Empty fields in data merge is causing blank lines to show up. CS4

I had this problem when I was laying out my data merge info I origionally put phone and cell phone on the same line which resaulted in the cell phone number getting split in two since the column wasn't wide enough to show both of them side by side. I then moved the cell phone number down to the next line but the problem I had then was that it would leave a blank line everytime I would come across somebody who didn't have a cell phone number. Does anyone know how I can collapse that empty line when the cell phone line is empty?

See your other thread where you asked about this.

Similar Messages

Data Merge - Not removing blank lines when more than one in a row

I am having the same problem as mentioned here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2109531#2109531 That post is for some reason set as "answered" though the poster said the latest update did not resolve the issue. Has anyone found a solution to this issue?
Thanks much,

I"d suggest you try running the merge WITHOUT removing blank lines, then use GREP to remove empty paragraphs. There's a pre-written saved query in the list.
Peter

Data merge not removing blank lines

InDesign 7.0.4 (CS5)
Mac OS 10.7.2
I am merging product data for a simple price list. Some of the products have images, some do not. My .csv is formatted to include the image file name and I can create a 20 page, merged document with all of the products. However, for the products without images, there is a blank image placeholder for records without images. I want to remove the placeholder and allow the next product to "bump up" and not have so much white space.
Does this make sense? Any help is greatly appreciated. I have crawled the forums and seen a lot of discussion around this, but no solution yet. Thanks.
Chris

Peter,
Thank you. I was hoping you would respond. I see your posts all over the forum. Thanks again.
So, to summarize, there is no way to remove the empty frames in my merged document. (other than manually)
Is there another way to do this that I may be missing? Essentially, for the records without an image, I need to remove the white space in the image above (the second record is a good example).
Thanks again,
Chris

Conditional fields with Data Merge

I have, what I believe, would be a common question for people using Data Merge in InDesign for business cards.
I have multiple phone fields, with a small-caps letter to indicate what type (mobile, direct, fax, etc.), i.e.:
M <<Phone Mobile>>
D <<Phone Direct>>
If an employee has only one phone line, how can I make it so that the entire line will be omitted from the final merged doc?
In the past, I've just gone through the final set and quickly removed extra lines/characters, but I know there's a way!
Thanks.

You could also do a find/replace (or, rather two of them if needed) to remove the leading character.
So for your "D" phone number example, you would do a F/R after the merge like so:
D <FEFF>\r
If I remembered the syntax correctly, anyway. It finds the literal 'D' followed by a space, followed by an empty merge field marker, followed by a return. Replace would be with nothing.
Else consider using a merge product that has the conditional capabilities. Em Software makes one such plug-in. I use Xdata for QuarkXpress a good bit, their InDesign counterpart is called InData.
Mike

Export Excel Data only causes blank line between 2 lines of records

Hi,
I wrote a complete winform application using CR2008.
For information :
C# Framework 3.5
Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1
CR2008 SP1
Application allow to preview report. In the preview window (CR activx) there is a "letter icon" to export report in several format.
-RPT
-PDF
-DOC
-XSL
-XSL Data only
When I export with "Excel Data only" format, I always have a blank line between 2 lines of records in Excel.
Is there a way to supress them from VS2008 ?
Thanks a lot for your reply,

Hello, Jonik;
Do you see the same blank lines when you export to Excel Data only in the Crystal Reports designer?
Elaine

Ink settles on bottom of Printheads for Hp officejet L7680 causing blank lines on paper.

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Hi
Any joy when you clean the printhead?
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01957673&cc=ie&lc=en&dlc=en&product=2512009&tmp...
Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
Twitter: @Ciara_B_HP

Data Merge Window Blank

I've done merges many times before without trouble and all of a sudden it has stopped working. When I try to merge any .csv file, including files I hae merged successfully in the past, no error comes up, but the data merge window remains blank - no fields no nothing. Have tried copying and pasting the original .csv file into notepad and then into excel again hoping to get rid of any weird formatting errors. Restarted indesign and my computer. Not a techie really...any help would be most appreciated!

Thanks for your advice. I tried recreating the frame and even tried to merge in an entirely new document and nothing shows. Also tried exporting as idml and nothing. Seems this function is not working for any docs in indesign. And just to be clear, I am selecting a .csv data source, that is not the issue. Thanks!

How to build conditional text from a data merge

Hi there
I'm hoping this is not a long shot but I do have a rather large ask (I think).
I cannot figure out how to create conditions on values.
We have two areas that require conditional text. See these areas on the attached image.
Features offered - up to 6. These are identified by defining each feature with a letter, eg 'n' stands for tent site and 'L' stands for seasonal work, and
Room type offered - four colour codes with this. These range from "not made up", "made up", "ensuite/madeup" and "ensuite".
The tab delimited file contains numerous columns for each room type - single, double, twin, share and dorm rooms that offer the 4 room type categories - see point 2 above.
I cannot figure out how to clarify the conditions I require for the conditional text.
Do I start with making 4 conditions for each room type colour and so-on for the rest of the room types ie single not madeup, single madeup, single madeup ensuite and single ensuite?
And if so, how do I create these using the correct conditional code?   Does GREP have anything to do with this and do I need to use its metacharacters like \?
Can someone perhaps start me off?
The same goes for the features. The features are displayed in the spreadsheet per column with either a 'yes' or a 'no' displayed.
I hope I have provided enough information to get some assistance.
Thanks so much.

Tag Design wrote:
Hi there
I'm hoping this is not a long shot but I do have a rather large ask (I think).
I cannot figure out how to create conditions on values.
We have two areas that require conditional text. See these areas on the attached image.
Features offered - up to 6. These are identified by defining each feature with a letter, eg 'n' stands for tent site and 'L' stands for seasonal work, and
Room type offered - four colour codes with this. These range from "not made up", "made up", "ensuite/madeup" and "ensuite".
The tab delimited file contains numerous columns for each room type - single, double, twin, share and dorm rooms that offer the 4 room type categories - see point 2 above.
I cannot figure out how to clarify the conditions I require for the conditional text.
Do I start with making 4 conditions for each room type colour and so-on for the rest of the room types ie single not madeup, single madeup, single madeup ensuite and single ensuite?
And if so, how do I create these using the correct conditional code?   Does GREP have anything to do with this and do I need to use its metacharacters like \?
Can someone perhaps start me off?
The same goes for the features. The features are displayed in the spreadsheet per column with either a 'yes' or a 'no' displayed.
I hope I have provided enough information to get some assistance.
Thanks so much.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see why you need conditional text. I can see that you may want to color each property in each category differently, to stand out for quick visual communication.
If each feature (attribute) of each property or venue is represented in one spreadsheet row (record,) you can use data merge to create the whole entry for each property. For example, a property may offer two types of rooms - single and double, and the single may be available as "not made up" only, while the double is available as "ensuite/madeup" and "ensuite."
In the spreadsheet, in the row for the Acme Inn property, which only offers single not-made-up and single ensuite/madeup rooms, and for the Ajax Hotel property which offers single made-up, single ensuite/madeup, and single ensuite rooms, the cells that contain the data for the merge fields would look like this:
Property ID
single not-made-up
single made-up
single ensuite/madeup
single ensuite
Acme Inn
$50
empty cell
$75
empty cell
Ajax Hotel
empty cell
$65
$75
$85
On the data-merge layout, each room type's label would be followed by all four data-merge field placeholders, with colors applied, so the single would look like:
Sgle: <<single not-made-up>> (red) <<made-up>> (yellow) <<ensuite/madeup>> (green) <<ensuite>> (blue)
NOTE: The colors are applied with named character styles to the data-merge layout in InDesign.
[EDIT] BAH! I applied colors to the text when composing this post, but they were removed when I posted. [/EDIT]
When you set up the merge with Remove Blank Lines for Empty Fields enabled (checked) so the empty cells are ignored, the result resembles this:
For the Acme Inn:      Sgl: $50 (red) $75 (green) $85 (blue)
For the Ajax Hotel:    Sgl: $65 (yellow) $75 (green) $85 (blue)
The separator character between the prices in your example is a special issue. It could be solved in the spreadsheet by creating calculated columns between the price columns, with "IF" formulas that test for values or empty cells and display the separator or nothing. If you choose this method, you'd need to insert fields between the placeholder fields, to hold the calculated fields' contents.
Another approach here would be to follow the data-merge process with a GREP script that inserts separators where they're needed.
Search Google for terms like "InDesign data-merge tutorial," "InDesign data-merge remove blank lines," "InDesign multiple records per page," and similar phrases without quotes.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
Message was edited by: peter at knowhowpro

Data Merge: Grouping data under a shared section title

I am a total newb to using data merge in indesign. I watched the "Automating a Catalog with Data Merge" video and found it very helpful. I am creating a catalog for an auto parts company so I have a csv file with a field for Make, Model, Year Range, Part Number. I use Make as a header and put the other information below it. I do not want it to repeat Make (Honda) over and over.
Rather than:
Honda
Accord         2005-2010     Part Number 4214-0100
Honda
Civic          2005-2010     Part Number 4214-0100
Honda
Odyssey     2005-2010     Part Number 4214-0100
I would like it to display:
Honda
Accord         2005-2010     Part Number 4214-0100
Civic          2005-2010     Part Number 4214-0100
Odyssey     2005-2010     Part Number 4214-0100
Can someone please give me some advice?
Thanks!

P Spier wrote:
JonMedford wrote:
I have tried this method but and I think this would suffice but it still doesnt format nicely. It puts too much space inbetween each row of data and not enough space between the sections I want to separate. I suppose I could do this by brute force once I get all of my data in, but this will be dreadful to do for a multiple hundred page catalog. Setting the merge to delete blank lines appears not to work. Not sure if this is a bug or not.
A real catalog plugin is probably the way to go, but if you stick with Data Merge you can control spacing with paragraph styles, most likely. Apply a style with Space Before added to the paragraph containing the section.
As far a removing blank lines, if the line isn't being removed, it probably means it isn't really blank. Blank means there can be NOTHING on the line except a field, and the field value in that record is null. If you have punctuation or white space of any sort on the line in additon to the field tag, it's never going to be blank, so you should be doing whatever concatenation you need in the data file first, as John mentioned.
I might just do that. I am staring at this 138 page manual for the Smart Catalog plugin and trying to use the darn thing with very little success. There is not GUI formatting available and it is really frustrating.

Add the ability to use .xls and .xlsx files for Data Merge

Who wouldn't like that?!

Me! Me!
Or rather: I think the big empty part of Data Merge right now is its inability to handle XML input. Much as I detest XML, it seems like a lot of people would really like that to happen, it does appear to be a Web 2.0 -type technology that it's easy to get the InDesign Marketing team excited about.
It's easy enough to convert XLS/XLSX into CSV (or XML), so I think improving XML would be a better use of scarce resources...
(I can't believe I'm tossing out a vote in favor of XML. Kill me now!)

Using Data Merge for filenames?

First off, I'm running Indesign CS5 on Snowleapord.
I've used Data Merge to create one file with 45 pages. Each page is a form letter, with the first line being the persons name.
What I need to do is save each of those pages as its own Jpg file, (Easy to do, just export>Jpg)
Where I'm having trouble is in the filename scheme. If it saves each page as "formletter-1" "formletter-2" I end up not knowing who's letter it is.
I'd like to name the files for the name of the person in the letter, the <<Name>> field from data merge. There are FAR to many to do this by hand.
Any suggestions?
Thanks so much.
PS
I don't know anything about scripting. I hope somebody can write one or provide me with a link to a solution.

I am trying to do the same thing.
I have an Indesign document with data merge information on it. I can successfully get it to create either a multipage indesign document or PDF.
I now want to name PDF with one of my field names and create single named PDF files.
I tried clicking on the above link be the website has no information on it.
I am using a mac and unfortunately know nothing about scripting.
Many thanks if someone can help.

ID.CS3: Make Data Merge more useful?

Data merge is a useful function of Indesign but its scriptability is limited. I've searched this forum and found some scripts that run a pre-linked ID document. I'm trying to script the linking of fields with known text strings.
Looking at the dictionary I see that the only thing that has read/write is properties.
My attempt to see what properties I can read/write seems to only point to its own reference.
Is this part of data merge (assignin fields to text strings) just not scriptable? thanx, sam

OK, here is my latest attempt to take what Olav's javascript uses and apply it to Applescript. I'm stuck on applying the myNamePlaceholder as notedby by myNamePlaceholder:
It yields no placeholder. But I believe I've done it right because I've followed the record generated when I manually make a placeholder and get the data merge text placeholders of document 1. What am I missing?
thanx, sam
set myTextFile to ("path:to:working:date.txt") as alias --I'm using a text file that works manually.
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS3"
set {find text preferences's find what, find change text options} to {"[Sample Name]", nothing}
tell document 1
tell data merge properties
select data source data source file myTextFile
set myDataMergeProperties to properties
end tell
set allObj to (find text)
set objCt to count of allObj
repeat with thisObj from 1 to objCt
set NameObj to item thisObj of allObj
set myStory to parent of NameObj
set myFrame to parent text frames of NameObj
set NameObjOffset to item -2 of insertion points of NameObj --of myFrame
set dmFcount to count of every data merge field of data merge 1
repeat with i from 1 to dmFcount
if field name of data merge field i of data merge 1 is "FirstName" then set myNamefield to object reference of data merge field i of data merge 1
end repeat --dmFcount
set myNamePlaceholder to {story offset:NameObjOffset, field:myNamefield}
set {myNamePlaceholder} to end of data merge text placeholders
return properties of data merge text placeholders
--yields {} if I have no placeholders manually made. If I have manually made a placeholder, it yields only the manually made placeholder. What am I missing?
tell myStory
end tell
end repeat -- iterate over each instance of obj
end tell --doc1
end tell --app

How to remove blank lines in the end of list .

hi,
in a complex report ,when there are only 20 pages,and linecount is 65(2) ,in the last page only 27 lines are filled and data is completed.then blank lines are printing from 27th line to 63 line.then end of page is triggering.
so plz help me how to remove the blank lines here and immediately print the endof page.

Hi,
will this work for you.
SET BLANK LINES OFF.
These statements allow you to specify whether you want to output blank lines or not. Use SET BLANK LINES ON to output blank lines or SET BLANK LINES OFF to suppress them.
Regards
Viswanath Babu

Blank lines while printing Address

Hi,
We are facing an issue in smartforms w.r.t address display.
We are passing address number which will get all the fields relevant for displaying, but a blank line is coming between two fields for the same address number( Say the fields are "Street/House No" & "PostalCode/City") which should not come.
In Scripts, we can remove this using the option "No Blank Lines". Is there anything similar to that in forms?
Please provide solution if you have any for this.
Thanks in Advance,
Anand Raj Kuruba.

Use program lines and write your conditions to remove the blank lines.
rgds,
sairam

Prevent Blank Lines at Top of Column

So I create bi-weekly publications and I had a question that would make my job easer.
I've been messing with widow & orphans, but I have a slightly different problem.
We use hard returns between paragraphs (a blank line between paragraphs), and I was wondering if there was a way to use GREP or something to automatically prevent blank lines from showing at the top of a column.
Right now, I have to delete & re-add returns throughout the editing process, which as you could guess, can get messy and easy to miss.
I'd like to have it where I don't have to do any of that on my own, so the blank lines would "hide" automatically if at the top of a column, but would return if things get shifted around.
Thoughts?
Thanks for the help.

I'm an idiot, that makes way more sense.
Thank you for straightening me out.
To think of the months i've been living my life all wrong. . . . . .*puts hands in face*
. . . excuse me while I go rethink all of my life choices.

Empty fields in data merge is causing blank lines to show up. CS4

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