Illustrator - Variable Data - not working?

[StolenPanda]

Is the Variable Data feature working for anyone else? I have a list of names ~23 that all need to be inputted and swapped out on an image.

For the last two weeks, I've used the following method and now it is no longer working. Can anyone assist?

Method used:

1. Create a list of names in GSheet > Export as CSV
2. Open illustrator file, select text that will have the Variable Data applied to
3. Clicked "Make Dynamic Text"
4. Clicked More options > Load Variable Library and selected my CSV file
5. Variable data comes through with "X" amount of "Data Sets"
6. When navigating through each "Data Set" the text does not update to match the CSV file. It does absolutely nothing because the"Data Sets" are coming in "Blank"

My best guess is something is happening to the reading of the CSV file when importing. I can't figure out why all my Data Sets are blank. Even files that worked for me last week is now no longer working.

I've attached my CSV file in case anyone is interested. The "," doesn't impact anything as last 2 weeks I have used files with a "," after the name.

[StolenPanda · Accepted solution]

Solved:
The issue and step I was missing was having the first row in the excel sheet data to match the "Variable1" tag in illustrator

[Silly-V]

When you get real deep into Illustrator variable data, you may want to check out the VariableImporter script - although at this time it's not working on Mac Ai2021 due to some Adobe bug 🙄

[Mellor85]

Hi there,

Any update on this bug? Its driving me mad!!!

 

[Mathias27354485xrri]

You are my savior!
I have spent about three hours troubleshooting CSV-files with semicolons instead of commas and when i fixed that and it still wasnt working i tried converting them to XML. Thankfully the last piece of the puzzle was this.
Now i can do all my VDP from Illustrator without having to convert my designs to InDesign and i am very happy 🙂

[totallockout]

In my case, AI will not open csv files. It's looking for an xml file. Any further advice appreciated.

[Monika Gause]

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@totallockout  schrieb:

In my case, AI will not open csv files. It's looking for an xml file. Any further advice appreciated.

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Which version is it?

[totallockout]

Version 15.0.0 - part of Creative Suite 5.

[Monika Gause]

That version does not support CSV

You can try if VariableImporter script can add that capability to your version.

[totallockout]

Any further directions on guidance on VariableImporter script gratefully received. But I think I've tried this already and got the message "the incoming variable library is invalid".