Dependant(?) Data Merging

Windows 7, InDesign CS4, Excel 2010
I hope this makes sense:
     I have a project that involves making labels for about 800 SKUs. I've merged data before when making labels like this and it worked great (it's been a while though). Anyway, this project is different in that i have different labels depending on the product's category (i've got 10 categories) and I'm color coding them. I currently have an Excel Spreadsheet that is automatically updated from our inventory system/database that i am going to be pulling the data from that has ALL 800 skus on it.
     Basically, is there a way for InDesign to determine which label the entry should go into? Like, if i want to make all the labels for Category A (blue), will i be able to point InDesign at the spreadsheet and have it pull in those 80 Skus? Or if i tell it to merge, will it just merge everything in that spreadsheet?
     I'm trying to avoid having to get 10 different spreadsheets created (1 for each category) if at all possible.
EDIT: I guess i should specify, the spreadsheet does have info about what category it is in.
Thanks in advance!

without plugins, data merge in indesign doesn't have purpose-built "triggers" as such (i.e. if a field = x, then y happens elsewhere). Ultimately, the text file in the data merge has to contain the necessary information that will appear in the output. However, the file that makes the txt file (e.g. excel) can have triggers such as if/else statements, and it is there where any information should be added as an additional field.
For example, if a background in label A is to be blue and label B is to be green, files would need to be created for these different colored backgrounds (e.g. A.ai and B.ai) and then the trigger in excel would be if <<field>> = <<condition>> then <<a>> else <<b>> and would be its own column.
There are dozens of plug-ins that may be able to do this, but seeing a return on investment from the purchase of the software (some can be quite expensive) is another matter.
Apart from placing images, there are only two instances of data merge that can, in a way, be triggered.
1: GREP styles. If the incoming type fulfils the requirement of the GREP style, its appearance can be dramatically altered.
2: Use of ligatures by the special font FF Chartwell, specifically the bar font. More information: http://colecandoo.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/another-use-for-ff-chartwell-plotting-x-and-y-c oordinates/

Similar Messages

How can I use data merge, within a master, within a book?

Hi all,
I am producing an 84pp catalogue for multiple brands.
I have it set up as:
1x .indd document per spread
Master styles within one .indd document for black text, white text etc.
Book setup to contain all of the .indd files to make up the 84pp book
Now, my problem is I have to change the footer text and references depending on the brand, so I can have the footers saying 'Call Brand A on 123 4567' or 'Call Brand B on 567 1234' and have various in-text references change from Brand A to Brand B and vice versa.
I have a data merge on each of the masters in my .indd style source looking at a simple .csv of:
Brand Name
URL
Phone Number
Brand A
www.branda.com
0800 123 4567
Brand B
www.brandb.com
0800 567 1234
This works fine on the masters within the source .indd.
But, when I close this master style source and go into another .indd document within the book (after synchronising) I see the <<Brand Name>> container but, when I export the documents it does not populate the book with the data - it keeps the containers.
Obviously with a normal in-document Data Merge you'd click 'Create Merged Document' but I don't want to export each page, and I have PDF print presets / .joboptions file with settings for the book.
Any advice on how to get this to work?
Thanks!
Andy

I'm not really following the workflow here, but this seems like it might be better suited to Conditional Text than to Data Merge.

[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.

Inconsistent placement of anchored text frame in data merge document

Just writing up this bug so that anyone else who encounters it can find out what's going on with less head-scratching.
It seems that InDesign's data merge feature gets confused when there are anchored objects in a text frame that's anchored inside another text frame, which can result in:
exported PDFs that don't match the InDesign preview when viewed in Acrobat (so, nasty surprises on some pages after exporting)
InDesign previews that - bizarrely - show differently depending on whether you navigated to the preview by hitting the arrow keys in the Data Merge box or by entering a number.
(sadly I can't provide a file for confidentiality reasons - but the problem point had multi-line data merge entries, a text frame that was anchored in another text frame of equal width, and anchored images and text frames in this anchored text frame)
There were certain entires where, if I navigate to them in the preview using the 'next' and 'previous' keys, there was 4mm less space between the nested text frame and the previous line than if I navigate to it by entering the number. Exporting as a PDF through data merge used the variant with more space.
Re-working the area in question so that the nested text frame wasn't needed seems to have removed the problem (but loses the ability to vertically align these elements in a fixed size frame that is in the text flow).

You didn't say what version of ID, or whter a single or multiple record per page merge, but the Preview is known to be buggy for multiple records since CS5 and might be for single records as well.
I have an annual directory that is built by data merge with one section in each listing as an anchored frame, and I've never had a problem, but it's not as complex as your description, nor do I ever merge to PDF (though I've heard here from several users that it's more reliable).
One thing you might want to try is merging without the preview step, but do it from a "fresh" file by copying and pasting your placeholders into a new document. If the problem is with the preview it seems that it "infects" the file and even merging without touching the preview button may not work.

Problems importing a datasource for a Data Merge? It might be one word...

For the life of me, I could not figure out why this one CSV file was not importing correctly into InDesign CS6. I could see the datasource in the Links panel but nothing showed up in the Data Merge panel.
Through trial and error, I figured it out.
In the CSV file, one of the column headers used the word table. It's what the client gave me, so I never thought much about it. Once I changed the word table to seating, the CSV imported properly into my InDesign file and all was right with the world.
One word, I couldn't believe it...
Hopefully this will save you from all the trouble I went through.
Cheers!

Hi Steve,
I am trying to create DS and ConnectionPOOL for the MSSQL server from the Oracle SOA suite server
when I am trying to create the connpool I got the following error and Itried the solution mentioned in the url : http://buttso.blogspot.com/2008/07/configuring-datasource-for-mysql-using.html
your solution seems to correct but even after trying out am getting the same below error, can you please check and tell me apart from those steps what I can do further?...the .jars I have I used for this sqljdbc.jar and mysql-connector-java-3.0.8.jar files. Your solution so far is really appreciatiable further help will be appreciatiable to the gr8 extent. Thanks in advance.
thanks & regards
Jalandhar
An error has occurred.
Unable to create : com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
Missing class: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver Dependent class: oracle.oc4j.sql.config.DataSourceConfigUtils Loader: oc4j:10.1.3 Code-Source: /C:/product/10.1.3.1/OracleAS_2/j2ee/home/lib/oc4j-internal.jar Configuration: in META-INF/boot.xml in C:\product\10.1.3.1\OracleAS_2\j2ee\home\oc4j.jar This load was initiated at ascontrol.web.ascontrol:0.0.0 using the Class.forName() method. The missing class is available from the following locations: 1. Code-Source: /C:/product/10.1.3.1/OracleAS_2/j2ee/home/applib/sqljdbc.jar (from in /C:/product/10.1.3.1/OracleAS_2/j2ee/home/config/server.xml) This code-source is available in loader global.libraries:1.0. This shared-library can be imported by the "ascontrol" application. 2. Code-Source: /C:/product/10.1.3.1/OracleAS_2/j2ee/home/shared-lib/sqljdbc.jar (from in /C:/product/10.1.3.1/OracleAS_2/j2ee/home/config/server.xml) This code-source is available in loader adf.oracle.domain:10.1.3.1. This shared-library can be imported by the "ascontrol" application

Using Data Merge to Create a 508 Compliant Document

I've been tasked to create a 508 compliant document from an existing InDesign document. This is a document that uses Data Merge to fill in a form along with 2-3 photos, and a location map. Each photo and the map need to have Alt Text descriptions. I know how to apply Alt Text in the structure panel. I would like to add Alt Text to these graphics in the document I am using to create the merged document. When I do so then create the data merged document it drops all of the Alt Text. Does anyone know a remedy for this problem?
I appreciate any input. Thank you.
-Ben

Australia doesn't have section 508 so I'm not quite sure what is required by law... but if it's a line of type such as a description, should be do-able.
Two ways:
1) If the images have a description or a title in the IPTC metadata, the data merge frame containing the image could simply have a caption containing either the description or title on another layer (that is possible from captions) and then that layer is toggled on/off depending on what output is required
2) Much the same as above, but instead of using the IPTC metadata, this uses an additional field in the datamerge database. A textbox is put above the image (again, in another layer) and that textbox contains the description from the datamerge database. Just as in the previous solution, the layer is toggled on/off depending on what output is required.
Or am I barking up the wrong tree and need a layman's definition of what section 508 requires?
Colly

Data Merge - Is there a way to selectively hide rows/columns from layouts based on cell values?

I'm using data merge to generate pages from a product spreadsheet. The complication is, some columns should exist for some products (like "qty per bundle") but need to be hidden for others. Is there a way for InDesign to automatically include or remove rows for some pages but not others, based on something like "qty = 0"?

For logic-based data merge, I use Em Software's product InData.
Depending upon the design, ID's merge can remove blank fields thereby removing there paragraph or position on a line. Unless, of course, you have static text along with it. Which I almost always do. that's why I use Em Software's solution. It has a trial version. One needs to get familiar with the language statements. But for me it was worth the price and learning curve.
And there are other plug-ins but for "simple" merging they are overkill in my circumstances (and so cost more).
Mike

Can I data-merge with different masters?

I have a project that has three different page layouts and the choice of layout is data dependent.
Conceptually what I want is for the 10th field in my data record to tell InDesign which master page to use before merging the data from that record.
Can such a thing be done with the standard data-merge facility? Is there an affordable (<$100) third-party solution? Could this be done with a script?

Conceptually what I want is for the 10th field in my data record to tell InDesign which master page to use before merging the data from that record.
Triggering a master using data merge... no, at least not from InDesign only. VDP software such as XMPie (i pick this because I have used the trial version) can do this, BUT it doesn't fulfil the next requirement of being <$100, and I don't think you will find ANY VDP solution for that.
Instead, I would suggest an alternative. Rather than triggering a master page, I would suggest making a frame in the background of the page that uses a data-merge image field, so if you are changing letterheads mid-stream based on the data in the job, this will work. The catch is, there's no way indesign's data merge will trigger this by itself based on the data in the file. Instead, the data would have to include an additional field that reflects the relevant page background, and if using an excel spreadsheet to make the data, would require some creative if/else statements.
So it is possible. It slows down the processing of the file tremendously, and I'm not sure how many records are being merged.
So far as is it scriptable? Yes, most things are scriptable in InDesign. Is someone going to volunteer to prepare such a custom-script for nothing... unlikely.

Data merge objects spilling off the page

I'm doing a data merge with multiple records per page-there are supposed to be six 4x3 inch nametages per page. I created the master page with
merge text field and did the merge. The first 6 come out fine, but subsequent labels are spilling off the page, such that label 7 and 8 are right underneath 5 and 6 and going off the page. Page 2 of the document is ending up with label 24-25, but label 7-8 should be starting off page 2.
Thanks,
-Jeff

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
jdahl2 wrote:
The first 6 come out fine, but subsequent labels are spilling off the page, such that label 7 and 8 are right underneath 5 and 6 and going off the page. Page 2 of the document is ending up with label 24-25, but label 7-8 should be starting off page 2.
Thanks,
-Jeff
Adjust the spacing between rows, and the top margin from the Multiple Record Layout tab. (It is dependent on your frame height.)
A 6 up layout took me about 2 minutes, 17,000 + records, with the placeholder created on the master page. Contradictory to some other post's in this thread, master pages are fine for setting placeholders, are my norm and are the recommended method. (It allows the subsequently created document to serve as another source master.)

Data merge with conditional text

I'm new to InDesign scripting. Very new, in fact. I'm willing to learn, but my main motivation at present is to solve a particular issue. Surely this issue has come up before. I'd love to know if anybody has encountered it or if it is possible to accomplish through scripting.
I want to merge data onto a gift pledge card. The exact text on the gift card will depend on the data being imported. For example, somebody who has given in the past will receive a message such as, "Thank you for your gift of $xxx." However, a person who has NOT given into the past will receive the message, "Please consider giving this year." The condition is the field prior_gift. If it's above 0, then the first message is displayed.
This seems like a natural use for scripting, but, in my searches so far, I've found no references to using conditional text and data merges together in scripting. So, would this be a relatively simple task to accomplish?
Thanks for any help you can give!

the data merge feature with indesign only brings in text which was in the original data file itself - it doesn't know how to parse or interpret it to behave differently upon seeing certain results. that is, it doesn't run database queries such as if-else statements - it will only import text which was originally in the data file.
however, there are plug-ins to indesign that CAN do this but they cost BOATLOADS. are you printing this yourself or are you sending this to a commercial printer? if the latter, have you discussed your print solution with the printer, as they may have a plug-in that can do this type of data merging, and all you would have to do is provide the printer with a packaged native file, along with the data and instructions as to what has to change... and for goodness sake see a proof of it!!!

InDesign Data Merge problem with field names

Hi to all.
I am trying to create a sales catalog with data merge. I have product name, description, old price, new price and image. However, when I select my .csv file as data source, InDesign recognizes different fields as one and puts them all together. I tried copying and pasting to new spreadsheet, retyping the info myself, saving as tab delimited and as comma delimited file. To better illustrate, here are exemplary screenshoots:
Please help, I don't understand what I am doing wrong. I'm a regular InDesign user for almost a decade, but I haven't used DataMerge until now, never needed it. I have basic knowledge in Excel, so if I did something wrong there please inform me (do I have to tell it somehow to "split" them into fields?).
Thank you in advance!

I would recommend to test with different export types in Excel like:
Tab-Divided txt files instead of csv or with different decoding.
When you have learned which is working fine, you can select this always in the future.
(There is also a possibility inside InDesign to change the type between tab separated text and CSV. In my experience it depends very much on the Excel version which would work. Microtrash has a bad history in localizing their programs, e.g. here in German, in numbers we write coma instead of a point, a point of a coma, so decided MS to exchange it every where on the Mac version with the outcome, that CSV files are not coma separated but dot separated and are not working on any data base import. So I can only use tab separated files.)

Linking Data Merge Field with JavaScript for PDF link

Hello everyone,
I am using the data merge in InDesign to generate a PDF with data from a data source file. The data merge will populate a Product Number field. I want to write a script that will modify the Product Number field to contain a JavaScript Link in the resulting PDF.
For example, the product number [1234-567] will launch: app.launchURL("plsddr://localhost/1234-567|*", true); when the Product Number link is clicked on in the resulting PDF.
Can anyone provide an example on how this could be done, or point me in the right direction? If there is a better way to go about this, please let me know.
Thanks!

What findText returns is a list of Text, but that's totally interchangeable with Word. It appears InDesign can switch at will between Characters, Words, Lines, Paragraphs, and Stories.
Text can consist of one single SpecialCharacter (a column break, or a hard return, or any of the SpecialCharacters enumeration), or of a standard JavaScript "String" object -- a simple Unicode string.
The property that 'holds' the text is "contents" -- so, adding all of this up, to 'get' the text that has been found, you'd typically use
next = list.pop();
alert ("The text contents of this one is '"+next.contents+"'");
and you can build further on that -- using it as a HyperlinkDestination URL, or something like that. The Text item -- 'next' -- still points to the 'live' text it was found at, so be careful not to modify it. Doing something like
next.contents = 'hey what happened';
will change the actual text in your document. But it's also useful to add, for example, a hyperlink to the actual position this text was found on.
(A tip regarding changes: if you are to change your document, the original items findText pointed to will be messed up after you changed the first one! To prevent that, work backwards from the last item found to the first. findText(true) will reverse the order of found items, from last to first -- see the JS Help on that.)
As for
(Also, how do you print the contents of a Word object?)
that depends on what you mean with 'print' . To a printer?

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.

Tips for speeding up data merge

Hi there,
I have a seven page indesign file with around 20 data merge fields and 8 custom conditions I either enable or disable. I am trying to generate preview JPG's as quick as possible that render to the users browser.
It takes around 1.7 seconds for a preview to go to the browser with around 0.5 seconds of that time used in the data merge process.
Are there any tips / tricks I can use to speed up this process.
Dustin

Hi Dustin,
Sure and right,
but you are running for miliseconds and it depends on details where devil use to sleep.
So better way is to discuss details.
For general example: real speed up is to process with arrays instead of collections
(doc,pages.everyItem().textFrames.everyItem().getElements() vs doc,pages.everyItem().textFrames)
but it would do not matter if your workflow is set with network connections.
Jarek

Data Merge Giving you QR Codes Now? The Answer is here.

I finally figured this out. The # is now used to mark columns that will auto-generate QR codes. But just removing the # doesn't fix the problem either. InDesign can remember that it existed there at one point. You have to completely delete that entire row in your spreadsheet and remake it.
Why they choose the number symbol as the symbol to wreck havoc in a data merge when a great deal of time columns in a merge are labeled as #1, #2, #3... is beyond me. So many of the world's data merge files have to be remade now. Apparently they couldn't afford the license for a ~ or something not related to numbered lists.

The apps would yes but it depends on your investment if they are premium paid apps are you prepared to loose your investment (this is lessend if you own an ipad though)
There are so many ways to sync an android to your pc/mac i can only discuss galaxy range as thats what i own, apps like airdroid do wireless, samsung kies is also a wifi app so no need for cables since ics mtp has been set as main usb protocol as opposed to usb mass storage which is easier. At first my mac would not see the phone but a couple of clicks later and it works, drag and drop.
As for syncing data itself on a samsung you get two options which you can set up:
Google account, this syncs and backsup contacts, settings and apps, so if you reninstall or rest the phone then it will auto install your apps. google sync also auto updates your calender and if you use chrome on the pc, then your bookmarks are automatically avaliable on your phone, in fact it also syncs your current tab so if you leave your pc and want to carry on reading a webpage, that current page is already avaliable on your phone
Then for samsung you get scloud - this backups up sms mms settings contacts and more.
However as i mentioned before if you have heavily invested in apps tv films etc, then your best staying with apple, if your prepared to start again then yes android is an option.
One thing i dont see being mentiones regarding the maps issue is that while the data can be made more accurate the actual sat view cannot unless apple repurchase maps from someone like google (wont do) or Microsoft whose map views are superior. Hopefully apple will listen to its users and permit the google maps app (if there is one) through promptly
Again for the record i own a mac and had 2 ipads, no tablet comes close to the ipad so my advice is just for ref and not to say ones better than the other

Dependant(?) Data Merging

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