Indesign data merge update problems

[timovSchiphol]

Hi There!
I have this horrible problem with data merging causing me a big headache haha. 

I've made a indesign document, connected to a .txt file in the masterpage, using the datamerge function.

The master document is a productsheet with several specifications on it, each time with the same subject, only different variables, changing now and then.

It consists of 5 pages for every product sheet (called set from now on), with about 25 different rows in the .txt, so after merging it ends up in a document with 125 pages. The master pages contains two pages with maps of different areas, witch are divided in several layers, so in the end document you can choose the right map by activating the right layer. (works great!)

So after making 1 master document with this 5 pages, I used the "create merged document" function, ending up in this 125 pages document.

Then I changed 2 pictures in every set of 5 pages, activated the right layer for the maps and placed a pointer on every map to show where the specific product is located. Also works great! You can see that every data field is stil connected with the source file because of the colorful [ ] symbols around every field.

But then! After changing 8 document like this, without experiencing any problems, I want to update my data, because some figures changed.

And then I had to cry a bit. Suddenly some tekst field completely disappear. Not just the connecting or something, but the entire text box is just not there on any page.

First i thought i just had a corrupt file, but it happens with any document I made..

I know from learning the hard way, tables and data merge don't go along that well, so I avoid using them, its just all text boxes with different paragraph styles.  

So on this screendump you can see the file before(L) and after(R) clicking"update data in content field"

The strange thing is, this page goes wrong, but the one after turns out just fine as it should be! 

As you can see i added "TEST" in the .txt file and changes some figures to 9999, on this page it all works out just fine!

Does anyone know what may have caused this problem? Cause after working on this problem for 2 days, I've giving up, cause it seems so random!

Thank you guys so much in advance!

p.s. I'm Dutch, so I hope you can forgive some grammer mistakes now and then..

[Colin Flashman]

Hello there.

So the issue occurs not in your pre-merged file, but the resulting merged InDesign file when a change is made to the linked text file. Is this correct?

As a control, what happens if you take the variable fields off of your master pages in the pre-merged file and put them onto a regular page, and then merge the files? I understand that as a result, you won't be able to live-update any resulting merged InDesign file, but you can always re-merge the pre-merged file if there's a text update to the database.

[timovSchiphol]

Thanks for your reply, i check it the day after tomorrow! Let you know!

And yes, that is correct:) It only happens when I do it in the resulting one..

[timovSchiphol]

Hi Colin,

I just tried doing this, but it seems that it is not possible to put variable text on the master page aswel on your regular page. I get an error saying this when I try to export.

Any other thoughts..?

[Colin Flashman]

That's not quite what I'd suggested, I'd asked to take the take the variable fields OFF of the master page and put it onto a regular page. Not both.

The distinction between putting variable data on a master page vs a regular page is the resulting file's ability to link to the merged data. A data merge made with merge fields on the master page will result in a merged file that retains its link to the txt/csv file that was used to merge it. A data merge made with merge fields on a regular page will not retain that link.