Corel Ventura to InDesign workflow?

Where I work, we have this big huge manual (400 pages) that we put out once a year. It's the only project that I have to work on in Corel Ventura (a program I'd never even seen before coming to this job!). But as far as I can tell, Ventura is not being updated. So eventually we're going to need to move this book into another program (hopefully InDesign). We already have trouble with advertisements, sometimes even having to save PDFs into TIF files. It'd be a huge chore to redo the whole manual, but it's bound to happen eventually. So here's what I'm trying to find out:
A large portion of the book is just a directory. We have a database here -- its contents are output as an ASCII file which is linked to the Ventura document. All the paragraph and character styles are tagged in the ASCII file. So, as soon as the database is exported, the Ventura file updates. Can this be done in InDesign? Would it be done with tagged text or XML or something (2 things I don't know much about)? Are there issues this type of job would face in InDesign that would make this transition a bad idea? Maybe a different program would be preferable?
I know I've seen a few folks mention Ventura on this board, so I'm hoping someone who's familiar with that program might know the differences between what it can do and what InDesign can do regarding long documents.
I just panicked because I couldn't open the Ventura help files when I picked up on this year's manual (I'd gotten a new computer). Luckily, the I.T. department was able to get them working for me. It's difficult to work in a program only once a year and with limited background in it. I doubt I can even find a book on Ventura 10 (seems like I looked once but no one had them). Eek!
Thanks, Phyllis

Okay thanks!!!
I'm afraid it's not going to be structured enough to do it entirely with styles (it's close but some of the listings have extra sections, etc.). At least not without a fair amount of cleanup. Whereas the programmers on staff can force an export already tagged if I can figure out what to tell them to do. The problem with this job is that we want the directory to be as up-to-date as possible. So, by automating the process, I can dump in the directory at the last minute before we go to press. I need to eliminate as much cleanup as possible in order to get the most current version!
I'll study the old text files that are being dumped into Ventura. But ultimately I have to recreate the directory from a new database so am thinking I need to figure out the tags that should go around each line and send that to the programmers. Well, I suppose I could have them generate the Ventura text files and then I could go through those. But ultimately I'd prefer to get rid of that step. This will take quite a while to figure out -- it's likely that it will be the 2010 directory before we can update (the directories are printed in January!).
Is this what tagged text is designed for, or am I trying to do something odd with it?
Ken, thank you so much for the offer of help! I likely will email you when I first get into this. I have no idea what problems I'm going to run into. I'm starting by just trying to make sure I don't suggest a major change that won't be feasible (I haven't even suggested this yet, but I'm going to). But I think this book is going to be impossible to update in Ventura in a few more years -- I think that program is just getting too outdated, even embedding the ads is starting to become problematic.
I love InDesign, but I have heard FrameMaker might be better for a long book of this nature (?). Although I don't know that program so am going to try to get this into something I know.
One of the things I'd lose from Ventura (and I hope this won't be a deal-breaker with the staff here) -- when the database is exported, the Ventura files update automatically, and I mean as soon as I open them the update has already happened -- new page count is correct, etc. I'm thinking with InDesign I'd have to update the linked file each time it changed. I think that's a reasonable exchange and only takes a minute. Do you know of any other differences in the way InDesign would handle this?
Thanks!!!
Phyllis

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I've used Ventura continuously since v.1, when Xerox owned it. Now I'm using v.10 on one PC and v.7 on another.
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I'm using CS5 now only because of its ability [inability?!] to easily export to epub files. I still do the bulk of my work in Ventura.
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SproetS wrote:
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