Multiple dynamically populated text boxes in a spread

[RobotUncle]

Greetings all!

I am making catalog templates. There are a bunch of little ads that can be added to the spreads. These ads are stored in a CC library. They come in various sizes and configurations. As such, I'd love for each ad to pull from a dynamic source so that if I ever have to update them I just update the source and not each ad.

I thought Data Merge was THE WAY, but if I have multiple ads on one spread, each ad pulls from the same cell of the excel sheet.

Is there a way to do this? I know (or it seems) it's not possible to have mutliple data merges in a spread, but that's basically what I'm looking for. Multiple dynamic sources.

Thanks in advance!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

You're asking for trouble... 

You should rather create the ad - and then place it in on a page. 

Of course, you can make it as a separate INDD file and place like a PDF - but keeping too many dynamic items - especially ads...

If you'll keep everything dynamic - you'll have to check everything every time before you print / publish it. 

If you keep it "static" - you'll have to check only once - then re-use. 

[RobotUncle]

Yeeeeah, you may be right about that in terms of best practices. Interesting thoughts. thanks for the reply

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

You're welcome. 

I've used this approach in my tool for building catalogs - each product from a database is build as a separate INDD file - from a template of course - then PDF is exported and this PDF is placed as an InLined object in the Story. 

It might sound overcomplicated - but then you work only with "image previews" that reflow nicely and you can easily add new stuff - without the need to re-arrange everything. I've done some testing with linking INDD files - and it was a nightmare.

Of course a lot is done in the background to make user's life easier. 

[m1b]

Hi @Robert at ID-Tasker, 

I've done some testing with linking INDD files - and it was a nightmare.

Interesting! What did you discover about using INDD files? Performance?

- Mark

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Yes, performance.