. Also having the placed spreadsheet styled with table and cell styles will help the process.

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