Automated Parts List

[DJTOregon]

Hello,

I just started a job with a company that uses InDesign for its technical publications. The company would like to automate its Parts Lists for existing and future documentation. I just had to do this with a script in Adobe FrameMaker, but I was wondering if this is even ideal or possible in InDesign. I'm not sure if I should tell them to swtich to Frame. Any ideas?

[Randy Hagan]

Depending on how you define "automate" it can be entirely possible, easily done with third-party extensions or entirely impossible without extensive custom scripting/programming.

I think I can speak for the peanut gallery here to say we'd be happy to help, but it depends on your hardware and software toolset, your definition of automation and your intended use(s) of the content. If you can clue us in to what you've got and what you want to do with it, there are a lot of sharp folks around here who may be able to lend a hand.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[brianp311]

It could easily be done in InDesign. The method kind of varies depending on your data source and layout: script, DataMerge, XML, Excel importing or some combination thereof. Would need some more details to provide more guidance.