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• • December 11, 2013 at 9:21 am #66398
    Chris Bradley

    Participant

    I’m trying to do something potential quite ambitious, here is what I have:

    1. A big excel document of data.
    2. I have linked this data into a table in indesign and styled the table and cells.
    3. There are two columns, one is made of blue cells, and one is grey. Think of it as a text message conversation type layout.
    3. Each cell needs to look like a speech bubble. i.e I need to add a arrow shape to each cell in the bottom left/bottom right corner.
    4. I have the arrow shape and using a method of anchoring the shape to each cell, I have got very close (Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyF1v09rCdE)
    5. The anchoring method is causing me problems. When applying the anchor, cells randomly disappear, and the positioning is not consistent due to each speech bubble being of different height.

    Here is an image of what I have: https://i42.tinypic.com/dpa4o5.jpg
    Here is what I want it to look like: https://i42.tinypic.com/2cmkfhj.png
    (this was done manually, I need a way of automating the adding of the arrows)

    Any direction would be very helpful. Has anyone else done something similar?

    Thanks
    Chris

  • December 11, 2013 at 9:33 am #66399
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Does it have to be a table? I have a solution using Data Merge and inline objects that would be far easier.

  • December 11, 2013 at 9:42 am #66400
    Chris Bradley

    Participant

    No, not all. In fact data merge was my first port of call, but I was struggling with layout. I’d love to hear you solution.

    Thanks

  • December 11, 2013 at 10:07 am #66402
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Cool. So here’s what you do:
    Make a text frame and put two paragraphs in it. On the first paragraph add an inline object in the shape and color you want. Make sure it’s a text frame. On the next paragraph, do another inline text frame (different shape/color).
    In excel (or whatever spreadsheet you’re using), make the first column person 1 and second column person 2. Save as CSV.
    Then, in data merge panel, select your data source (the csv file). Now use type tool to click inside first inline object and click Person1 data field; then click inside next inline text frame and click Person 2 data field. Save your work.
    Now here’s the trick: Download and install the InlineMerge script. I explain how it works here:
    https://creativepro.com/data-merge-into-inline-anchored-objects-so-they-flow-in-a-story.php
    Save your INDD file first. Then select the big text frame (the one that has the two inline frames in it) and run the script. When the script asks what to insert, use Carriage Returns.
    If it doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll post a file for you.

  • December 11, 2013 at 1:24 pm #66405
    Chris Bradley

    Participant

    Thanks that’s great. I’ll give it a go.

    Just to clarify, what do you mean when you say ‘add an inline object…Make sure it’s a text frame’.

    If you have a file already, then that would be really helpful.

  • December 11, 2013 at 5:09 pm #66408
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Okay, check this out:
    https://creativepro.com/downloads/conversation.zip
    There is an IDML and a csv file there. If you open the IDML file in InDesign, then open the data merge panel, it should be set up. Turn on/off the preview checkbox in data merge to ensure that the first conversation exchange is working. Then select the big text frame and run the inlinemerge script.

  • December 13, 2013 at 4:57 am #66419
    Chris Bradley

    Participant

    David – I cannot thank you enough for your help. I’m really close in achieving my goal.

    I have a couple of problems left to solve:

    Here is an image of what I got after generating the script: https://postimg.org/image/3yafq4zcr/
    This was using the ‘carriage return’ method in the script:

    1. How can I change the spacing between the speech bubbles so they don’t overlap.
    2. How do I change the speech bubble to have a bubble that will resize based on the content, but not have the proportions of the speech arrow change. I would like this to be consistent in size for each message.

    Thank you again!

  • January 24, 2014 at 6:20 am #66798
    Chris Bradley

    Participant

    Hello David – I don’t suppose you’d be able to look at the above for me?

  • January 24, 2014 at 8:43 am #66799
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    HI Chris, sorry I didn’t see your reply.
    1. I think you could do that by setting the leading on the line (with the inline object) to Auto
    2. Umm…. the only thing I can think of is to make that triangular section a separate object, not part of the bubble. Tricky.

  • April 14, 2016 at 7:54 am #84013
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi
    I have a similar problem
    Did you find a solution?

    Thank you for your support

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