I have had the need for different characters on my last two merge jobs and it seems like I should be able to overcome it without having to edit after merge. I googled and have tried a few things but nothing I found worked, so I edited. Anyone know if/how I would have gotten these two characters to work in a data merge?
1 Correct answer
Robert's question is the first half of your solution. You need to use an encoding that Data Merge will accept. The other half of your solution is to check the Import Options box when selecting your Data Source, and specify that encoding:
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Robert's question is the first half of your solution. You need to use an encoding that Data Merge will accept. The other half of your solution is to check the Import Options box when selecting your Data Source, and specify that encoding:
Some fonts have s-with-cedilla as a single character; some fonts have a combining cedilla that will automagically position themselves under the "s" character; some have neither. If your client's specified target font only has the cedilla as a separate glyph (not s-with-cedilla, not a combining cedilla) then your only option is to fix it after the merge in InDesign. There are lots of ways to work around that, like the ugly-but-functional "kern the cedilla into place and copy it onto your clipboard". Then you can use the Find/Change dialog to find your S and your separate cedilla and replace it with the formatted clipboard contents. That's a last resort if your target font doesn't have the glyphs you actually need.
On the other hand, if you are using a font in InDesign that has a true s-with-cedilla or a combining cedilla, you can generate your Data Source to use either one, depending on how you make that data source file. But I can't guess what you're working with, you know? You could de-crazy-ifiy your question by posting it again in more detail:
What font are you required to use in the final document?
How are you producing your Data Source file? (Lots of details here, please)
In what encoding have you saved your data source?
You might be able to figure it out yourself, if you open up the Type -> Glyphs menu in InDesign and search for the relevant characters; that'd tell you what you have as your target. You can mouse over a glyph and it'll tell you its Unicode name, like "S WITH CEDILLA" or "COMBINING CEDILLA" or just "CEDILLA". Like so... note that Minon Pro has precomposed glyphs and separate glyphs, but Times New Roman actually has a combining cedilla:
Once you know exactly what your font can do, then you can choose an encoding, and a way of producing your data source, that will encode your text in a way that will render correctly in InDesign.
When you don't know the answer to something it can be hard to formulate the question with the details someone needs - as you don't know what details they need. Hence the "crazy-ifiy" question. Plus, I just figured I'd get the "can't do it, need to fix post merge answer"
The fonts in the final file is Asul and Helvetica. I figured out the Helvetica earlier ^^^ by saving as a UTF-16 Tab Delimited and now I am trying to see if the Asul is even possible.
Data starts out in Google Sheets that the client created. I then pulled it into Excel and did a ton of formulas. So far I have just been editing it post merge - but would love to see if there is a solution.
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Data starts out in Google Sheets that the client created. I then pulled it into Excel and did a ton of formulas. So far I have just been editing it post merge - but would love to see if there is a solution.
By @GiGiTexas
What kind of document(s) are you trying to build?
Maybe built-in DataMerge isn't the right choice?
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