With only one of the layers visible, create a text frame that starts at the top of the bleed edge and as close to the left edge of the pasteboard as possible, and ends with a small portion of the text on the text frame – it is important that part of the text frame is on the page or the technique will not work. In this example, I’m working to a DL size of 99mm high × 210mm wide, so I want the horizontal margin to be wider than 210mm, so 260mm will be plenty. When creating the document, in the Guides & Pasteboard section of the Preferences dialog box, be sure to adjust the horizontal margins value so that it is wider than the artwork. Group the artwork on that layer, and then create another layer for the second travel destination, repeating this process until all three destinations are prepared and grouped on their own layers. The database above will need to be exported as a tab-delimited text file so InDesign can perform a Data Merge.īack in InDesign, create a layer for the first travel destination, and then prepare the layout as desired along with the relevant Data Merge fields. It is also important to point out that this technique doesn’t invoke some hidden Data Merge ability involving layers, but instead shows or hides content based upon the trigger in the Excel file. If it is a match, the statement returns the word “move,” otherwise nothing is returned and a blank space is left. The original database in Microsoft Excel contains a column that has the prospects’ destination and also has three columns to the right of it that use an if statement to determine if the copy in the destination column is a match for the column heading. The key here is inside the database that will be used for the Data Merge. But what if I told you it was possible to do this using one database with one InDesign file? Well, it can be done! How this technique works The way I would imagine that most people would tackle this task is to make three postcards in InDesign, separate the prospect list into three different databases and prepare the three Data Merges separately. For the sake of this example, it will be Canada, Europe, or Australia, and the layouts will differ from each other, not just the picture in the background.
To tailor the postcards to each prospect, the front of each postcard will have a layout based on the destination that the prospects indicated they’d like to travel to. Take the following example: A travel agent is preparing follow-up postcards based on information it received from prospects during a travel expo. In this post, I’d like to demonstrate another technique that shouldn’t be possible, and that is changing a layout during a Data Merge. I mean ready - for printing.I like to try and make Adobe InDesign’s Data Merge perform tasks that shouldn’t be possible, such as heat maps, bar graphs, and changing colours. The whole calendar can be done in less than two hours. It is good to master it to save time even for yourself. Good luck.ītw: this function is the number one thing I love about Indd, it saved me hundreds of hours. If you have your data from left to right, simply rotate them to go from top to bottom in excel (it is maybe two clicks to do that). Note: the indesign will continue to fill the pages until it runs out of data so if you Data_ units it will run 6000 pages no matter what (unless you set you want only 5000 in a window what will pop up before you merge it). You will see the columns in the indesign by the name in the first cell (data_01). You can have as much columns as you want and each column can be put multiple times in the text box in the indd master page. Simply name the column in the upper cell (for example data_01) and put your data under it. What I want to say is that you can have multiple records for multiple text or image boxes in the master page. I have a whole excel sheet with a calendar with: names, numbers, years, days, lunar phases icons, zodiac signs icons even main images for each page so I only build a master page with my graphic design and all the stuff.
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