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Formatting date in Indesign after merge Excel

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    • August 12, 2015 at 5:44 am #77248
      Next Level Producties
      Participant

      Hi guys,

      I am shifting from Word to Indesign for my mailings.

      When I merged date fields from Excel into Indesign (data merge) the field format is not what I want it to be.
      In excel date format is 19-05-2015 and in Indesign I want it to be: 19 May 2015 (dutch: 19 mei 2015))

      Even if I change it in Excel it turns up as 19-05-2015 in Indesign.

      How can I make Indesign come up with the right format?

      Thanks for any help!

    • August 12, 2015 at 5:48 am #77249
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      I don’t think InDesign is changing it. To get data merge to work, you have to save the file from Excel as a CSV. So Excel is probably changing it when it writes the CSV file. If you open the CSV in a text editor, do you see the date correctly?

    • August 12, 2015 at 6:14 am #77250
      Next Level Producties
      Participant

      The export via .txt gives me a better result in data merge section. That is: beneath oneanother.

      If I use CSV I get one complete line like: <<name;address;code;place;state;mail;phone>>
      Instead of the separated excel colomns that I get via .txt

      Second, also my date format (used text variables) for current date gives me the english time, although my pc system date and time is dutch, I prefer my Indesign to be in English..
      But now I end up with 12 August 2015 instead of the Dutch 12 Augustus 2015.

      Mmmm….what do I do wrong? Or should I stick to Word, which gives me less options but also less hassle?

    • August 12, 2015 at 6:21 am #77252
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      If it shows up wrong in the TXT or CSV file, then it is an excel issue. Please search google or bing for a solution on how to export CSV or TXT and maintain the date formatting. I don’t know how best to do that, sorry!

    • August 12, 2015 at 7:08 am #77256
      Next Level Producties
      Participant

      Hi David, thanks for your reply.

      After changing the format in Excel it did show up the right way now in Indesign. I will google for (export)options on Excel.

      Thanks so far David.

      Regards, Frank

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