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Hi, I've used indesign for a long time, but this is something I've never done so starting from scratch.
I designed a catalogue which was a simple, small one off, so did it old school - copy pasting info. Now I could be looking at adding 12,000 more items...
Soooo... the catalogue was created with 9 graphic boxes per page on the master pages. Then on each working page, a simple text box was added that contained 6 lines of text below a photograph. Each line of text has a constant (e.g. "dimensions") in one typeface, then a variable (e.g. 24 x 36) in another font beside it, and a third variable (e.g. total qty 8). Content will change over time, so require a deletion and everything needs to re-flow
What's the best way to rework this to limit manual labour involved? So it'll recognise the fields and assign the character styles correctly, choose the correct photo to be in the right place, or am I asking too much?
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The project sounds simple enough for the built-in Data Merge, but you might want to break it up into smaller, logical sections and put them together in an InDesign book file. Otherwise, look at a third-party plugin such as Em Software InData or InCatalog. (There are others.)
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Yes, if this will be ongoing, invest in a catalog plugin.
A primer: https://pagination.com/indesign-catalog-plugins/
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Catalogue Plugins are a must when a catalogue is this large. Usual suspects are:
InData (http://emsoftware.com/)
EasyCatalogue (https://www.65bit.com/)
LiveMerge (www.cacidi.com)
DesignMerge (https://meadowsps.com/application-catalog-retail/)
Otherwise XML publishing may be something to consider, but the learning curve has been too steep for me... but Chad Chelius has a course over on LinkedIn where he goes through the procedure.