How to place Excel table into an existing table and flow through the doc in indesign

[nigelm6001591]

Hi all,

I'm hoping you can help please.

I'm producing a catalogue, I have all the information in Excel along with images.

I know how to place in indesign and update etc. But I need the table to go throughout the book. I've made the blank table in the master page but I can't seem to be able to place the excel spreadsheet into this table. Maybe it's not possible? How also do you get it to flow through the doc.

I've been able to place the spreadsheet and flow through the book without using a master page but then I have to individually change the row heights for each page, which I would prefer not to do.

Please help, I have a wee headache coming on!

Many thanks!

[Eric Dumas · Accepted solution]

2 options here. Data merge or straight import from Excel. It really depends on your finished product. A catalogue of products (I would prefer Data Merge) or a reference list type of catalogue (rows and columns type of layout, I would prefer Excel import)

For data merge you need to:

• adjust how you enter the information in Excel
• create a blank 'row' in InDesign controlled by styles (Object and Paragraph) and let it automatically repeat for each row of data

for import of Excel, there are a few things you need to put in place.

• You do not need to place a blank table in your document
• You will need to apply a couple of edits to your Excel file
• You will import/Place your excel file to run automatically through as many pages as you need
• You will need to create Paragraph, Cell and Table styles to help with the formatting

In your Excel file, if you have inserted the actual picture there, that will need adjusting as well (resizing them in InDesign.

A nice Excel>InDesign tutorial at How to Convert Excel to InDesign - Multi page documents - YouTube

For data merge: You might need to have a folder with all your pictures and in Excel reference it See: Merge data to create form letters, envelopes, or mailing labels in Adobe InDesign (especially scroll down to look at how to format image references)  and a nice tutorial at https://redokun.com/blog/data-merge-indesign

Use data merge to add to your layout.

If you don't use data merge, but import the table in your blank page, you will need to adjust manually the image sizes. They will be placed in a cell and sometimes will be too large. Consider creating an Object style for your images, forcing them to fit proportionally to the space you create (cell)

No need to format the content of your Excel file as it will be lost during the import.

In your InDesign document, File > Place to bring your Excel file. Once your cursor is 'loaded' with the content, hold shift key down (cursor changes) and click on the top-left corner of the margins you have set. This will place a text frame within the margins, add your content and create as many linked text frames on pages as needed.

Create the Paragraph styles that you need, use them to create the cell styles that you need to create the table style that you need. Apply table style to selected table (Text cursor, click on the top-left of table when it looks like a large diagonal arrow to select table). Use the text tool to adjust column width (be careful it adjusts across all pages at the same time).

You can select the top row and turn it into a header row so it will repeat at the top of each page