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• • May 4, 2016 at 1:58 pm #84571
    Luiz Silveira

    Member

    Hi.

    I have in a magazine a double page with columnists. They all have their picture, name, page you can find him/her (I used a cross reference), facebook page, a quote and a short resumé.

    My question may sound weird, but I always try to reduce chances of errors in copy/paste: is there a way to import those data? I’ve tried Data Merge, but it won’t work because it changes the fields in one place only, and what I need is that a CSV file to populate 8 columnists.

    What I was thinking is maybe there is a way to have in a CSV something like:

    Picture 1 | Name 1 | Facebook Page URL 1 | Quote 1 | Resumé 1
    Picture 2 | Name 2 | Facebook Page URL 2 | Quote 2 | Resumé 2
    Picture 3 | Name 3 | Facebook Page URL 3 | Quote 3 | Resumé 3
    (…)

    Distributed in the double page like below, but one entry in each text box:

    Picture 1
    Name 1
    Facebook Page URL 1
    Quote 1
    Resumé 1

    Okay, I can make a CSV with a lot of columns and only one row, distributing them across all columnists, but that’s a little dumb solution.

    Do you have any idea?

    Thanks a lot.
    Luiz

  • May 4, 2016 at 2:00 pm #84599
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    You might be able to use Data Merge with a script: https://creativepro.com/using-data-merge-to-create-a-table-for-a-directory.php

  • May 4, 2016 at 2:01 pm #84609
    Luiz Silveira

    Member

    Dear David,

    Thanks! I’ll give it a try. Seems to be exactly what I need.

    Luiz

  • May 5, 2016 at 6:45 am #84625
    Luiz Silveira

    Member

    Hi.

    Just to update this question:

    1. I’ve tried the script David recommended. It worked fine BUT the problem is it transform all fields in text, so I lost the connection to the datasource. I’m not sure if I made something wrong, or it works that way. No problem, I think this script is great anyway.

    2. I solved my problem with a XML file. Tagged Columnist’s Name, URL, Quote and Bio, exported as XML just to test. So no I just need to update the XML and all data is updated when opening the file (I won’t let it automatic to avoid it being updated and mess the layout in case someone change the text for a longer/shorter one).

    There are a few years I want to use XML for something useful, so finally… :)

    Anyway if someone already did that before and think I went in the wrong way because there are better options, please fell free to tell me. :)

    Thanks for you help. Always!

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