1 Correct answer
Ha, I have found a solution!
How to get line breaks and Emojis into InDesign via Data Merge
InDesign doesn't support line breaks or Emojis from data sources that you import via Data Merge. With this workaround, you can encode any special characters in your spreadsheet and decode them in InDesign again.
In your spreadsheet:
- Prepare all your data as usual (including Emojis and line breaks)
- Add a second sheet to your spreadsheet
- Use formulas to fill it, and use ENCODEURL() to encode every special char
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Correct answer by
joheiat
AUTHOR
Ha, I have found a solution!
How to get line breaks and Emojis into InDesign via Data Merge
InDesign doesn't support line breaks or Emojis from data sources that you import via Data Merge. With this workaround, you can encode any special characters in your spreadsheet and decode them in InDesign again.
In your spreadsheet:
- Prepare all your data as usual (including Emojis and line breaks)
- Add a second sheet to your spreadsheet
- Use formulas to fill it, and use ENCODEURL() to encode every special character in URL notation (spaces will turn into %20)
- Export the result as .csv and make sure to convert it to UTF-16 character encoding for InDesign (using a text editor or LibreOffice)
In InDesign:
Open a text editor, copy the below script into it, and save it as URL-decode.jsx
Move the script file to your scripts directory - on Windows this is: %AppData%\Adobe\InDesign\Version 14.0\en_GB\Scripts\Scripts Panel
(you can type %AppData% into the Windows search box, press enter and navigate to the folder from there)
- Use Data Merge as usual and import the .csv as data source
- In the preview, you will see the URL-encoded characters
- Click the "Create Merged Document" button
- The resulting file will still contain all the URL-encoded characters
- From the scripts panel (Window -> Utility -> Scripts), run the URL-decode.jsx script
- Voilà , all your special characters are back!
URL-decode.jsx:
//DESCRIPTION:Decodes and replaces all URL-encoded strings in the active InDesign document.
//AUTHOR:Johannes Eichberger
//
//Example:
// This%20is%20URL-encoded%20text!
// This is URL-encoded text!
//
//How to use:
// Open an InDesign document with URL-encoded texts.
// Run the script.
// It replaces every (!) text in every text frame.
//
//Limitations:
// Works with text frames that contain text only. Any non-text
// content, such as tables and linked images, will get lost.
// If an encoded text exceeds its container (overset text),
// only the visible part will be replaced. You can run the script
// multiple times to solve this issue.
//
//When to use:
// InDesign's Data Merge has only poor support of character encodings.
// If you want to feed InDesign with Emojis, you can encode them in the
// spreadsheet via =ENCODEURL() and decode them using this script
// after running Data Merge.
//
#target indesign;
function main() {
try {
var myDocument = app.activeDocument;
var myTextFrames = myDocument.textFrames.everyItem();
var myContents = myTextFrames.contents;
for (var i=0; i<myContents.length; i++) {
var thisTextFrame = myDocument.textFrames.item(i);
var myDecoded = decodeURI(myContents[i]);
thisTextFrame.contents = myDecoded;
}
if (i==0) {
throw "No texts found!";
}
alert("Texts have been replaced.");
}
catch(err) {
alert(err);
}
}
main();
Hi joheiat ,
FWIW: be aware that your script could change the contents of text frames.
Before, text frame with one anchored object, the yellow rectangle:
After running URL-decode.jsx:
Also a problem. Tables. You'll remove tables.
Before:
After running URL-decode.jsx:
Regards,
Uwe
Hi Joheiat,
For me, the script operated as intended. However, I occasionally have content that is emoji-heavy. It then displays the error URL-Error: Bad or Invalid URL.
Is there a way to solve this? Thanks!
Niven
Hi Niven,
I see in your first file (Script not applied) on page 19 that there is a break within an encoded sequence. One special character encodes to %A4, but is split into two text frames, the first one ending with % and the second one starting with A4. The script reads and writes textFrames.item(i).content which is obviously only the visible content, therefore this is a limitation (besides many others, such as ignoring mixed styles within a text frame). The first frame only contains a % sign, not followed by two hex-digits, therefore it throws an error.
To fix this, the script would need adaption to access the actual text of the frame instead. You're right, this is too much to demand here, however I'm leaving this here in case someone more experienced wants to update the script. For the time being, you can get into scripting yourself, or you can deal with work-arounds (such as disabling hyphenation), or you can go the tedious path and copy&paste all texts manually.
Let me also suggest to vote for these feature requests, which would make some of the datamerge issues easier to overcome:
- https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/42086959-da...
- https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/31081960-al...
- https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/33364798-ma...
Best regards,
Johannes
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