Data merge says source file is incompatible

In InDesign 1 I knew that I had to convert Excel files to .csv files in order to merge the data into an idd file. Never understood why but it worked. When I do that with CS3 I get an error message saying that the file is empty or an incompatible file type. The original xls file merges into a Word doc perfectly. There are 2048 rows of data in the Excel file.
Any suggestions?
I'm using CS3 on an intel iMac running OS 10.4.11 with two gig of ram.

OK, I split the file into two versions, domestic and international by copying and pasting the data and inserting and retyping the header row, and combined the data from "address 2" into "address 1" and deleted the "address 2" column. That made all the records have data in all fields in all six columns. ID didn't like.
Then I went through and fixed several dozen instances where the 5-digit zip codes had a hyphen after them, like "91007-". No help.
Then I noticed some fields had spaces before the first letter of the first name, so I deleted those spaces and checked the other columns. No change.
Then I changed the font from Verdana to Arial. No help.
What else can I try?

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Hello everybody.
I have a situation where I have to data-merge many text files to the one actual indesign "base" file. The formats of the databases are all the same, the point of difference is a code in the second field of the database that refers to a mailing zone (not a zip/postcode, a "distribution centre" code that has 56 or so possibilities). I would prefer to data merge one file and then somehow split the resulting PDF via Acrobat, but the length of the resulting mailing zones is inconsistent and something that can't be done though the "split document" feature in acrobat.
The database starts out as one massive file but using a one-line code, can be split into its mailing zones into separate text files.
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Ole Kvern had a script to Data Merge one file without the UI. I have altered the last line slightly so that it outputs to a PDF based on [High Quality Setting]:
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I figure the answer has to do with the variable "myDataFile" and rather than being simply open a dialog, it would be somehow selecting an array of text files, but this is where I am out of my depth.
Any insights or other thoughts that may not involve trying to do many merges at once but may somehow revolve around one large merged PDF?
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I've answered my own question, but the answer lies outside of Adobe InDesign – it uses bookmarks within Adobe Acrobat.
1) Data Merge the art/data to one large PDF file.
2) In the resulting PDF file, manually search out the mailing zones and apply bookmarks to each first instance only of each mailing zone. In this case, it is a manual process of find/replace to find one of 70 possible mailing zones that may be used in any database. Each bookmark should be named with its respective code. It is a manual process, but it would take 5 minutes so this is acceptable.
3) Using "Split Document" from the pages panel, make sure the "top level bookmarks" radio button is checked, and in the Output Options make sure that the "Use bookmark names for files" radio button is checked.
I'm aware that this was a rather obscure question that only a fraction of users on this forum may wish to know an answer for, but hopefully this workaround helps someone else in a similar situation.
Colin

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http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/data_region/DataSetMasterDetailSample.html
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I don't need the detail of when the pdf was added to the portfolio. I
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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

Applying Bolds and Italics while doing a Find/Replace on Data Merged content

Hi,
Wonder if you kind knowledgeable folks can help me with a Find/Replace question.
I am doing a data merge of a book contents into indesign, where my data merge file is a straightforward text csv file which is tab delimited. I have two (almost similar) things I would like to do to specific parts of the text but don't know how to achieve this.
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Original content is amended to be "The Word $Italic$ needs to be adjusted", so that a dollar sign encapsulates the word to be made Italic.
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Hope I make sense but I'd be happy to provide screenshots etc (when I get home )
Best Rgds
L

two solutions.
for the italic solution, i'd say the OP answered his own question with one exception - don't use dollar symbols, instead use = or another character which isn't reserved by GREP.
the solution i would use for italics would be a GREP search once the merge is complete. have a look at the picture to see what i've done.
the second solution: GREP styles.
this assumes that the text will have a paragraph style assigned to it. make a character style called BOLD and within that style, the only thing to change is within basic character formats, make the font style bold. could even make the character another colour such as cyan so it is more easily idenfiable.
next, go to the paragraph style options, go to GREP styles and match the following screengrab
the advantage with a GREP style is that once the pipe symbol (|) is replaced, its bold GREP style character formatting is lost; and it means less post processing and no need for a second search of the text - it's all live.

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My understanding from studying tutorials on data merge is that they can only create ONE page output altho I know you can change it to 2 page spreads afterward.
That isn't true. Data merge can be done with many pages. See my response to this post:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3909894#3909894
In response to the OP's script request, i can't be of any help.
What i'm hoping is that after reading how to make a data merge with both left and right hand pages from the post i've linked, that the data could be merged again... assuming there was little (or no) post-processing of the file after the merge was performed.

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Hi Bhavesh,
Sorry for the delayed reply
The details are below
Source Data type:
CardAccount---Recordset 1 to unbounded
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CardExpireDate
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Key Field Name:HSBCKEY
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sample source file
4666000000000003,06132002,2,0000000000200000,8273,7384-3,4666000000000003,06152002,08000,0000000000002500,06152000
4666000000000003,06132002,2,0000000000200000,8273,7384-3,4666000000000003,06152002,08000,0000000000002500,06152000
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Ashok

Data merge says source file is incompatible

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