Here’s a couple screen shots. First is the prototype used to create the merged file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eolhzwh4n6pp9f4/capture-000141.png?dl=0

Next is the merged result:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnq9xovx7s8pkhs/capture-000142.png?dl=0

Your data is easy to import and be formatted as per your sample using a data merge plug-in such as the one I use from EmData called InData (I use the version for QXP, XData but they do the same thing). One writes what is called a prototype and InData uses that to merge the data into the text frame. It can be made to only repeat certain information, such as your CLASS only once, etc.

Download the trial if interested. It is limited to X number of records in the Excel file, but it should let you see how well it works. If you need help with the prototype, I can write it for you and Em Data is great at their customer support and likely would help as well.

I would recommend, from a design perspective, to use bullets or numbering not both.

Hello John,

First, I have not used XML in your environment. Nor have I used InCopy much at all being a single contractor. I do use XML a fair bit, though.

I don’t know from whence InCopy is obtaining the stories. Is it directly from the back-end repository?

If it were me investigating it, I would first begin with exporting a story out of ID that has been edited and inspect it in either a good text editor that can properly handle XML or an actual XML editor. If those tags (like the bold tags you mention) are being properly placed around the text, it is failing downstream. If the tags are mis-matched, incomplete or “moved” from their target, it would seem InCopy cannot handle editing XML.

Likely it will be that InCopy cannot handle either the two-way nature of how the XML is being used, or that the back-end is falling over the checked-in story, or that perhaps the tags themselves are being mis-matched by InCopy. Or…something else I cannot think of at the moment. It’s not something I do.

Mike

That font was one of Softmaker’s rip-offs of premium fonts. The font in question is Albertus and can be purchased from several places, like MyFonts.com, etc. Adobe includes it in the Font Folio collections I believe.

The Andre SF font can likely also still be found for purchase from whomever is still selling them (I think they are still in business). The problem with that font is likely the permissions are set to Restrcted–most all their fonts from back in the day were.

Do yourself a favor. If you want that font, buy the Monotype version from Adobe, Myfonts, etc., as the quality will be far better.

I just looked inside the font and there are many, many issues with the font, including path direction issues. Paths need to be “wound” the same directions. The reason is because of the windings (path direction) is how a font distinguishes between what we see as solid and what we see as “holes,” like the inside of the lowercase d character. Both parts are actually “solid,” filled curves. But when the inside path is the opposite direction than the outside path, they reverse and one can see through the outside path.

For instance, The cap A and the lowercase b. The cap A’s outside path is wound clockwise and the outside path of the lowercase d is wound counter-clockwise. So where they overlap the font subsystem for your operating system “creates” the “hole” where they overlap.

I would recommend contacting the font author and seeing if they will fix it. The license doesn’t permit me to actually fix and regenerate the font, else I would for you. If you obtain explicit permission from the font author for me to do so, have him contact me. We can arrange a means of a 3-way contact and I would forward a fixed copy onto him as well. It takes 5 seconds to fix.

Mike

@David,

It took Serif x number of years to build the first application from the ground up (no recycled code from the Windows applications). It took barely a year to go from public beta to release on their second application. Affinity Publisher will likely take about the same amount of time.

Mike