how to create complicated table with bulleted if/then panel

[jayhatGA]

I am importing a MS Excel spreadsheet with over 2000 entries for a state travel guide. Each entry has a name, address, phone, etc. plus a bulleted area that provides information like sleeps 2-4 (if so then bullet), indoor pool (if so then bullet, etc. etc. How can I have InDesign auto-populate that area? I know how to do the name, address, etc.

Any help?

[Laubender]

Hi jayhatGA ,

sounds like a project for a lot of GREP Find/Replace actions.
Or a scripting project that you should hand over to a paid scripter.

Regards,
Uwe

[ashleew44226948]

Unfortunately that's not something InDesign can do natively. Once you start talking intelligent data merging you're getting into the realm of plugins; there are several that can accomplish what you want, but know that data merge plugins tend to be in the $300+ range.

Edit: the closest you could come is including lines for those fields in the import and then telling InDesign to remove empty lines for blank fields. The downside to this method is that the height of the content block will be inconsistent between entries.

[Document Geek]

I would reach out to Kris at Rorohiko.com. He would definitely be able to help with this.

[MW Design]

Without knowing the design, does it really need to be table-based?

In any case, conditional merging can be done with Em Software's data merge plug-in, InData. I use it quite frequently.

Mike

[jayhatGA]

This is an example of what I'm trying to do, with several pages more of this. And the "bulleted" highlights are different for lodging, bed and breakfast, camping, etc.

[Document Geek]

Can you show us a bit of the spreadsheet?

[jayhatGA]

[MW Design]

I would also likely do a table, at least if the grid-lines were important. Though those too could likely be handled by styles (at least in QXP and I don't have a current subscription to try in ID).

The below is from a sample file I created for someone using the mentioned plugin. While the category dividers are full-width in the screen shot, they could be as easily done with paragraph rules in-line with the other data. The categories only appear the first time they are used, like in your example of cities. In your example, the bullets would simply be one or more character styles if the color needs changed for the type of amenities included.

Beyond that, I would need a sample of data to see if it could be handled without the need of tables (which I avoid if at all possible).

Mike

[ashleew44226948 · Accepted solution]

Oh, got it! So as far as creating the bullets goes, that's easy: after the data merge, just select those columns in the table, and use Find/Change to convert all the "1"s to the character/symbol of your choice. As far as actually creating the directory goes, I'd take a look at the solution here:

https://indesignsecrets.com/using-data-merge-to-create-a-table-for-a-directory.php

Which looks to be what you're after.

[jayhatGA]

Thanks so much!

[Laubender]

ashleew44226948  wrote

… So as far as creating the bullets goes, that's easy: after the data merge, just select those columns in the table, and use Find/Change to convert all the "1"s to the character/symbol of your choice. …

Just a note on this: You best do unique formatting of the numbers you want to change to bullets.
Otherwise you rely on means like: I want to change only a number if it's the only thing in a story ( story means cell in this case ).

A possible GREP pattern:

^\d+$

And I don't know if that rule is sufficient to catch only the ones you want to change.

Another thing one could do:

Use a font where the glyphs for numbers 1, 2, 3 etc. are designed as bullets.

You easily could build one with IndyFont:

Indiscripts :: IndyFont

Regards,
Uwe