Data Merge issue: Rejects CSV document

I've been using the same business card template for a while now, and it's worked seamlessly with the CSV files I've been getting from our HR department.
After switching to CS3, something went wrong. ID is rejecting the CSV file when I "select data source" in the DataMerge window.
I thought it might be the new version...maybe they switched something up....but I can merge the old CSV's fine, and the new CSV also does not work in CS2.
So I think the problem lies in the CSV file, but I'm not sure where to look, or what to look for.
Has anybody ever had any similar issues?

Perhaps where you have it open is significant.
I can create a CSV file, open and edit it in TextPad, and while it's still open, select it as a data source in InDesign.
Just check.
yep, did it again.
k

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Data merge issues in InDesign CS4

Hello
I'm having an issue with a data merge document that I've made. The issue I'm having is when ever I "update content in data fields" items are deleted off of the page. I have rebuilt it several times but always get the same issue, any ideas?
Cheers
Jack

That's a feature I have not used, but could not replicate.
It seems for that feature, you have set up a merge doc with the fields on the Master Page? (preferred method) and created the merged document, edited the data source, gone to the Data Merge Panel and selected Update Content in Data Fields? That generated a log of updated records on my machine with the new data.
More info needed on your process.

Multiple Records Data Merge issue

Hi all, could really use some help here, I've been trying to solve this for hours now:
Made 3 different designs for labels that I'm printing based off of Avery label templates for InDesign. When I go ahead to do my data merge on any of them, I select "Multiple Records" under Records per Document Page, but the preview and the actual creation just spit out a single unique label onto each new page. For example, I'm using 2x4" labels on 2 of these, so it should print 10 per page, but instead of putting 10 unique labels on a page, it puts each new label on a new page. Therefore, instead of 100 pages for the 1,000 labels I'm printing, I end up with 1,000 pages.
I know to double check the size constraints on the text box and make sure it fits when duplicated, and to my understanding, that is looking like it's fine. I'm also fairly certain that the CSV files I'm using are in the right format, too. I'm pretty stuck at this point as to what I need to do to fix this problem, any guidance would be awesome. Below are screenshots of what I'm looking at, please let me know if there's anything else I can provide that would help diagnose the problem.

I thinnk the easiest way to deal with this would be to make sure all the template information from Avery is on the master page. Leave it active while you do the layout in the upper left position ON THE DOCUMENT PAGE, then assign the None master to leave nothing showing but your placholders and added art.
Reassign the template master after the merge.

InDesign Data Merge w/Multiple Page Document

I am working to print a multiple-page newsletter, and printing the mailing information using a Data Merge in InDesign CS4 (PC), with the intent of printing this in-house to send to our members. (My office has been doing this successfully for years using Publisher, but I insisted we update to InDesign.)
I have the document ready, and I have the Data Source information (set up in tab-delimited (.txt) text format).
After I have selected the Data Source (Window > Automation > Data Merge), inserted the Data Fields, and then Created Merged Document, I wind up with multiple versions of the Document; one for each person we are sending the newsletter to!
I was working with our printer technician to solve the issue, but his sources told him that the only way to do this was by using one document as the newsletter master and another document as the Data Merge document, and doing a little magic thru the PostScript driver in the printer.
(Specifically: the document is letter-sized, set to print as a booklet. The work-around involves copying and pasting these pages into a new tabloid-sized document, creating another blank tabloid-sized document that has only the Data Merge info in the proper place, printing the cover with this Data Merge separately, loading that into a drawer, and printing the new document and wrapping it with the pre-printed cover.)
1 - What am I doing wrong that gives me over 800 InDesign documents for this newsletter?
2 - Is there a way for me to print this without the work around?

That is what Indesign does when it does a data merge, it creates copies of the document and there's no way to change this. Have you tried exporting to PDF (In CS4 you can do this in one step from the original) and printing? I've never had anyone confirm it definitively but I'm pretty sure that the PDF created will be an 'optimized' one, meaning that when it sends it off to a compatible printer the images will be sent once and cached, with only the text that changes being sent separately.
Definitely worth comparing it to Publisher for speed anyway, Office programs can merge straight to the printer, but in effect they're doing the same thing. There are programs out there for doing far fancier stuff than data merge, probably the best is XM Pie, but unless you've got a printer that recognises their language they're a waste of time in this circumstance anyway.

CS5.5 Data Merge Issues

Right now, I have my text block with my data fields entered on my master page. The text block has been set to allow master item overrides, as recommended in the Adobe data merge tutorial for CS 5 & 5.5. When I preview my data merge, it looks perfect.
The problem is that once I tell it to merge, it repeats the first entry on all the pages instead of going down the records in my .csv file. I checked the .csv file in TextEdit, and it doesn't seem to have any errors.
Has anyone else had this problem and managed to figure it out?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the suggestion — I tried it without the preview and it worked! And I also figured out I only need one page in the document — otherwise it will create extra copies for each entry (I had 12 pages, so it made 12 copies for each record).

Data Merge (ID) then Split Documents with Filename

Hey everyone,
I'm using InDesign and Data Merge to create business cards for our printer, but we of course have the recepients proof them first.
I was wondering if there was a way where after the Data Merge, I could separate every 2 pages into their own PDF (front and back of card).
Even more awesome would be if the PDF filename could be "<<FirstName>><<LastName>>-BC-proof.pdf"
Thanks!

Created this desription for someone looking to help, may clarify:
So here’s my workflow and goal result for these files.
I am creating special business cards for a handful of people in our company. And since our print vendor usually handles proofs and approvals per individual, I’ve got to try and replicate that process for this piece.
I created an InDesign file with the fields I need to populate from a spreadsheet with all their contact information.
Data Merge works like it should, and my merged document contains the front and back of each card for each individual in the handful of people. But now, I need to send out a copy of each for the recipient to approve.
Another helper here has been manually splitting the documents and sending them out for approval, but I’d very much like to streamline the process (from merge, to proof, to approval, to printer). And the printer will likely be needing these in separate files for shipping reasons.
So now that I have a merged document, my goal would be to export every 2 pages with a filename of the “<<LastName>><<FirstName>>-COE_BC_PROOF.pdf” so our helper can get them sent out for approval.
A second step may be to re-do this process with bleed for the printers (or if that seems too much, the proofs will just include bleed and what not so we can forward them straight to the printer).
So wadda ya think?

Data merge - multiple records per document

I am trying to do a data merge to have 4 addresses per page. I have my main page setup with the merge fields. When I select create merged document, the "records per Document Page" drop down is greyed out. I cannot select multiple records.
What am I missing?
Thanks,
Phil

I guess I still do not understand how this works. I would like the multiple addresses to print 4-up on a page so that I can cut a letter size page in to fourths for postcards. The attached image shows my main document.
Phil

InDesign Data Merge Issues...

Hey all, I'm relatively new to using InDesign, I've used it previously for basic artwork layouts etc, and I'm familiar with Illustrator and Photoshop, but InDesign is something I'm still getting to grips with.
I run a mailing company and we have an ongoing requirement for variable data merging. Software designed for variable data work when dealing with PDFs and high res images is incredibly expensive, and so I figured I could try and make use of InDesign's own data merging feature.
Now I'm fully aware of some of the irritating little issues surrounding this tool, such as the way if you've got two blank fields it only removes one of them, and I also know it used to have an issue where it would pull data through from the next record to replace blanks, but I don't see that happening any more.
There are lots of webpages and forums discussing the blank fields problem, but my problem is currently something else.
I've noticed that some of the fields often don't like to display anything other than the header row, the field name. You drop the field onto the page and create your merge, but when you preview it or publish it whilst most of the fields do as expected and change to show the data, some of the fields do not, they just continue to show <contact> for instance, rather than a name.
I'm at a loss to explain this really, it's not even particularly consistent.
As an example of my problem, I laid out the following address block
<Contact>
<Add1>
<Add2>
<Add3>
<Add4>
<Add5>
<Postcode>
What I get sometimes is this...
<Contact>
123 Sample Street
Sample Town
Sample County
Sample Postcode
Or...
Mr AB Sample
123 Sample Street
Sample Town
<Add3>
Sample Postcode
If you add the same field again beneath the one that is playing up, the new field will work, but the one beneath it will then play up, so where in the example above it is <Add3> that isn't merging, if I added another <add3> beneath it, I could almost guarantee that <Add4> would then play up.
I just don't understand it, and it's frustrating me immensely.
Ironically I know a local professional printers who are using InDesign for all their digital variable print runs, without issue, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. They are using Macs whereas I am using a PC with Windows 7 Ultimate x 64bit, but I've had the same problem on other Windows version, so is it a Windows related problem, or are Mac users just not spotting this??
Anyone who has ever experienced something similar and perhaps found a solution, please help!!!!!
Best Regards
Richard

RikRamsay14 - thank you for your response, the issue regarding blanks isn't really the concern here, I'm aware of this issue, and the remove blank lines works where this is only one blank field, if there's two blank fields then it only seems to remove one. But I can happily work around this by just shifting all my data across. The data source is fine and is not the problem.
Peter Spier - Many thanks for your reply Peter, I thought you might be on to something with this, so I tried opening it from scratch and merging instantly without the use of any previewing, at first I thought it had worked, but when I got further down the merge results I spotted the same problem, field headers appearing where content should be. These instances are not even where the data cell is blank, it just decides not to display the content, but to display the field header instead, it's inconsistent too so it's really hard to analyse to find a pattern.
My layout incorporates multiple text placeholders containing multiple variable fields. I am starting to wonder if this could be contributing to the fault. I have tried just creating one text placeholder, and then using the multiple record layout option to display the other three images (it's a postcard four-up on an SRA3 sized page, with four address blocks). This seems to be less buggy this way, but I have less control with the layout. I'm going to continue to test this theory today, but it could simply be that it can't cope with multiple variable address blocks.
Thanks for all your help guys.
Regards
Richard

Digital Magazine layout & data merge issues

If anyone can help or offer some advice on the following I would be extremely grateful. My main problem is applying a data merge to either an existing layout I have created or creating a layout from scratch but having varying box sizes containing merged data and specific numbers of records on particular pages.
The brief is:
Create a 28 page digital magazine.
The magazine will be published either weekly or fortnightly and contain around 500 'listings'. Each listing has an image, and 4 pieces of variable text.
My initial plan was to manually enter the listings information - this will take far too long each week. I am hoping to keep the same layout each week but just change the data on the listings pages by creating a new .csv file each week and applying it using the data merge feature.
22 of the pages contain 'listings'. The remaining pages are editorial.
I'm relatively new to data merge in InDesign. My knowledge of it's feature is limited to being able to create multiple records but they are all the same size and I don't see any options where I can designate how many records I would like to appear on a particular page and to then keep that layout so I can come back to it each week with a new .csv file and literally just drop it in and i'm done.
I need the layout of the 'listings' pages to vary so that in some cases there are 30 listings (records) on one page and on other pages there are 23, some are to have 35 etc. Also on the pages where there are 23 listings - the first 3 listings are to take significantly larger amoutns of space on the page (as featured listings of the week).
If anyone has used data merge in this way before and can help please let me know. I have produced a complete layout of the magazine but i'm guessing i'll have to scrap this and start again if I'm going to start using data merge.
thanks in advance!
Mark

like i said, the XML learning curve is steep as indesign's ability to handle XML on its own is pretty user unfriendly, but ID does get the job done.
depending on how dirty you want to get your hands, there is an additional book in conjunction to the title i'd mentioned earlier, and it is called "InDesign CS5 Automation Using XML & Javascript" by Grant Gamble which you may want to read. however this is a LOT to digest and certainly not for anyone unfamiliar with programming in javascript.
is the data for the publication exclusively coming from excel or is it coming from Management Information Software (MIS) which can export XML information? excel on a PC can generate XML but it is useless as a jelly pickaxe as there is a lot of extraneous information saved with the exported XML file.
there are several people on this forum with a wider experience on this topic than me, and hopefully they are reading this and can carry on with more detailed explanations.
i'm used to using online converters to take csv files to convert them to XML but the only real advantage of using XML generated this way is to create variable data which flows on in the same text box. This is opposed to ID's data merge which would not flow on the information but instead start the next record in a brand new text box, meaning if an entry has to move from the start to the end, it means making the merge again, whereas if an XML file was used i could simply open up the structure pane and move the record from record 1 to the last record.
AFAIK apart from indesign and the MIS used to generate the data, i believe that a piece of software called oxygen XML would help in editing the XML once it is generated, but i do not use oxygen XML myself, but perhaps other readers do and can assist you.
FYI, the project you are talking about is remarkably similar to one which i deal with at work... but we only ever receive the finished art as a PDF, but it appears that the construction method was the same as your idea - that is, take database file, parse it through indesign using different templates and then output it to a media, in my case a printed magazine. unfortunately i can't tell you exactly how they made it as it is proprietary to the client.

Large Volume Data Merge Issues with Indesign CS5

I recently started using Indesign CS5 to design a marketing mail piece which requires merging data from Microsoft Excel. With small tasks up to 100 pieces I do not have any issues. However I need to merge 2,000-5,000 pieces of data through Indesign on a daily basis and my current lap top was not able to handle merging more than 250 pieces at a time, and the process of merging 250 pieces takes up to 30-45 mins if I get lucky and software does not crash.
To solve this issue, I purchased a Desktop with a second generation Core i7 processor and 8GB of memerory thinking that this would solve my problem. I tried to merge 1,000 piece of data with this new computer, and I was forced to restart Adobe Indesign after 45 mins of no results. I then merged 500 pieces and the task was completed, but the process took a little less than 30 minutes.
I need some help with this issue because I can not seem to find another software that can design my Mail Piece the way Indesign can, yet the time it takes to merge large volumes of data is very frustrating as the software does crash from time to time after waiting a good 30-45 mins for completion.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Operating System is Windows 7
I do not know what you mean by Patched to 7.0.4
I do not have a crash report, the software just freezes and I have to do a force close on the program.
Thank you for your time...

CS3 Data Merge Issue

I don't know why I can't figure this issue out! It's similar to the one the poster below had with CS4, but slightly different.
I am trying to make a page of labels with a different address on each one. I have followed all the steps exactly, selecting multiple records, adjusting, readjusting, and re-readjusting margins, but for some reason it still keeps printing one label per page. For example, the first page has the first name of the database, the second has the second record. It's recognizing the different records, apparently, but isn't displaying them right.
I don't know why I can't get this to work, any help?

Nothing lurking on the page. I have a template image but it's on another layer and hidden.
I have followed the steps exactly. I don't think it's the margins because no matter what numbers I put in there, when I click Preview it just shows the one textbox. I'm so confused as to why this isn't working, it seems to work great for everyone else.
I'll try to upload the file to my server, it's probably a little detail that would be hard to catch without looking at the document.

Crazy colored brackets in InDesign data merge document

I did a data merge on an InDesign document I'm working on and I got all these crazy colored brackets embedded throughout my document. Here's a screenshot:
What the heck is going on?

From Post 4:
//EN_UntagAllXMLElements_ACTIVE_DOCUMENT.jsx
//Authors:
//Hans Haesler
//Gregor Fellenz
//Comments by Uwe Laubender
* @@@BUILDINFO@@@ EN_UntagAllXMLElements_ACTIVE_DOCUMENT.jsx !Version! Sun Dec 01 2013 09:38:21 GMT+0100
//See: http://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=506568#506568
//Data for testing: http://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=6654;
//Posted the links to this thread in InDesign Scripting forum:
//http://forums.adobe.com/message/4983121#4983121
//Green4ever
//"Untag Frame" menu action is invalid [CS5 Win XP]
//The active document:
var d=app.documents[0];
//Hans Haesler:
//Untag all XML-Tags with exception of the root element:
d.xmlElements[0].xmlElements.everyItem().untag();
//TO GET RID OF THE ROOT ELEMENT:
//Workaround by Gregor Fellenz:
//Add a new rectangle to the document:
var tempRect = d.rectangles.add();
//Tag the rectangle with the "Root" element:
tempRect.markup(d.xmlElements[0]);
//AND HERE IS TRICK:
//Remove the rectangle:
tempRect.remove();

How do I generate a data merge in InDesign from an excel spreadsheet which includes a barcode

Can you please advise if the following process is possible within InDesign CS 5.5? (Mac OS 10.8.2).
We need to create a data merge that includes a barcode. The data merge is for several thousand records.
We have a customer-supplied Excel spreadsheet that contains seven fields, one of which is a number that ultimately needs to print as a barcode when we make the data merge in InDesign.
As you would expect, the conventional six fields data merge perfectly - but we can't find a way to make the barcode print correctly within the data merge.
We have investigated several possible solutions without success.
Some solutions suggest a plug-in for Excel to convert the number into a barcode whilst still in the spreadsheet - but this doesn't come across correctly when we import the CSV file into the InDesign data merge.
We have investigated certain third party software applications but none provide the full solution we require. Some, for example, appear to create the barcode within the Excel spreadsheet but don't produce the barcode correctly when we data merge in InDesign; and some will allow us to create a one-off barcode within InDesign but have no automated way of retrieving the thousands of Excel numbers and turning them into barcodes.
We have also come across possible 'font' solutions but have had no success with these either.
For a previous job we needed to produce we outsourced to a specialist mailing company, who assured us they produced the whole job (very quickly) within InDesign. They, understandably, won't tell us how they did it. But, given the speed with which they produced the job for us, we imagine - with the correct software - the whole process is easy to do.
Can you please advise?

HI MIKE
Thanks again for your reply and your help with this.
I've downloaded the barcode font from the link you supplied.
I've tried three tests - and seem much closer to getting what we need. But I've come up against a couple of issues.
TEST 1 - almost just to see if the downloaded font worked, I simply data merged our source csv file and applied the downloaded barcode font to the serial number in ID. Probably unsurprisingly, this produced a perfectly printed barcode - that wouldn't scan.
TEST 2 - I manually added asterisks before and after the serial number in the first couple of fields and then tried the same process as TEST 1. It produced a perfectly printed barcode which this time DID scan correctly - but obviously the barcode had asterisks on it which I don't want. I just want the serial number. And with thousands of serial numbers we need the addition of the asterisks to happen automatically (which is where your text editor process seems the perfect solution, if we could get that to work).
TEST 3 - Noting your comments about using parenthesis around the serial number, I followed your example of (123456). But Excel won't let me type a parenthesis. It lets me type the parenthesis but then instantly substitutes it with a - (hyphen) before the number in the actual serial number cell and no character at all after the number.
If you have any suggestions or solutions for any of the above they'd be gratefully received! Thanks again for all your help with this.
Kind regards
Rob

Data merge - can you insert multiple fields at once?

Hi,
I'm using InDesign CS4.
I'm automating a series of reports using Data Merge from a CSV file. Each row in the CSV file holds the data for each individual report - 135 reports in total.
The thing is, each report contains a text comments from some research interviews - but some reports have maybe 10 or so comments, others have over 600! The fields are called comment001, comment002 ... right up to comment620 (or so).
InDesign only seems to let me insert fields from the Data Merge one at a time - it won't let me Shift-select a range of fields ... the alternative is to manually insert about 620 fields one click at a time!! Ouch...
Does anyone know of a way around this?
(Hope I've explained the problem properly!)
Cheers,
F13

We see a few Adobe employees from time to time, notably Dov Isaacs and occasionally Matthew Laun (from the InDesign development team), but they are here on their own time and in an unofficial capacity, though they are extremely helpful when they do drop in. Employees are encouraged, at least on the ID team, to monitor the forums, but not necessarily to participate, so they probably do see most of the reported problems, but their jobs are to do development, not provide tech support, and I for one would rather they spend their time fixing bugs and developing new features than have them actively engaging in these threads.
And rest assured that Adobe appreciates the work that the user community is doing here. It's no secret that we are far better than the free telephone tech support, largely becasue we work with the programs every day while the suppot contractor only has relatively untrained folks reading from the knowledebase unless you can get escalated very high up the chain.
As for the feature request, by all means file it. I think you are correct that it would be nice, though I can see some issues, too, like how do you decide how multiple fields will be strung together (one after another would be the same as your concatenation problem and using separate lines might not be approprtiate in all cases, either). The place to file is Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Data merge with football tickets. Printing causes out of memory errors. Can only print 10 at a time!

Here's the deal. Printing football tickets for the local high school. 10 tickets per 8.5 x 11 sheet. All black and white. I couldn't data merge into one whole document of tickets because it was failing to do that. So, I end up with 3 documents. First two have 50 pages of tickets and the last has 37 pages.
When I go to print, I can only print 10 pages at a time or InDesign straight up crashes or I get an "Out of Memory" error which is bull because I've got plenty of ram available (unless it's complaining about lack of HD space for some reason)
Incredibly frustrating.
Each ticket has 3 images on it. Two of the images are the same. Those two images are about 103kb .ai files. Very very simple. The other image is a TIFF that is about 76kb. So there are 1000 .ai files / document and 500 TIFFs.
Here's a video I took of it ripping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCjvdmXuaYs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUf_1UFp80YLZJfCyIxXEg kg
Also, when printing, I have the Send Data set to Optimized Subsampling instead of "All". That's not seeming to help.
Any thoughts?
IDCS 5.5
OSX 10.8.4

I just ran a sample on my laptop.
AI file, duplicated, is 284k. Image is roughly 200k. The CSV has 2054 records, and the merged document with 10 per page is 250 megabytes. PDF is just under 50 megs.
This laptop has only 4 gigs memory but has a lot of free disk space. It took a good amount of time to do the merge, a bit longer to create the PDF-X1a PDF.
Mike

Data Merge issue: Rejects CSV document

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