Data Merge - Mailing label issue IDCS4

I created a simple template to create mailing labels using an Avery form. There are only 3 lines,
<<Name>>
<<Address1>>
<<Address2>>
I followed the instructions by connecting to the csv file and dragging the field names to the text box. I go to the "Create Merged Document" and adjusted the Multiple Record Layout so everything looks perfect. I click on the Preview Multiple Record Layout and everything is fine. No errors reported on the bottom left corner. I click the OK button to make the merged document and what is created is a mess. I get multiple pages (I only asked for one page, 30 records per page) with only one record printed per page. The alignment is all off and it looks nothing like the preview.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Jeffery,
I did most of that but not all. I will try what you said and see. For the short term, I did it in word and got it out. I use InDesign for all of my company doc's and I'd like to use it for this, if I can make it work. What is most confusing is that the Preview looked perfect. When I created the document it was completely hosed. Makes one wonder just what is Preview really doing.
Richard, thanks. Yea, I made a custom label as the caned ones did not have my form. Their wizard actually makes it pretty easy once you figure out how they are really placing it on a page. Word displays it goofy too though. If I have the "Indivisible" showing everything looks right. When you click it off, the last row of records show repeating in the footer area. It prints correct but it's preview is confusing too.
Is this really that hard to do? One would think so given both programs are WYSI_NOT_WYG.

Similar Messages

Data Merge: Field Label control

Hello -
I am having a good time with DataMerge, except for one thing.
I am creating a document with multiple records per page.
That's fine - I understand how to do this.
However, I would like to have the field labels only appear ONCE per page - ie, at the extreme left
Right now, the field labels appear repeatedly, for each record.
Is there a way to put them in a margin, or another layer or something????
If this cannot be done by InDesign's merge, do you know of any alternative way to do this, or if InData can do it?
Thank you -
Marion

Very very clever -
and easy, although it would be great if I could place them on the master before the merge in a separate layer, and disable that layer prior to merging, and enable it after merge.
Thank you Peter.

Can I use my Address Book to create a data base and then merge from it to create mailing labels?

Is it possible to use my Address Book to create a data base and then merge from it to create mailing labels?
Thanks,
CF

I know one way, it is not elegant but it does work.
1. Open Thunderbird. (download here: https://www.mozilla.org/EN/thunderbird/)
2. Click on Address Book.
3. On the left in the new window is a list of your Address books and groups. Select the one you want.
Your addresses will appear to the right.
4. In Thunderbird / Tools select Export, and Save as "Comma Separated".
You can open that list of addresses in Excel or in FileMaker Pro. Mail merge proceeds from there.

Can I use InDesign's Data Merge for more than just address labels?

I am a Graphic Designing working on a new science exhibition in Melbourne, Australia.
I'm trying to streamline the way we import our label content into InDesign (currently cut and paste from Word which is slow and leaves room for error). I've been going down the path of having a macro developed which converts the Word content into a csv file so I can then import this into InDesign through data merge, however the import is falling over.
Through testing we can conclude that data merge doesn't like paragraph breaks, en-dashes and apostrophies (and possibly more we haven't come across) and will only import data up until one of these items occurs in the data. We've tested a number csv file formats however we can't find a solution.
Has anyone come up with a solution for this? My macro developer would be keen to get a hold of a working csv file that deals with these issues...
Thanks!

I have done what you are describing, with Word & InDesign, on a daily basis, for years. Word is not the best choice for this kind of workflow, of course, but if I had to choose between placing Word & doing a data merge with CSV, I'd be torn. Neither one is really the tool for the job. XML import would suit you better, but if you're already midstream in VBA development, there's no point in trying to describe why placing carefully styled RTFs and clearing overrides is better than writing VBA to clean up Word files and turn them into CSV.
(Look at style mapping in Import Options when placing a Word file for future projects.)
(Also: it's not extra codings that you want to apply in VBA, it's purging Word-specific "Symbols" and just using true Unicode values for em dashes and other typographical symbols.)

Tip for Data Merge with Multiple Records (labels, etc.)

I have seen many InDesign Data Merge questions about how to create sheets of mailing labels, especially the problem of getting only one label per page, when you need 30 or more.
Adobe's instructions are poor and incomplete in that InDesign doesn't step out the records from a data source - it steps out the FRAMES that contain the data field placeholders.
That is why you only need to place a text or image frame once on a single page - during the datamerge, InDesign will create the additional FRAMES for each record, and it will create the pages required to hold them.
You do have to set the desired spacing on the
If you create the frame on a Master page, ID allows you to update the data source (when it changes) in the Data Merge tool panel.
These are very nice and robust features, but the documentation for them is confusing to many people.
You will find more great in-depth help for Data Merge, with screen captures and attachments, here in the forum.

For a multiple record merge you need one set of placeholders, then set the margins and spacing in the merge options so the positioning is correct.
Warning: Using Preview in a multiple record merge will corrupt the file. If you press the preview button, Undo after looking at the preview, then merge without using preview.

Data merging and making labels. I'm stuck...

Dear indesigners,
I've got a question concerning data merging.
I've been asked to create labels for a showroom.
I received an excel file with more than 9000 items.
- At first I tried to save the file as CSV. The CSV file unfortunately didn't work for me.
Instead of creating a comma-separated file it created a ";" separated file.
This is an issue because I live in Europe apparently…
- After that problem I just exported the file as a "Tab separated text file" and that worked fine.
I set up the indesign file and the data merging went completely fine.
But here comes the challenge:
When I create a "merged document" all labels get placed underneath eachother in a new file. That's perfectly normal.
But the marketing team from the company I work at wants to be able to create labels for each item they sell.
The items change a lot so it has to be printed "in house" on pre sliced sticker paper.
I was wondering if there was a way to get several labels on 1 A4? how do I set this up?
Im really stuck here
At first I was asked to print the labels from a DYMO printer. But that was a horrible experience… that didn't work at all.
All help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Kevin Hensels

You can specify a range of records to merge, or individual records. To make it easier to identify the record numbers you can add a column for them if you like (just remember they don't update automatically if you add, remove, or move rows around in the spreadsheet), or you can read the row number in Excel and subtract 1.

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

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.

Creating Mailing Labels with Merge in Pages

I am trying to create mailing labels and print to AVERY templates. I cannot find a way to do this, since I have not found any support in the AVERY templates for Pages. It seems to work if you try to merge the entire Address Book with the AVERY software templates, but I only want to merge with one group from the Address Book. Any advice?

Print directly from *Address Book,* select a Group then:
+Menu > File > Print > Layout > Avery Standard > Select > Print+
Peter

Having a print problem on a mailing label report using the merge modules.

Crystal Reports 2008 v 12.1.6.1116
when I print directly from Crystal Reports designer, the labels print correctly. If I print the report from our application software using the Crystal merge module, the top of page margin is not the same.
I am using Crystal Report 2008 Fix Pack 1.5 Merge Modules.
Any idea what might be causing this ? I do not see any settings in the CrystalReportViewer that would cause the top of page margin to change.
Note: We were using a previous version of Crystal Reports, version 11 using the merge modules and it worked just fine. After changing to the 2008 merge modules we are running into this problem.

Which Version of VS.NET you are using?
       VS 2008 v 9.0.30729.1 SP
. Which application you are developing desktop or web?
       Desktop
. Error messages you are facing?
        No error message, just the top of page margin is wrong
. Are you facing this error in development machine?
       The mailing label report works just fine printing directly from the Crystal Reports 2008 Design application. However is I try to print the exact same report using the CrystalReportViewer in the merge module, the top of page margin is different. Basically printing from the designer, there is some spacing at the top of the page, printing in the vb.net app the spacing at the time of is missing.
. Are you trying to deploy this application?
       Yes
. Operating System?
        The OS I have tried this on is XP Pro SP3 and also Vista Business SP1
. How are you deploying your application?
        We build a installshield setup to install the merge modules

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.

Issues with images when using data merge

Here's the deal. We are converting from CS6 to CC2014. I have a file that opens fine in CS6, the merge works fine.
If I open that file in CC2014 it works fine with the exact same list. But, if I relink a new list or change and update the current list, the data merge no longer works for the images in data merge. Even though nothing has changed in the file links.
I get the error that it cannot find the images.
Is this a know issue?
Mac OSX 10.10.1

It could be that the template is some how bunged up, even though it is evidently working in CS6. You might want to try, as a test, setting upa new document in CC, add the data file, put your placeholders in the document and merging. Then change the merge file, then try to update it.
All I can really say is that I have not experienced this issue (yet). And as far as I can tell, yours is the first post on the matter that isn't document corruption related, or that Previewing the records hasn't caused some malady. either needs the template remade or brought into a new file to fix. You issue sounds sort of half-way between.
Mike

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).

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.

Data Merge: Multiple records in a Multiple Page Document

I looked in the InDesign help and under Limitations for merging multiple records it reads:
You cannot merge multiple records if the data fields appear on a document page in a document with multiple pages, or if data fields appear on multiple master pages.
I'm using InDesign CS 5.5. I produce a 4-page newsletter printed on both sides as a booklet, folded and stapled and each folded page size is 8.5 x 11 (a four page booklet on 11×17 paper) I want to print our 250-name mailing list on the outer cover but have discovered that it only prints the whole thing then staples it or I need to manually print each issue per name.
Is there a way around this? If we have to use a third party software, would you let me know what to look for? Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks for your help.
Amy

How many names are you trying to put on each newsletter? I suspect only one, and that you've misiniterpreted the Help file. That warning applies to putting multiple records from the data file on the SAME page, like a sheet of labels.
Just so you know, using Data Merge to do a mailing where you are addressing multiple copies of a static document is potentially VERY inefficent. Data Merge needs to make a page for every page that will be printed, so if you have a 4-page newsletter with 1,000 subscribers you will wind up with a 4,000 page document just to get the name and address on one page, and your printer will be re-processing all those duplicate pages for each newsletter. If you have a commercial grade copier/printer there may be a variable data printing module availble for it that will merge your list at print time so you need only send a 4-page file and print 1000 copies (or you can send the job out to a printer who can handle this kind of work), or if you want to print in-house anddon't have VDP capabilities, I recommend doing two files.
The first file should be the side of the sheet that doesn't change. Print that first as a single page doing x plus a few extra copies (in case of jams in the printer when doing the second half) where x is the number of newsletters you need. The second file is the other side of the sheet with the addresses, which you do as the Data Merge, and will end up as x pages. After printing the first side, flip the stack and reload so you are printing on the blank side, then send the merge document, asking for one copy.

Data Merge - Mailing label issue IDCS4

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