Indesign CS4 Excel data merge on master page problem

[EngelYfke]

Hello all,

I got the following problem with an automated data merge document. It only reads the first row of cells in the document. This is what i made.

Sample data

Excel

Colum A Cel A1: Articlenummer

Cel A2     12345

Cel A3      5465

Colum B Cel B1 Description

Cel B2     Test 1

Cel B3     Test 2

Colum C Cel C1 bar code

Cel C2 90000

Cel C3 900001

On the master page i made a layout with the folling containers. The following layout is for 1 article.

Text container for Articlenummer

Text contatiner for Description

Text container for Bar Code

I copied the three containers on the page which resulted in the a master page with 40 containers for each article.

I went data merge and connected the TXT document to the first set of containers. Indesign reads the data and places it correctly. But Indesign doenst copy the data in the following row of the cell in the following sets of containters. If i connect the document to the following set of containers Indesign only reads the data of the first row of the cell which results in a document which only contains the same data.

Can somehelp with this?

Best regards,

Phillip

[Colin Flashman]

Data Merge doesn't allow "next records" in this fashion. One set of data containing one record's worth of information needs to be created. The multiple record part is done in the "create merged document" dialog and the rows/columns are set there.

Indesign takes what it considers a "record" from anything on the page, that is from the top left to the bottom right of the page, any objects indesign can grab it considers a record. if there is a background, it needs to be on a separate master page, and the variable data has to be on a master page which is BASED ON the master with the background on it.

Merging on a master page is only necessary if the text data is to remained linked in the links palette after the merge. This is handy if changes are likely or easier to update via the text file used for the records. If this isn't an issue, the data can be placed on not just one page but many pages within an indesign document. It just means that the resulting indesign file won't have a link back to the text file.

[EngelYfke]

If i use the "create merged document" the tool it doenst do what i want it to do on the layout. The thing is i have an Excel document with 500 articles and i would like to use date merge to make the documentation, but i cant find out how to do it.

This is what i like to make. It needs to have 40 articles on one page use the same layout. 4 articles from left to right and 10 from the top the the bottom. I managed to get Indiesign process all the data including a link to a image directory but not on the above given layout. It makes separate pages...

Can you tell me what i am doing wrong?

[Colin Flashman · Accepted solution]

I suspect what is happening is what I outlined in the second paragraph of my earlier post:

"Indesign takes what it considers a "record" from anything on the page, that is from the top left to the bottom right of the page, any objects indesign can grab it considers a record."

This is somewhat hard to explain so i'll demonstrate in pictures using a simple merge

so the finished merge looks like

but, if a graphic is placed on the same page (whether it's the master page or not, it doesn't matter) that is where things can go awry

but this is easily seen in the preview

so, when doing a data merge with multiple records, the variable data has to be treated separately to the static data (items which will be on every page like a background or, in this example, the smiley face).

If merging on a master page, the static items need to be on a master page ABOVE and the variable items need to be on a master BASED ON the static master.

If merging on a regular page, the static items need only be on the master page. The advantage with merging on a master page is that the data stays linked. The downside is that only one page can contain variable data in the merge file.

hope this makes sense.

[EngelYfke]

Brilliant! Thank you! The problem was the masterpage! I will sort it out but for now i i will add the headers myself as they vari from page to page! Thanks!