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• • August 10, 2017 at 4:15 am #96664
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    We have an Indesign “template” that we use to generate fillable PDF’s from a data file. The InDesign template has a table with 5 rows and 6 columns listing items for purchase.
    The data merge populates the rows and produces individual PDF’s. Sometimes there are only 2 items we list in the table. This leaves 3 blank rows in the table. Can these rows be removed during the data merge so that the final fillable PDF only has 2 rows?

  • August 10, 2017 at 5:52 am #96665
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    I’m assuming the remove blank lines function in the data merge dialog doesn’t work with tables?

    I haven’t tried it, but this might help though it will set you back $9.95: https://www.id-extras.com/delete-all-empty-rows-or-columns-from-an-indesign-table

    Good Luck

  • August 10, 2017 at 6:26 am #96669
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks. Do you know where I can get a consultant with Data Merge experience to help?

  • August 10, 2017 at 7:01 am #96673
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    No I do not.

  • August 10, 2017 at 8:21 pm #96680
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Data Merge doesn’t normally work with tables… are you using a special script to do this? Or are you actually using data merge?
    If it’s data merge, you can ask it to remove empty lines automatically. See:
    https://creativepro.com/data-merge-remove-unwanted-lines.php
    or
    https://creativepro.com/rid-empty-lines-data-merge.php

  • August 11, 2017 at 6:12 am #96684
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    David,

    Not sure I agree with you comment that Data Merge doesn’t work with tables. It certainly worked ten years ago when Michael Murphy posted this video: https://www.theindesigner.com/blog/episode-43-data-merge-video.

    I don’t do data merges very frequently, so it’s still my go-to fresher-upper.

    And as I mentioned in my original reply to Walther, I wonder if the option in the Data Merge dialog will actually work with tables. If it does, great; if it doesn’t, I think a script is the simple solution.

    Bob

  • August 11, 2017 at 8:15 am #96704
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi David and Bob,

    Thanks so much for your feedback. I watched the video and think I understand the data merge better. I got a consultant to develop the InDesign document for me, but I don’t think what I want to do, will work. Sad ;-(

    My requirements are actually a bit more complex it seems.
    Simplified my data file looks something like this:
    Client, ItemNumber, ItemName, Description, ClientLogo
    A, 1, aName1, aDescription1, A.jpg
    A, 2, aName2, aDescription2, A.jpg
    A, 3, aName3, aDescription3, A.jpg
    B, 4, aName4, aDescription4, B.jpg
    B, 5, aName5, aDescription5, B.jpg

    Where the idea was to produce 2 fillable PDF documents, one for client A and one for client B.
    Each document has a table with ItemNumber, ItemName, Description as heading.
    Client A has 3 items in the list and client B has 2.

    The consultant changed the data file into:
    Client, ItemNumber, ItemName, Description, ItemNumber2, ItemName2, Description2, ItemNumber3, ItemName3, Description3, ClientLogo
    A, 1, aName1, aDescription1, 2, aName2, aDescription2, aName3, aDescription3, A.jpg
    B, 4, aName4, aDescription4, 5, aName5, aDescription5, , , , B.jpg

    The first problem was that the InDesign template had 3 rows (excluding heading). After I populated the document, the 2nd PDF has an empty last row in the table.
    The second problem was that client C could have 20 items! Making the setup of the data file impractical.

    Originally the client documents where developed in an Excel sheet, one for each client that contained the layout and the data for that client. We then Save As the sheet as PDF (not fillable). If some small common text changed we had to edit 50 Excel documents (one for each client) and Save each PDF manually. Our project was to create a template and rather Generate the PDF’s and make them fillable. We thought InDesign will work for this.

    I guess I’m back to square one.

    Thanks again.

    Regards,

    Walther

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