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OAKate
Participant
May 11, 2020
Answered

Best way to create multiple versions of a restaurant menu

  • May 11, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 2500 views

I'm trying to automate creating a menu for a chain of restauarnts, roughly 180 different versions. Each version has the same menu items with different pricing. The information will be coming in via JotForm or Excel, haven't decided which is a better option. I'm leaning towards data merge, but am wondering if there is a better/more efficient way to do this. Does anyone have experience with something like this? I would love suggestions, as I can't seem to figure out how to get started. I currently have a template set up with a placeholder menu in a table format. Since the information will be streaming in over time, versus having everything at once, that seems to complicate the process, especially with a data merge...

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer OAKate

If you need/want to manually adjust 180 files thats an easy task that can be done with indesigns data merge out of the box.

You need additional scripts to get single indesign files though.

 

Alternatively you can try MyDataMerge if you're on macOS. Thats what we use. It can do all at once including deleting unused stuff. And the support is very helpful in setting up projects. 


This is perfect, thank you!

3 replies

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Ricky25288538yunf
Participant
July 23, 2022

I'm doing marketing of my client restaurant princess market. What  is the benefir of creating multiple version of restaurant menu?

brian_p_dts
Community Expert
brian_p_dtsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 18, 2020

You could link Excel data as tables in the InDesign documents. When the Excel data is updated, you can update the link information. 

https://redokun.com/blog/link-indesign-tables-to-excel-spreadsheets

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    patMorita
    Inspiring
    May 18, 2020

    This way he won't get optional items deleted.

    Geоrge
    Geоrge
    Legend
    May 11, 2020

    You're need something like this - https://www.65bit.com/software/easycatalog/

     

    Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner
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      patMorita
      Inspiring
      May 14, 2020

      Is the menu itself all the same except the prices? So you basically can prepare the whole menu and just have the prices to be replaced for 180 records? Then this is an easy task.

      If you have to generate the menu items depending on your data source dynamically then were talking about something more complicated.

       

      Could you clarify?

        O
        OAKateAuthor
        Participant
        May 18, 2020

        The menu itself has required items and optional items. The description of the items does not change from location to location, only the pricing. So yes, the pricing will need to be replaced for 180 different files and each location will need to indicate if they have the optional items and then provide pricing. Thank you for your inout, I hope this clarifies the scope of the project a bit.

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