Merge data from excel table to InDesign table

[Zoe5FCE]

Have a Excel table with 45 columns and 63 rows. I want that data to go into a similar table in InDesign. Multiple records won't work in this scenario. is there any way of assigning different column and row in the merge fields. for instance, A1 row 1; A1 row 2; A2 row 1; A2 row 2, etc.? 

[SJRiegel]

If you are going from an Excel table to an InDesign, then Data Merge is not the way. You can Place the Excel table (with or without its formatting) directly from the Excel file into InDesign.

[Zoe5FCE]

will it be Accessible?

[SJRiegel]

I don't know what you mean by Accessible in this sense. 

You can place it as a link, and if you do the InDesign table formatting exclusively with Table Styles, you should be able to update it from the Excel sheet without losing formatting. (I have not done this, so I don't know for sure if separately applied Cell Styles will hold during an update)

[Zoe5FCE]

so no automation. This is data that is updated regularly, and content must be Accessible.

[SJRiegel]

In that case, you can Link the file, as long as you are careful wtih how you do your formatting in InDesign.

[SJRiegel · Accepted solution]

In your InDesign preferences, check the box to Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheets.

Then the imported info will be linked to the Excel file. If you import it using a Table Style, and do any additional interior formatting using Cell Styles, you can update the info in the table through the links panel. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS · Accepted solution]

You need to turn on spreadsheet links in the preferences. (Be sure to turn it off after placing so it doesn't continue create links to other documents.)

If you are linking--use ONLY table and cell styles. (Cell styles will remain after updating.) Paragraph styles can be linked to cell styles; don't format the table directly with paragraph styles. 

Accessibility is a different issue. It's not difficult to create an accessible document in ID, but you should also check it in Acrobat Pro. Here is a link with some info: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-accessible-pdfs.html

[Laubender]

Another note on linked Excel files:

Put that table in its own story ( and text frame or set of threaded text frames).

Do not add text to the frame(s) outside the table.

Why? In case you are updating the linked Excel file you would erase any other text in the frame(s) where the table lives. InDesign always updates the whole story!

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Zoe5FCE]

thanks for the tip. noticed that cell and table styles are essential. Any styling of content that is not part of cell style gets wiped if updated.