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coleman_as
Participant
October 8, 2012
Answered

Populating InDesign document with external data?

  • October 8, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 3369 views

Hi All – I hope I’m asking this question in the correct forum. I’m assuming that this is a scripting issue, but if it’s not, I apologize. Anyway -  am wondering if this is possible, and if so, if someone could point me in the general direction of further information:

My company occasionally asks us to produce employee directories that include information (photo, contact info, education info, etc.) about various segments of the Firm population – for example, one directory might include all women of color, one might include everyone in the Los Angeles office, etc. I would like to find a way to “template” this in InDesign so that the relevant info can flow into the document from an external data source – for example, HR’s SQL database or maybe a spreadsheet generated from that database. I know that we are currently able to do something similar using Word, but the end product looks like crap.

I’m not sure what this would even be called in InDesign, so any info will be greatly appreciated. I'm using version CS5. Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Colin Flashman

i'd do this using the Data Merge feature. It's similar to the mail merge feature of word. There's a great video of how it works here: http://www.theindesigner.com/blog/episode-43-data-merge-video

there are more complicated ways using XML or third party plug-ins, but i'd try this method first.

colly

2 replies

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L__Guy_O_Rojo
Inspiring
October 9, 2012

Another method is to have the database write InDesign Tagged Text files.

Colin Flashman
Community Expert
Colin FlashmanCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
October 9, 2012

i'd do this using the Data Merge feature. It's similar to the mail merge feature of word. There's a great video of how it works here: http://www.theindesigner.com/blog/episode-43-data-merge-video

there are more complicated ways using XML or third party plug-ins, but i'd try this method first.

colly

If the answer wasn't in my post, perhaps it might be on my blog at colecandoo!
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coleman_asAuthor
Participant
October 9, 2012

That's great - thank you.

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