InDesign Data Merge using different layouts in one document

[Hilary34142706sebs]

I've been tasked with automating our catalogs. I'm a creative designer for a book puyblishing company and I love what I can do with data merge except that I need to be able to have differently designed pages in a single document. Some books are features and require a different design application - full page or half page options.  Some books can be in lists which data merge is happy to do. Some pages have four books on them and some have 18. I've been researching this on and off for a couple of weeks and it seems like all I can do is a single design (image/text) on single pages (not facing). I know I can add design elements to the Parent page but it appears I cannot create more than one Parent page design for data to flow into. All suggestions are most welcomed and appreciated. Thanks!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Can you explain this sentence "Some pages have four books on them and some have 18"??

Maybe some example screenshots?

Standard DataMerge won't help you much - is too limited - but with a right tool you can do a lot...

[Hilary34142706sebs]

Here's are two sample spreads. Thanks for your response! 

 

 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

You won't be able to achieve it with the built-in DataMerge. 

Maybe with XML. 

Or a 3rd party tool that will do everything in one go. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

... Or you could do a separate DataMerge for each page - and then either use Book feature or place those INDD files like images on pages in the "master" file.

[Hilary34142706sebs]

Thank you Robert, that's the response I've found in my searches but I just wanted to make sure. I'll take both of your suggestion into consideration. It appears that EasyCatalog may be the way to go. Have a great day!

[Laubender]

Hi @Hilary34142706sebs ,

why do you think, that you cannot work with a facing pages one spread template for data merge?

Did you test something?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Hilary34142706sebs]

Hi Laubender, here's what I get when I try to use facing pages. Please straighten me out if I've missed an obvious option. In this data merge I wasn't given the option to put multiple records on a single page so that would be problematic for what I'm going for. Thanks for your response 🙂

 

[Laubender]

Hi @Hilary34142706sebs ,

I see. But my suggestion was to start with one single spread that contains facing pages.

Simply set the start page number to 2 and the number of pages also to 2 when you do a new document template for data merge with facing pages. From my German InDesign where I use the legacy new document setup dialog:

The result is this:

Build your template from that. Two different layouts. One on the page left from the spine, one layout on the page right from the spine. Stay with 2 pages in the template document.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Hilary34142706sebs]

Thank you for explaining how to work with facing pages in data merge and showing screenshots! I'll give it a whirl.

[Colin Flashman]

Does this article help?

https://colecandoo.com/2018/04/05/data-merging-to-specific-pages/

[Hilary34142706sebs]

Thank you Colin! I visited your blog during my research - great info. I will try this solution out today or tomorrow and see what I can do it.