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• • January 19, 2016 at 7:46 am #80925
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi people, I’m new into this forum but I hope someone can help me out.
    I’m trying to merge data to a specific frames, but I don’t know how. Let me explain, Imagine a CSV file with 3 columns; one for text, one for image path and one for FrameCode. An example of a record would be Jane Does, c:\images\image1.jpg, A1. Imaging also the CSV file has 4 records.
    In the InDesign document I have for spots one on each corner. So there is A1 for the top left-corner. A2 for the top Right spot, B1 and B2 for the bottom spots respectively.

    What I need is Indesign to place the data based on the FrameCode column. So If the framecode is A1, InDesign will place the image and the text in the frames from the A1 spot.

    I know I have seen this done before but I don’t know if it was a plug-in or not. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks!

  • January 19, 2016 at 9:08 am #80927
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    There may be commercial third-party plug-ins that let you do this, but in order to do it with Data Merge (inside InDesign) you would have to “massage” the data spreadsheet first. Data Merge cannot change the position of the image.

    So I would suggest creating four columns in the spreadsheet: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right. Then, in Excel (or whatever spreadsheet you use) put the image path in the proper column, based on the FrameCode data.

  • January 19, 2016 at 12:01 pm #80929
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi David, Thanks for your quick reply!
    I believe my example was a little off, so I will explain more in detail. I’m working on Student’s Senior Panels. I create a CSV file that contains Name, Last, Title, and Image path. When create the Data Merge Indesign places the data merge process in new document and also in grid format. In this new document I move all the students around the layout to achieve the design I’m looking for. However, this is in a perfect world where there are no changes to the original CSV file. So miraculously, there is always a student who didn’t graduate, a new student, or simply a student that was forgotten and wasn’t added to the CSV file. So when this happens, I add/delete the record of the new student and then I merge the data again. When I do this, I lose all the placements I had before. The way I’m doing it right now is by creating guidelines and it eases the alignment by snapping the student to such guides. What I would like is to arraign the spots before doing the data merge, and name or tag those spots (ex: A1,A2,A3). Then there will be a column in the CSV file that will have such names or tags per record (there shouldn’t be any duplicates). So when I do the Data Merge the data is placed where I want and not in a grid. I know I have seen it before, but I don’t know if it was through a plug-in or a way of doing the work in InDesign without using any third party software.

    Any help provided will help; plugins (free or paid), if you think I should be doing it a certain way please let me know.
    Thanks!

  • January 19, 2016 at 12:11 pm #80930
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I’m not sure how best to handle that. Data Merge is definitely not designed to “go back and make modifications.” If you need to make changes, you need to reflow the whole document.

    However, you might consider using a trick like this:
    https://creativepro.com/data-merge-into-inline-anchored-objects-so-they-flow-in-a-story.php

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