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Matt Mayerchak
ParticipantI'm sure there are lots of Mac utilities that will generate the pathnames of files. Probably some free ones.
One I already own is A Better Finder Rename 8 (costs $19.95 – https://www.publicspace.net/ABe…..erRename/). You can drag/drop all the image files into the window as if you're going to rename them, but don't change them to anything. There's a button at the bottom for saving the file list and an option to include the full path name. It generates a text file.
Once you have the text list with path names, if you don't have any other fields – i.e. your mailmerge is only for the images – you don't need to use Excel to make a comma-delimited or tab-delimited file. You already have what you need.
ParticipantEugene – you're right, that should work. Thanks!
I've done lots of data merging but hadn't done images so I was less familiar with that part of it.
Thanks for the help.
ParticipantKasyan – thanks! I'll definitely try this one.
August 22, 2011 at 6:57 am in reply to: Create multiple PDFs of an ID file using 20 different logos and info #60353ParticipantSounds like you could use the layer versioning in the Page Exporter Utility for this – if so it would be simpler than datamerge. It was covered awhile ago in this forum:
https://creativepro.com/pag…..or-cs3.php
ParticipantHave you looked into InData and InCatalog from Em software?
I use InData, which allows me to work with exported text files from databases (comma or tab delimited). I haven't used InCatalog, but it's the more robust & expensive version that supposedly allows live linking with remote databases.
Here's a short blurb from their website:
use off-line simple delimited text data “snapshot” files, on-line FileMaker Pro (and Runtime) databases under Mac OS, and on-line SQL databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and Access, using ODBC under Mac OS and Windows (Pro license).
https://emsoftware.com/products…..emcatalog/
I hope this helps!
ParticipantI have to deal with this in magazine work all the time. InDesign is better at it than Quark was, because of the ability to lock and release master page items.
Two suggestions:
1. Until you're sure that you actually do need to switch your pages from left to right, use the Numbering & Section options to create sections that start verso or recto – for instance you can do this on page 20 and lock it to a left page, then move the 1st 20 pages around without impacting anything after page 20.
2. Once you have all the pages flowed, you can delete the “active” text boxes from your masters. Leave the footers, and any elements that haven't been modified or “released” on the actual pages. Then, if the pages move left and right, the master pages won't reapply a copy of the live items and the locked items will move to the correct position based on the master, because they are still locked.
ParticipantThanks – we'll give that a try and report back.
ParticipantYes – It was covered on this blog in 2007.
You can use Page Exporter Utility – a free script that has a button for “layer versioning.” I've used the script to export a large file as single-page pdfs, but not the layer versioning, so I believe that part works but can't vouch for it.
ParticipantHow are you importing the excel text? Are you copying and pasting from Excel? Saving as text files? Placing Excel files? There are lots of different ways to get the table text in from Excel. If you only have a few, copy & paste is easy to do and picks up all the formatting of the target table cells.
I would play with the cell format settings in the Excel doc first. Then I'd try saving as text and opening that in a text editor, or Word and see if it looks right there. Once you get the numbers right in a text file, you're good to go.
ParticipantI agree that I'd need to see the design to be sure, but . . .
If the 10 layouts are actually different visually, and the 7 tabs are in different positions, I think you may indeed need 70 masters. I know that's a lot, but it sounds like you have a lot more pages than that, so it's still faster than adjusting each page.
But if it's only the text that changes, and the tabs were all in the same place, or the layouts only had a section title that was different, then you might be able to do it using section markers or other text variables. For instance, if you just needed the section footers to change you could change that text in the Section Numbering options.
I've also heard that PowerHeaders is a good plugin – you might look into it and see if it could help in this case. I haven't used it myself.
March 9, 2011 at 3:24 pm in reply to: Options for working with remote editors — anything new/better in CS5 #58923ParticipantI have used the InCopy Packages workflow with remote editors and had good success, in case that's still relevant!
ParticipantI believe InCatalog ought to work. I use InData, which doesn't have the live links, but it's great for importing the data each time.
InCatalog is more money, but it does live updating between InDesign and your database, so it will probably pay for itself on your job. You can try it as a demo for free. The developer, Chris Ryland, is very responsive so he could probably tell you whether it will work with your workflow before you buy it.
March 9, 2011 at 8:24 am in reply to: Options for working with remote editors — anything new/better in CS5 #52978ParticipantI have used the InCopy Packages workflow with remote editors and had good success, in case that's still relevant!
ParticipantDavid,
You're right, they do. Thanks! Although, *sigh*, yet another plug-in to buy, and upgrade. You're one of the few who don't charge to upgrade their plugins to each new version of CS. Since I go back and forth between CS4 and CS5 a lot, that's an expensive pain. And, when I tell others how to do it at our IDUG meeting, they won't want to pay for the convenience. But, not your fault!
Thanks again
September 23, 2010 at 9:04 am in reply to: how can I replace all numbers in one list with numbers in another? (re-indexing book) #57094ParticipantI use FindChangeByList all the time . . . but I thought it would be overly laborious to get all of the strings into the text file with the surrounding formatting codes.
However, now that I think about it – everything up to, between, and following the # strings would be identical, so I suppose I could past all of that in with find/change somehow. Hmm . . . worth a try!
Thanks – Any other ideas, please shoot!
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