Reply To: Data Merge Plug In or answer to my problem

I know this post is a few weeks old by now but thought i’d add my buck o’five.

As David has said, Data Merge is very basic and doesn’t have the “if then else” feature that Word has (yes, word has something that indesign hasn’t got!)

David has mentioned one plug-in but the full list of plug-ins is available from https://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/indepth.displayTab3.html . Not all of the solution providers make data merge style plug-ins, so its a case of sifting through the page to see what you want.

My own personal experience has involved using a plug-in called XMPie. I last used this plug-in with CS5 so don’t know if it will work with CS6/CC. The plug-in has good features but is expensive and can be years before the ROI is achieved. I also have no affiliation with XMPie so this isn’t an ad for them either.

There are other VDP (variable data printing) solutions outside of InDesign but again, don’t expect a ROI anytime soon. Examples would be DirectSmile or Print Shop Mail.

For the last five years i’ve made Data Merge do amazing things that normally require plug-ins, but it means a lot of thinking ahead; letting excel or some other database do the hard work first; and be supported by reliable imposition and printing software.