Data Merge Question

[maureenh12642892]

Hi!

I'm attempting to make a pickup list for a delivery day. I have a spreadsheet that has the person's name with a few lines of items below it. I am trying to create one sheet with the names and all the items. Is this possible with Data Merge?

I'm including screen shots of the spreadsheet and form I've made so far.

Thanks for any help!

Mo

[ashleew44226948]

It's possible, but not right out of the box. Data Merge has limited support for multiple records per page (which is what you'd need) and I don't think it could handle the setup you've demonstrated without some significant manual editing on your part post-merge.

Is this something you're going to be doing often? If so, it may be worth investing in a catalog plugin for InDesign, which introduces far more advanced logic and capabilities to the program and would make this kind of layout a breeze. As an interim solution, I think you could get the output you're looking for by doing the merge into Word, then exporting the resulting table(s) into InDesign for styling.

Edit: This solution might work for you, but you'd end up with the recipient's name duplicated in every row, so you'd need to go back and delete the extras for every name you have (that's where the manual editing comes in) https://indesignsecrets.com/using-data-merge-to-create-a-table-for-a-directory.php

[Colin Flashman · Accepted solution]

Data Merge can handle database queries that are one-to-one relationships, that is one row refers to one record:

person     place     what     weight

colin     aust     bananas     2kg

david     nz     lemons     4kg.....

The query you are making is a one-to-many relationship, that is one record refers to MANY rows, and the row amount can vary from record to record:

person     place     what     weight

colin     aust     bananas     2kg

colin     aust     limes     1kg

colin     aust     carrots     5kg

colin     brazil     oranges     3kg

david     nz     lemons     4kg

david     nz     avocados     1kg.....

This is something Data Merge cannot do, but may be possible via a catalog plug-in. I've written about this on my own blog: https://colecandoo.com/2013/12/28/data-merge-multiple-record-madness/

An alternative may be to create the file without using Data Merge at all.

1. Set the master page so it has the appearance that you're after.
2. From Excel, export the excel file as a text file and import the text file into the regular pages of InDesign.
3. Format the text - NOT in a table - but using tabs so that the type lines up to the table in the background, and where pages need to split from one record to another, apply a separate paragraph style that starts the paragraph on the next page.

[MW Design]

Personally, unless the job would have a whole lotta pages or changes very frequently, I would recommend Colin's advice of just using the Excel file as text. You should be able to just select the pertinent rows, copy to a decent text editor, and have a tab-delimited text file stripped of any sort of Excel dross. Copy/paste that into ID and make your styles, setting tabs in the paragraph styles.

If it is frequent and/or a lot of pages, you can do this in Em Software's data merge software. You will have to use your imagination here, but the screen shot below is one I often use to demonstrate Em's solution. Just imagine the headings that have darker orange shading behind them are the "people." The data below that the locations, items and weights.

Mike

[Srishti Bali]

Hi,

I would like to know if the steps suggested above worked for you, or the issue still persists.

Kindly update the discussion if you need further assistance with it.

Thanks,

Srishti