Data Merge, Encoding of CSV File, InDesign crash

[mirco.raddatz]

Hi,

I try to put data from a csv file into my document. I tried every encoding (Win 1252, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-15, UTF-8) for my csv file but the German special characters like ä, ö or ü are never displayed properly in preview mode. I am using SublimeText v3 to change the encoding of my csv file.

And in addition, InDesign crashes whenever I execute the data merge.

I am working with the latest InDesign CC on a MacBook Pro 15', Mid 2014 on MacOS HighSierra 10.13.1 for the German language.

Looking forward to your experiences or feedback.

Kind regards,

Mirco

[MW Design]

When using UTF-8, are you using UTF-8 without BOM (Byte Order Mark)?

I don't have a rental at the moment and so cannot try the very latest version. But the last CC version I did use, it worked fine as an UTF-8 no BOM.

Mike

[mirco.raddatz]

Yes, it is UTF-8 plain. no BOM. Excel exports the BOM-version but Sublime stores in "real" UTF-8 format.

[MW Design]

Could you open and strip the data out of the file with the exception of the data filed names, resave it and upload it to dropbox or the like and provide a download link? And though it will be a small KB file, if you would ZIP it before uploading it that would ensure the format doesn't change in any way.

And I agree with vinny--tab delimited is a more assured means of import but I wouldn't think that would be the issue here. But ya never know. ID's data merge hasn't changed in, well, forever so even the version of ID shouldn't matter.

Mike

[vinny38]

Have you tried tab delimited .txt file instead of CSV?

Being French, I do deal with many funny characters such as ç, â, à,ù or œ... and tab delimited .txt are my friends.

Now, if you still experience trouble, maybe @Loic.Aigon can help you out there... He's a data merge specialist ^^

[Loic.Aigon · Accepted solution]

vinny38

Thanks fir the reference. Much appreciated.

I would also recommend tab delimited text but just to be useful, I have been told UTF-16 works better with CSV.

FWIW

Loic

[mirco.raddatz]

Thank you for your help!

Using UTF-16 with tab as the delimiter for the csv works perfect!

Kind regards,

Mirco

[antone8227487]

Hi,

Here is what has worked for me on MacOS High Sierra:

Open Sublime (I am using Sublime editor version 3)

Paste text

File > Save with encoding > UTF-16 LE

Hope this helps.

[Kārlis]

Thank youuuuuu!!