Excel csv not recognized in data merge

[brittanyk17770262]

I recently updated my Excel and since then the .csv files won't merge into indesign. The indesign and Excel are both updated. When I go to merge the data none of the data fields show in the data merge window to click and insert into the document. When I close the file and reopen in indesign, it says that "the data source cannot be opened." I am only importing .csv files and have not had this problem before. In fact, I used an older .csv file created with the older version of Excel and it uploads just fine into indesign. Does anyone know what is going on and how to fix this?

[Migintosh]

It might help us to know the versions of Excel, InDesign and your operating system. The more specific you can be, the better.

[brittanyk17770262]

Sorry it is excel for MAC 15.29.1 and indesign CS6 8.1

[BobLevine]

Can we see a screen shot of the data merge panel? I saw a situation like this not long ago and it was fixed by trashing preferences?

[brittanyk17770262]

Sure, I hope this helps!

[macpawel]

Maybe you done some mistakes with data?

To many variables names, wron variables (header) name, empty column, to many empty rows, even alone Enter character in the END of your document? Please try tu use UTF-16 encoding data

Pawel

[brittanyk17770262]

I will try that, the data seems okay it is the format that isn't being recognized which is strange.

[macpawel]

Be sure that you close Excel before import data

You can also try to export data to Tabbed text file from Excel and import as data to inDesign Data Merge

Be Sure text file is closed

Pawel

[Emily307727554rm3]

I didn't realize you had to make sure excel was closed. I closed it and then it worked right away. Thanks!

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

I had the same issue this morning and found that if you first go to "Content Placement Options" in the Data Merge Panel, you can check "Remove Blank Lines for Empty Fields" and it works. I will be filing this as a bug.

[Pariah Burke · Accepted solution]

You can also open Excel-generated CSVs in Text Edit and save (no changes, just open and press CMD+S). That removes any extraneous Excel encoding and makes the CSV fully InDesign Data Merge-compatible.

[washingtontrust]

Thank you for the tip - this worked for me!!

[codyh87016829]

Worked perfectly! Thank you so much!

[Z∆K∆Z]

This worked for me. Thank you!

[Will3272903900or]

Legend, thank you!

[Pariah Burke]

My pleasure. I'm glad it helped.

[elShimmer]

HI found this helpful! My issue was the Single Record selection couldn't be changed to Multiple records. It was just blanked out. Turns out if you have more than one page in the document it only reads as single record. So start with just one page and you will get the option to import multiple records.

If you can't even import the csv tab delimited document to begin with, try opening the document.csv in Notepad and re-save. This should remove all of excels garbage it tags on.

The link below goes into step by step detail. Important rule 1. was my issue. It's too bad indesign can't recognized when you're having issues and bring up important rules, or helpful tips automatically. No, you just try a hudnred different things  until something works. Or your forced to copy and paste. Aghh

https://gcostudios.com/designing-and-data-merging-with-multiple-records-in-indesign-cs6/

[Luis32546682ullc]

On PC, I found that saving out as the correct CSV type in Excel resolved the issue.

[Joel Cherney]

I have to point out that you've found a fairly old discussion, but also I have to point out that of all the answers posted here, yours is probably the most correct. It's all too easy to forget (or to never know in the first place!) that a raw text file saved on a Mac is encoded differently from a raw text file on a Windows machine, and that CSV is actually a raw text file inside. I suspect that the original post (way back in 2017) was about an update to Mac Excel that caused default CSV file encoding to default to Windows text file encoding. 

Sometimes, however, that Unicode CSV that you've crossed out in your PNG actually is the correct encoding, if the values in your file need to be Unicode-encoded. That's typically whenever you are working with non-Latin characters, or extended Latin characters. So if I need to do a Chinese data merge (or Arabic, or Vietnamese, or anything that isn't plain-vanilla Western European) the probably the Unicode CSV choice is the correct choice.