Data merge cannot open txt - why?

When attempting to merge a txt or csv file with my InDesign document, I get an error message that the file is not correctly set up. I have done this many times before without any problems - the problems has occured after moving to CC. It is a simple Excel file saved as txt or csv. I can - however - still import old txt or csv files. I would be very grateful for some help?

Might be the encoding, though my recollection is that Excel doesn't provide any options and the default should work. Does it have the correct extension?

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Data Merge: Cannot get multiple records per page

I am working with a client who is trying to do a directory in Indesign. There are about 1,800 people with information like address, title, employer, phone, etc. This info is on an Excel spread sheet. I made a text, tab delimited and a CSV file from the spreadsheet. I set up a two column text box on each page and want these entries to fill the columns. I am only able to get one person's information per page. Multiple records per page yields no different result. I also had the multiple records option grayed out on a couple tries. I have tried this many times, even tried setting up a simple spread sheet with 9 items. No luck. HELP! I'm brand new to this feature.
Chris

the data merge function in indesign doesn't make "next record" merges like word does, but instead merges to fields within fixed text boxes, so one frame = one data merge result. when doing mailing labels in word, there is a field called "next record" which then calls in the next piece of information.
the "next record" field is a vital field which indesign doesn't have and i'd like… but that doesn't answer your question. i can see four ways of doing what you want to do:
1) do a mail merge in word and use the "catalog" feature and do the merge in word. format the word file appropriately using stylesheets, and once the merge is made, save the file and close it. THEN, place the file in indesign and then change the imported stylesheets into something which resembles more like what you want.
2) use indesign's data merge but make sure that multiple record layout is selected in the first dialog box when creating merged document; and that when previewing the records, the records appear to be in one column (even though they are still in separate text frames). merge the document, and in the new document, select all the text frames in the page and then run the MergeTextframes_ID.jsx script which can be found at http://ajarproductions.com/blo…..-indesign/ .this will have to be done page by page and then rethreaded each page, but it's a workaround
3) if the data in the datamerge is a csv, convert the csv to xml. if the csv is small (less than 100K) there is a converter online where the contents of the csv is copied into the converter. it is at http://www.creativyst.com/Prod/15/ . The next step is complicated and needs some knowledge of XML. my advice is to get hold of a book called "Designer's Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML" by James Maivald, and specifically read chapter seven and base your merge on this.
4) visit the third party providers link within the indesign page of the adobe site and have a look at products marketed there... i think teacup software and cacidi software sell products which do more advanced merges within indesign. they're not free though but are designed to handle big catalogues.
hope that helps.
colly

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Data Merge Cannot do Multiple records

Hello,
I am trying to create mailing labels in design cs5. I have used excel and saved it as a csv file. I go to Indesign and then windows/Utilities and data merge. I created a 3 column document and made a 1"X 2 5/8" text frame. I placed the info into the new label I created on the upper left side of the first column. I hit preview and see the info there. All is fine so far. I then click the create merged document. I specify I want multiple records and I hit ok but nothing happens.
What I see is the info goes back to <<Company>>, <<Address>>, <<Town>>, <<Phone>> when I try to create multiple records. I only see my info when Im in preview but it switches back to Company, Address, etc when it refuses to produce multiple records.
Please help because this is driving me nuts

Are you seeing the multiple records in Preview?
No new doc is created?
have you tried this: Replace Your Preferences

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Indesign CC 9.2 crashes upon opening the data merge panel

I have a document that's in a book (of multiple files) with cross references to other documents in the book. I also have almost all the content in an inCopy assignment in order to manage multiple versions/layouts with the same content. All cross references are unlinked from inCopy as the page numbers vary from book to book.
That said, while other documents in the book work fine, this one is having issues. Whenever I try to view the data merge panel it crashes. I had a similar problem with other files where if I try to select a data merge source it would crash. I fixed the problem by saving a copy, deleting all pages from the document, selecting the data merge source (which now works with no content on the pages), then copy/pasting the content back onto the pages. Not sure why this works but it did.
The problem is that I tried the same solution on this document and now, and it worked until I tried click on the data merge panel after following those steps, inDesign crashes. If I open the data merge panel, THEN open the document, it crashes as well.
I am going to attempt to redo this with the data merge panel open while I copy/paste content back in and see if I can narrow down the problematic content if that's the issue.

I actually tried this already, it still crashes and the error is reproducible on four different computers here: 1 Mac and 3 Windows machines. I didn't even restore my old preferences, I just did the reset and it still has the issue. Note it's not crashing when I use data merge, simply when I try to view the panel.
The only thing that differentiates this document from the other ones I've had issues with that I got my work-around to fix is that the cross-references point to other documents (where the other ones I've managed to fix have cross-references within the same document).
For the sake of my sanity I may just convert the (2) cross-references to text if they are in fact the issue.

[CS5.5/6] - XML / Data Merge questions & Best practice.

Fellow Countrymen (and women),
I work as a graphic designer for a large outlet chain retailer which is constantly growing our base of centers. This growth has brought a workload that used to be manageable with but two people to a never ending sprint with five. Much of what we do is print, which is not my forte, but is also generally a disorganized, ad-hoc affair into which I am wading to try to help reduce overall strain.
Upon picking up InDesign I noted the power of the simple Data Merge function and have added it to our repetoire in mass merging data sources. There are some critical failures I see in this as a tool going forward for our purposes, however:
1) Data Merge cannot handle information stored and categorized in a singular column well. As an example we have centers in many cities, and each center has its own list of specific stores. Data merge cannot handle a single column, or even multiple column list of these stores very easily and has forced us into some manual operations to concatenate the data into one cell and then, using delimiter characters, find and replace hard returns to seperate them.
2) Data Merge offers no method of alternate alignment of data, or selection by ranges. That is to say: I cannot tell Data merge to start at Cell1 in one column, and in another column select say... Cell 42 as the starting point.
3) Data merge only accepts data organized in a very specific, and generally inflexible pattern.
These are just a few limitations.
ON TO MY ACTUAL DILEMMA aka Convert to XML or not?
Recently my coworker has suggested we move toward using XML as a repository / delivery system that helps us quickly get data from our SQL database into a usable form in InDesign.
I've watched some tutorials on Lynda.com and havent yet seen a clear answer to a very simple question:
"Can XML help to 'merge' large, dynamic, data sets like a list of 200 stores per center over 40 centers based off of a single template file?"
What I've seen is that I would need to manually duplicate pages, linking the correct XML entry as I go rather than the program generating a set of merged pages like that from Data Merge with very little effort on my part. Perhaps setting up a master page would allow for easy drag and drop fields for my XML data?
I'm not an idiot, I'm simply green with this -- and it's kind of scary because I genuinely want us to proceed forward with the most flexible, reliable, trainable and sustainable solution. A tall order, I know. Correct me if I'm wrong, but XML is that beast, no?
Formatting the XML
Currently I'm afraid our XML feed for our centers isnt formatted correctly with the current format looking as such:
<BRANDS>
     <BRAND>
          • BrandID = xxxx
          [Brand Name]
          [Description]
          [WebMoniker]
          <CATEGORIES>
               <CATEGORY>
                    • xmlns = URL
                    • WebMoniker = category_type
          <STORES>
               <STORE>
                    • StoreID = ID#
                    • CenterID = ID#
I dont think this is currently usable because if I wanted to create a list of stores from a particular center, that information is stored as an attribute of the <Store> tag, buried deep within the data, making it impossible to 'drag-n-drop'.
Not to mention much of the important data is held in attributes rather than text fields which are children of the tag.
Im thinking of proposing the following organizational layout:
<CENTERS>
     <CENTER>
     [Center_name]
     [Center_location]
          <CATEGORIES>
               <CATEGORY>
                    [Category_Type]
                    <BRANDS>
                         <BRAND>
                              [Brand_name]
My thought is that if I have the <CENTER> tag then I can simply drag that into a frame and it will auto populate all of the brands by Category (as organized in the XML) for that center into the frame.
Why is this important?
This is used on multiple documents in different layout styles, and since our store list is ever changes as leases end or begin, over 40 centers this becomes a big hairy monster. We want this to be as automated as possible, but I'd settle for a significant amount of dragging and dropping as long as it is simple and straightforward. I have a high tollerance for druding through code and creating work arounds but my co-workers do not. This needs to be a system that is repeatable and understandable and needs to be able to function whether I'm here or not -- Mainly because I would like to step away from the responsibility of setting it up every time
I'd love to hear your raw, unadulterated thoughts on the subject of Data merge and XML usage to accomplish these sorts of tasks. What are your best practices and how would you / do you accomplish these operations?
Regards-
Robert

From what I've gleaned through watching Lynda tutorials on the subject is that what I'm hoping to do is indeed possible.
Peter, I dont disagree with you that there is a steep learning curve for me as the instigator / designer of this method for our team, but in terms of my teammates and end-users that will be softened considerably. Even so I'm used to steep learning curves and the associated frustrations -- but I cope well with new learning and am self taught in many tools and programs.
Flow based XML structures:
It seems as though as long as the initial page is set up correctly using imported XML, individual data records that cascade in a logical fashion can be flowed automatically into new pages. Basically what you do is to create an XML based layout with the dynamic portion you wish to flow in a single frame, apply paragraph styles to the different tags appropriately and then after deleting unused records, reimport the XML with some specific boxes checked (depending on how you wish to proceed).
From there simply dragging the data root into the frame will cause overset text as it imports all the XML information into the frame. Assuming that everything is cascaded correctly using auto-flow will cause new pages to be automatically generated with the tags correctly placed in a similar fashion to datamerge -- but far more powerful and flexible.
The issue then again comes down to data organization in the XML file. In order to use this method the data must be organized in the same order in which it will be displayed. For example if I had a Lastname field, and a Firstname field in that order, I could not call the Firstname first without faulting the document using the flow method. I could, however, still drag and drop content from each tag into the frame and it would populate correctly regardless of the order of appearance in the XML.
Honestly either method would be fantastic for our current set of projects, however the flow method may be particularly useful in jobs that would require more than 40 spreads or simple layouts with huge amounts of data to be merged.

(CS5-MAC) Data Merge and Data Driven Graphics

Apologies in advance if this is slightly off topic, but I need some opinions and insight here.
I've been using InDesign since its creation and have recently been pushing the Data Merge feature of ID to its limits. My colecandoo blog highlights some of what I have achieved.
However, there are some things which the Data Merge cannot do, such as warping live text which can be done in Photoshop or Illustrator. But, I've recently learnt of the term "Data Driven Graphics" and that Photoshop and Illustrator handle both. Photoshop accepts txt/csv files and appears to be relatively workable, whereas Illustrator accepts XML which I can't get to work at all and it is frustrating me.
So here are my questions. I know the answer to some of these will most likely be "no" but if i don't ask, i'll never find out.
is there a way to integrate the Data Merge feature of InDesign with the data driven graphics feature of illustrator or photoshop WITHOUT scripting (e.g. something I may have missed)?
If scripting is the only option, is anyone out there actually doing what i'm trying to do, or know of any resources out there that i can look at?
is there a way to make the user unfriendly DDG feature in illustrator actually reference a txt/csv file rather than an XML file? Because I'm working on a Mac, making XML from excel is like putting marshmallows in a piggy bank (e.g. messy and ineffective).
what kind of images can InDesign's Data Merge reference? does it extend to other indesign files or incopy files?
I know there are third party products which can do the above (e.g. XMPie or DirectSmile), but i'm trying to get as much value as i can from the Creative Suite purely off-the-shelf.
here's hoping
colly

>Because I'm working on a Mac, making XML from excel is like putting marshmallows in a piggy bank (e.g. messy and ineffective).
It should be easy, shouldn't it? I found that running the Excel file through Filemaker made valid XML files easily. Import worksheet, export records as XML.
Can't help you with the rest of it.

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Cannot open your default e-mail folders. You must connect to Microsoft Exchange with the current profile before you can synchronize your folders with your Outlook data file (.ost)

Fresh installation of Exchange Server 2013 on Windows Server 2012.
Our first test account cannot access their email via Outlook but can access fine through OWA. The following message appears - "Cannot open your default e-mail folders. You must connect to Microsoft Exchange with the current profile before you can synchronize
your folders with your Outlook data file (.ost)" is displayed.
If I turn off cached Exchange mode, setting the email account to not
cache does not resolve the issue and i get a new error message - "Cannot open your default e-mail folders. The file (path\profile name).ost is not an Outlook data file (.ost). Very odd since it creates its own .ost file when you run it for the first
time.
I cleared the appdata local Outlook folder and I tested on a new laptop that has never connected to Outlook, same error message on any system.
Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access service is running.
No warning, error or critical messages in the eventlog, it's like the healthiest server alive.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't encountered this issue with previous versions of Exchange.

So it looks like a lot of people are having this issue and seeing how Exchange 2013 is still new (relatively to the world) there isn't much data around to answer this. I've spend ALOT of time trying to figure this out.
Here is the answer. :) - No I don't know all but I'm going to try to give you the most reasonable answer to this issue, in a most logical way.
First thing I did when I was troubleshooting this issue is that I ignored Martina Miskovic's suggestion for Step4 http://technet.microsoft.com/library/jj218640(EXCHG.150)because it didn't make sense to me because I was trying to connect
Outlook not outside the LAN but actually inside. However, Martina's suggestion does fix the issue if it's applied in the correct context.
This is where the plot thickens (it's stew). She failed to mention that things like SSL (which I configure practically useless - anyone who ever worked in a business environment where the owner pretty much trusts anyone in the company, otherwise they don't
work there - very good business practice in my eyes btw, can confirm that...) are some sort of fetish with Microsoft lately. Exchange 2013 was no exception.
In exchange 2003, exchange 2007 and exchange 2010 - you could install it and then go to outlook and set it up. And when outlook manual Microsoft Exchange profile would ask you for server name, you would give it and give the name of the person who you setting
up - as long as machine is on the domain, not much more is needed. IT JUST WORKS! :) What a concept, if the person already on premises of the business - GIVE HIM ACCESS. I guess that was too logical for Microsoft. Now if you're off premises you can use things
like OutlookAnywhere - which I might add had their place under that scenario.
In Exchange 2013, the world changed. Ofcourse Microsoft doesn't feel like telling it in a plain english to people - I'm sure there is an article somewhere but I didn't find it. Exchange 2013 does not support direct configuration of Outlook like all of it's
previous versions. Did you jaw drop? Mine did when I realized it. So now when you are asked for your server name in manual outlook set up and you give it Exchange2013.yourdomain.local - it says cannot connect to it. This happens because ALL - INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL connection are now handled via OutlookAnywhere. You can't even disable that feature and have it function the reasonable way.
So now the question still remains - how do you configure outlook. Well under server properties there is this nice section called Outlook anywhere. You have a chance to configure it's External and Internal address. This is another thing that should be logical
but it didn't work that way for me. When I configured the external address different from the internal - it didn't work. So I strongly suggest you get it working with the same internal address first and then ponder how you want to make it work for the outside
users.
Now that you have this set up you have to go to virtual directories and configure the external and internal address there - this is actually what the Step 4 that Martina was refering to has you do.
Both external and internal address are now the same and you think you can configure your outlook manually - think again. One of the most lovely features of Outlook Anywhere, and the reason why I had never used it in the past is that it requires a TRUSTED
certificate.
See so it's not that exchange 2013 requires a trusted certificate - it's that exchange 2013 lacks the feature that was there since Windows 2000 and Exchange 5.5.
So it's time for you to install an Active Direction Certificate Authority. Refer to this wonderful article for exact steps - http://careexchange.in/how-to-install-certificate-authority-on-windows-server-2012/
Now even after you do that - it won't work because you have to add the base private key certificate, which you can download now from your internal certsrv site, to Default Domain Policy (AND yes some people claim NEVER mess with the Default Domain Policy,
always make an addition one... it's up to you - I don't see direct harm if you know what you want to accomplish) see this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738131%28v=ws.10%29.aspx if you want to know exact steps.
This is the moment of ZEN! :) Do you feel the excitement? After all it is your first time. Before we get too excited lets first request and then install the certificate to actual Exchange via the gui and assign it to all the services you can (IIS, SMTP and
there is a 3rd - I forgot, but you get the idea).
Now go to your client machine where you have the outlook open, browse to your exchange server via https://exchang2013/ in IE and if you don't get any certificate errors - it's good. If you do run on hte client and the server: gpupdate /force This will refresh
the policy. Don't try to manually install the certificate from Exchange's website on the client. If you wanna do something manually to it to the base certificate from the private key but if you added it to the domain policy you shouldn't have to do it.
Basically the idea is to make sure you have CA and that CA allows you to browse to exchange and you get no cert error and you can look at the cert and see that's from a domain CA.
NOW, you can configure your outlook. EASY grasshoppa - not the manual way. WHY? Cause the automatic way will now work. :) Let it discover that exachange and populate it all - and tell you I'm happy! :)
Open Outlook - BOOM! It works... Was it as good for you as it was for me?
You may ask, why can't I just configure it by manual - you CAN. It's just a nightmare. Go ahead and open the settings of the account that got auto configed... How do you like that server name? It should read something like [email protected]
and if you go to advanced and then connection tab - you'll see Outlook Anywhere is checked as well. Look at the settings - there is the name of the server, FQDN I might add. It's there in 2 places and one has that Mtdd-something:Exchange2013.yourdomain.local.
So what is that GUID in the server name and where does it come from. It's the identity of the user's mailbox so for every user that setting will be different but you can figure it out via the console on the Exchange server itself - if you wish.
Also a note, if your SSL certs have any trouble - it will just act like outlook can't connect to the exchange server even though it just declines the connection cause the cert/cert authority is not trusted.
So in short Outlook Anywhere is EVERYWHERE! And it has barely any gui or config and you just supposed to magically know that kind of generic error messages mean what... Server names are now GUIDs of the [email protected] - THAT MAKES PERFECT
SENSE MICROSOFT! ...and you have to manage certs... and the only place where you gonna find the name of the server is inside the d*** Outlook Anywhere settings in the config tab, un it's own config button - CAN WE PUT THE CONFIG ANY FURTHER!
Frustrating beyond reason - that should be Exchange's new slogan...
Hope this will help people in the future and won't get delete because it's bad PR for Microsoft.
PS
ALSO if you want to pick a fight with me about how SSL is more secure... I don't wanna hear it - go somewhere else...

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[Flat File Source [2]] Error: Cannot open the datafile "VendorPurchases20050512.txt".

hi
I'm trying to use foreachloop container in order to read the data that i have in several txt files and upload it into MRR table.
when i'm trying to run the package, i'm getting the following error:
[Flat File Source [2]] Warning: The system cannot find the file specified.
[Flat File Source [2]] Error: Cannot open the datafile "VendorPurchases20050512.txt".
[SSIS.Pipeline] Error: Flat File Source failed the pre-execute phase and returned error code 0xC020200E.
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I'll be happy for assistance
thanks
Yaron

Hi Yaron,
Does the file stored in local file system or a share folder on remote server? If you can load data from a file in local computer, but cannot load data from a file in a remote computer, the issue may be caused by the Kerberos authentication. In this condition,
check the following points:
Enable SQL Server for Kerberos
Check delegation settings for SQL Server service account and Computer
Add Host SPNs for FileShare Server and SQL Server
References:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd568720.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191153.aspx
Regards,
Mike Yin
TechNet Community Support

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