Data merge: Possible to export separate doc for each row of data?

[_p_g_]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice on the best way to automate the data population and export of 500 application forms to be printed.  A quick look and it seems Indesign's 'Data Merge' is pretty close to what I"m looking for but all the tutorials I've seen export a single file.  Is there a way to have Indesign export a separate document for each row of data?  If not, anyone have other ideas how to accomplish this?

Cheers

[John Mensinger]

At best, Data Merge does one record (row) per page, so you'll have to settle for having a 500-page document, and work toward your objectives from there.

You could export to PDF and then easily have extract each page as a separate file from Acrobat, for instance.

I'm not sure I see why 500 separate files are better than a single 500-page file, but maybe there's something you just haven't stated.

[_p_g_]

One record per indesign page, hmmm... Since the application form is two pages long that means I'd have to break the data for each application into two rows then? So a data set with 1000 lines.   

The reason why 500 separate files are required is because there are 500 applications we need to submit.  It's not one submission containing 500 applications... it's 500 submissions containing 1 application form each.

Maybe indesign isn't the best way to do this.... 

[John Mensinger · Accepted solution]

If I mislead you, I apologize. You can indeed do a 2-page-per-record merge. That will produce a 1000-page merged document, however, which deepens the 500-separate-files challenge somewhat.

_p_g_  wrote

The reason why 500 separate files are required is because there are 500 applications we need to submit.  It's not one submission containing 500 applications... it's 500 submissions containing 1 application form each.

Okay, but your original post characterizes your objective as printed hard copies:

500 application forms to be printed.

So if those 500 submittals are 2 printed pages each, it wouldn't make a difference whether you have to print them all from a single file, and in fact, printing 500 2-page files would be a much larger task. Or, did I misread that, and the printed pages are not for submittal?

[_p_g_]

All good.. thanks for the reply.

Okay, but your original post characterizes your objective as printed hard copies:

Yes... 500 separate application forms printed and submitted separately.

But yes you are right.... printing and separating the physical pages is a nothing job, much easier than trying to export 500 2-page pdfs.   Good catch!

So I'll try getting together a 500 row data set.... and a 2 page indesign template and pump out a 1000 page pdf using data merge.   Thanks for spending the time to think on my challenge... much appreciated.

[John Mensinger]

_p_g_  wrote

Thanks for spending the time to think on my challenge... much appreciated.

No problem. I'm glad it's a positive prognosis.

[_p_g_]

Wow.... it takes forever but the data merge seems to work well.  Having everything in one document is actually going to work out better for printing I believe, however...  

Unfortunately I think I have to go back and really trim down file sizes because the pdf placed into my Indesign template is now 9 pages instead of 2 and the merged document is a whopping 1.3GB with 5000 pages.   I can't even save the indd file as a PDF... takes hours for a single click to register.

My machine is a Dell XPS with an i7-8705G 3.1GHz cpu, 16gb of ram, and a 2TB ssd.... should be enough!   The placed 9 page pdf is about 750kb.  The only other elements in the indd template are the text boxes mapped to the data source (about 50 of them with single characters in each cell).

I'm wondering if it's the page count at 5000 that's causing things to chug... I've tried the lowest possible display performance mode where the pdf is just a grey box, no change.   I thought the one of the benefits of linking files was a reduced indd file size.... like it was included only once but referenced on many pages.  The resulting 1.3GB data merged indd file suggests this isn't the case.... or perhaps it typically works the way I suspect but data merged docs actually duplicate the linked files?  I don't know. 

I think I might have to break my 500 row data file up and run the data merge several times... not sure what else to try if shrinking the pdf doesn't make much of a difference (which i'm guessing it won't... 750kb is a pretty slim 9 page doc to begin with). 

Gah!

[_p_g_]

Actually, after waiting for hours the pdf exported and is only 42mb...... 4974 pages! lol.... too bad there isn't much of a progress indicator in Indesign (like, at all).... have to watch the Task Manager to see that something is actually happening.  =]

[Colin Flashman]

I wrote a script that will Data Merge to uniquely named single records. The script (and an article about it) is here: https://colecandoo.com/2015/09/04/data-merge-from-indesign-to-unique-filenames-now-a-reality/