Thanks, Barb. I thought I remembered FM had a similar capability but wasn't sure. I used FM once years ago at an on-site week-long job but that wasn't enough time to have fun with it. If I could be assured it wouldn't move to a subscription scheme, I would be tempted to plunk down the cash. I'll subscribe on an as-needed basis, but not for playing around. Other than that one job way back when, I've never been asked to use it. I have very few jobs wherein I am in control of what format I turn over. I use VP these days to resurrect manuals I once did in order to port them to ID or QXP for the companies I once did them for. It's up to them what they use, though. I doubt I could talk them into the transition to FM. Because of that work, though, I do get contacted once in a while by companies I never did original work for, so maybe it's an opportunity to suggest it and see what happens. Before I do, though, I would need to push one or two into FM so I can experience the work-flow. It is getting to be year-end so one never knows. Maybe Santa will bring me a job for it and I would be more at ease about the grand it costs. Thanks again, Mike ... View more

Sorry to resurrect a fading thread... This kind of layout makes me wistful for the feature in Ventura Publisher where we could set No Line Breaks between paragraphs and have multiple paragraphs on the same line. You could start the next paragraph when the previous one ended, or use left and right indents to separate them. It worked perfectly for the OP's example without using a table—just styles. Amen. I do still use VP under Win 10. I have old publications done for clients that I convert at a rate of about 1 a month and lament this feature doesn't exist in anything. (And how another good one, being able to opt for a paragraph to use space above on say a chapter start heading style?) Oh well...one step forward, two steps back it seems at times. Wouldn't split columns be helpful here in lieu of tables? If I were keying in the data (which I never really do except for corrections), I would likely use a table. But that is slow and tedious. Mike (Do note I haven't looked at Obi's videos. I pop in here mostly on a mobile and the data hit could get expensive watching vids on a limited plan...) ... View more

No, not natively. Likely it is able to be scripted (and possibly one exists already). I use Em Software's data merge plug-in. One can assign master pages during the merge and upon conditions being met. I do this frequently. It is also far more capable for merging than ID's merge capabilities. Mike ... View more

Without actually seeing the data file produced from Excel, I wouldn't know for certain. Most errors with data merge can often be just one of two things. Line breaks in a cell or multiple cells. A text file saved out in the incorrect format (even when the user thinks is it correct). A less common thing I have seen is that Excel can confuse itself with misplaced delimiters. I always use a tab delimited UTF-8 or UTF-16 file. Try a tab delimited file. Open that text file in a good text editor and just scroll down and see if there is one or more unexpected line beginnings--that means there is a line break in the data. Make sure the text editor is not using line wrap. Mike ... View more

In addition... For testing, place the test.txt file from dropbox on your desktop. When you use the Data Merge panel, and you use the hamburger menu to choose Select Source, there will be a dialog window opened. At the bottom of that window there should be a checkbox to Show Import Options. Make sure that is checked. When you choose the test.txt file, you should then see the following: If it is not displaying the options you see above automatically, change them to what you see above. Once you click OK, you should then see in the data merge panel: ... View more

No worries. And you are opening the merge file from the Data Merge panel? Would you upload your test file? ... View more

It is likely how you are exporting the data. Try this. Simply highlight the spreadsheet records and copy. Paste that into a text editor. Save that text using a .txt extension. Does that then load into ID's data merge panel? It can matter what text editor you use and you don't mention your OS. It has to save as a plain text file and depending upon your needs, a UTF-8 can work fine for most languages, though for some a UTF-16 is needed. If that doesn't work, the link is to a UTF-8, No BOM text file that should work for you. Dropbox - test.txt​ Does that file work? Mike ... View more

Create a package, go to the folders involved, delete the fonts & images you don't wanna send. ZIP the remainder up and give it to them. Mike ... View more

Hmm. I guess I didn't understand the question in relation to the missing font highlight in the screen shot--I was too busy reading the ID message itself! The pink highlight indicates the font is missing as far as ID is concerned. So is it actually installed? Do you use a font manager? Does that font work in other applications? Mike ... View more

Cool, Colin! thanks...Mike ... View more

Of course I don't know if there are pages that need a different setup. But from the images provided, why not have the bled rectangles exist on the master page(s)? It appears from the screen shots that they are in the same locations on every page. Then you wouldn't need to do the excess page size, resize pages dance. Mike ... View more

Might be able to use the RAND function in Excel. I've done it with numbers, but perhaps it can work without an add-on to Excel (there is at least one named Kutools I have used). I've never tried it without that add-on. Mike ... View more

Kasyan's solution is free. Thank you, Kasyan! Em Software's InData for InDesign is one such merge solution that one can test the data and only use applicable field values in the merge process. It uses what are called prototypes, which really is scripting that is evaluated and processes the data during the merge. I use their products quite frequently (that plugin and their Tagged Text plugin). these prototypes can be as simple as what you show above to quite complex (complex enough one may have less hair getting it written). Yep, this option costs money. Some think a lot, some find it reasonable. If you did as much pulling in data from databases of all stripes as I do...I see it as cheap. It's the one of a set of plugins I upgrade religiously. Mike ... View more

Hah, no worries. I dislike issues as much as the next person! Ok. Have you actually tried a merge? I'm unclear as to the second screen shot from your first post as to whether that as an actually merged file. And there is multiple data rows in your file and those data records have no spurious hard or soft returns in them? If you would like, I can take a look at the file. I would need you to export as an IDML as I am using CS6 currently and don't have a currect subscription. So that IDML and at least enough records in the CSV to fill a page. You would also need to ZIP them up together and upload to dropbox or the like and PM me a donwload link. Mike While I don't think this is the issue, ID has always been buggy when it comes to using the Preview option. Some never experience an issue, others often do. ... View more

Did you group the placeholders or are they all in-line in a text frame? Would you open the merge options and show the Multiple Record Layout tab in the merge options dialog? Mike ... View more

I have Adobe-licensed OTF versions from Font Folio 11 (I think that is the folio number). They too have LT in the name as Linotype is the licencor. They work fine in ID CS6 using Windows. I don't have a current CC subscription to look in a newer version. Mine are an earlier revision (2.0.x version). I use a font manager versus direct installation, but I don't think that is a meaningful difference. If you do want to try again using the ID font folder thing, do make sure you first delete/uninstall the ones in the Windows font folder just to eliminate that potential conflict. I think it is still suppose to work with them installed, but the Windows font cache can be a fickle beast. And mentioning that, it is possible the registry and or the Windows font cache is mucked-up. Registry cleaners can screw-up the Windows font listings and the cache can simply get confused. Mike ... View more

A guide tailored to your end users is the ideal. That way there isn't extraneous information that simply makes time-pressured users' eyes glaze over whereupon important bits may never get a read, much less followed. I know you mention the use of styles. One main thing that is likely hammered home in the video (haven't watched it) is the religious use of styles. At the least, paragraph styles if not also character styles. The ad hoc use of local formatting on the base style Normal (or whatever) is the bane of all layout people. This is the hardest part for me to communicate effectively to newer clients even though we walk through the process. I get fairly clean, nicely styled documents for the most part from my steady clients. Even so, there is always an editor or three that simply will not comply. So I still need to run through the documents and fix style usage. It is a reasonably minimal thing to do that saves so much effort once it hits the layout application. Mike ... View more

The Entypo font has no OpenType features. Even though it is an OpenType font, that message is proper as the OT Feature proxy on the frame only shows the features applicable to a given font. One will always get that message with a font that has no OT Features. Mike ... View more

Can you show a screen shot like the above? Also, what font is this? ... View more

Are the others perhaps variants of the one that does show up? Look at the style drop down and see if they are listed there. ... View more

I'm sorry to the OP for the interruption. Hopefully this gets resolved quickly. So I got home from the office. Fixed myself a cup of coffee and sat out to read the forums a bit. Jongware, that's just plain funny. Thanks for helping make a horrible day a bit better. Mike ... View more

I'm not at a computer right now so I can test. I think form xobjects kick in if the background is on a master page. Might have also something to do with the pdf export type. But from Dov's reply, it may not require the pdf type be of a certain type. Then again, my memory is hazy. I usually just upload large pdfs to dropbox and send a link to it. ... View more

I cannot see what you are seeing... What is the color of the background in Photoshop? What is the color of the background in ID? What is the transparency blend space color in ID? (Edit menu, Transparency Blend Space) ... View more

Edit the image in Photoshop. There is no real image editing in ID. Mike ... View more

You're welcome. Once someone uses Illustrator  (not Photoshop) to change the color to white and save it as an AI file, you'll be fine. Mike ... View more

You could always use the EPS version of the logo, open that in AI and change the color to white, save as an AI file, place that into ID. If you do not have the EPS version, you can download them from this page: Logo downloads | ACIAR And a direct link to the ZIP file is: http://aciar.gov.au/files/node/10079/ACIAR_Govt_stacked_black_eps.zip You want the file named ACIAR_Govt_inline_black.eps that is inside that ZIP. ... View more

It may be possible to do this with an in-line merge with a script. Dunno if ID ships with one, but there are some on the Internet. But without seeing enough of your spreadsheet as a sample csv, I don't know if this is a valid approach. ... View more