InDesign Data Merge / Image Frame Options

Hi! I am learning Data Merge and am trying to set-up some product sheets using it. I have done pretty well so far but have an issue with the way images are importing into the different image frames. There are a few different image frames on the layout (main product image, tech drawing, tech icons, etc.), and I need each image frame to have different frame options set.
So far using the general "Frame Fitting Options" for each has worked for all imported images except for my tech icons (which I can get to import correctly if I choose "Content Placement Options > Fit Frames to Images" from the Data Merge side menu --but when I do this, it applies to all image frames on the page and not just the one selected (which does not work overall).
Is there another option to get the icon image frames to "Fit Frame to Image" automatically without using the Content Placement Options from the Data merge menu? Is there a way to use the Content Placement Options so it works for individual frames vs all on the layout?
Any help is much appreciated!
Liz

Within the data merge, the frame fitting options apply to all frames that contain variable images, so if you want one variable image to fit image to frame, and another variable image to preserve its size, that cannot be done in the main file, but by manipulating the resulting merge file as P Spier suggests. With Data Merge, there are 8 ways an image can fit inside a frame - see the linked pdf: http://colecandoo.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/framefit.pdf
This is further complicated when importing ai or pdf images that contain different possible sizes to import (e.g. trim box, bleed box, bounding box, etc). If the "show import options" dialog box is used when placing an image into a data merge file, the settings used in those import options are maintained in the file for the importing of any pdf/ai files via the data merge. What this means is that a data merge containing pdf/ai images can go haywire quickly if the import options change.
There are some tricks that can be used to control a size of an image in a data merge, provided the images are pdf/ai. If images are being placed by bounding box size in the import options, a way is by drawing a no fill/stroke box behind (or on another layer) of the pdf/ai - this will be used to define the actual size of the image, instead of the top left/bottom right of the image. Similarly, if images are being placed by media box, a similar technique can be used by making the illustrator artboard the size used to define the incoming image size.
There are also other ways to control the way an image grows/shrinks when importing via the data merge. I have written about that elsewhere, but the trick relies on using making the variable image an anchored object in a larger text frame and controlling its coordinates with text and textbox formatting (e.g. top/bottom/center align; left/right/center, or tab position): Centering “fit frame to images” using InDesign CS6 | Colecandoo!

Similar Messages

  • Multiple records in Indesign Data merge

    When I select the option for multiple records in InDesign Date Merge, I still only get one record on a page in preview. When I ask it to create a merged document, each item from the excell file is put on a separate page.  Why is this happening, I want 4 items on a page.

    Message was edited by: p_lue
    I figured out the problem.  The margins would have to be smaller for the page to accomodate multiple  records. Thanks for offering to help.

  • Indesign Data Merge Scripts

    I am looking to create a script that will enable me to feed in variable data from a csv to indesign data merge.  I have the components built, with a column for quantity in the csv.  Our printing needs vary day by day, so multiple records don't quite fit w

    Thanks SDesigns; the GREP feature in particular looks like it might work, assuming I can get the data to merge with a separator between each company. That's where I'm having trouble now; I can't seem to be able to merge a particular column from the CSV that has the company names into a paragraph of text within my document, as it only seems to let me merge in the first company name only. Do you know how I can achieve this, and additionally how I can get it to automatically insert any particular separator (as there are hundreds if not thousands of company names, manually typing in the separator could get very tedious)? Attached is a screenshot of what the final text looks like in the document, though it doesn't seem to let me "Update source" on the paragraph, which would make things much easier.Thank you very much for your time and help!
    Best,
    Colton

  • Would installing Cheetah or Raptor drives make inDesign data merge work faster?

    Would installing Cheetah or Raptor drives make inDesign data merge work faster?

    I think SSDs might turn out to be slower. There are some other posts about major slowdowns when the OS and user profile are on SSDs.
    As a 32 bit program, ID can't adress all that extra RAM, so you won't affect the amount of swapping required. I don't really know how efficient an SSD is for constant read and write operations, but my undertanding is they work great for fast loading of things that don't change, but not so much for files that rewrite constantly.

  • Indesign Data Merge repeating images, mixing up data, etc.

    I'm using ID CC and using data merge for a catalog.
    when i create the merged document it repeats some of the images, uses data for other products and repeats it.
    I've started from scratch, I've avoided the "preview" mode like the plague, I've used CSV and TXT.  I've searched for line breaks in Excel.  What am i doing wrong?

    "Show Import Options". , this will tell you what sort of data file you are uploading
    @Shiv – only to an extend. InDesign cannot see a difference between Unicode UFT-8 or Unicode UTF-16 at this point, it just detects Unicode.
    CSV is an old, can we really say, "file format"?
    It's basically a text file with a csv suffix and some rules, that are or are not implemented. InDesign tries to detect the rules: what character for separating the fields? What character for a line of fields ending?
    InDesign does not verify very much, if there is a orderly grid-like structure in the fields (a row and column structure) with an equal number of "cells" on every row. And a header row that holds the discription. In fact it cannot "see" a header, because the csv-"format" cannot provide a hint…
    CSV is not a file format, see it more as a lose convention and not standardized very much…
    I think Adobe should provide its own format for merging data and a converter tool together with InDesign where you could output to and input from a InDesign table with a header row using whatever formatting is available in InDesign.
    Uwe

  • Data Merge Image Size

    If I create an image frame and place a data merge field in it, when I do the merge, it makes the image the size of the frame (i.e. either enlarged or shrunk to fit). I would like the image to come in at 100% so that I can use the "fit frame to image" command instead of having to first resize the image back to 100%. I've tried messing with the frame fitting options, but nothing seems to be of any use. If I'm missing something, I hope someone can fill me in.
    In the event that there isn't a way, is this something that can be scripted (after the merge, run the script to select all image frames, set the image size to 100% and then scale the frame to the image).

    In my testing, selecting preserve image and frame size and center in frame keptthe frame at the size drawn int the template and centered the image.  Unselecting the center image put the image inthe upper left corner, and it either left the frame alone if it was larger than the image, or expanded it (even off the page) if the image was too large. Most images seem to have been imported at 100%. I still can't explain why a handful are coming in at 50 or 25%, but there was a bug discovered a year or so ago that caused image scaling for particular pixel dimensions for one user (might have been a combination of dimensions and resolution) which might explain it. I'm merging into a 20 x 24 page filling nearly the entire page withthe frame, and there seems to be space to place these files at 100% so it's a puzzle.
    I haven't seen ay images scaled up...

  • InDesign-Data Merge, Consecutive Empty Fields

    Hi there,
    I've been doing data merges in InDesign for quite some time now and I've always had this problem. I don't know of any other way, besides to go in and manually delete every line, to get rid of this issue.
    Here's my data block:
    <<First Name>> <<Last Name>>
    <<Spouse First>> <<Spouse Last>>
    <<Address 1>>
    <<Address 2>>
    <<City>>, <<St>> <<Zip>>
    Normally, I can just combine address 1 and address 2 into one line separated by a space and it's no big deal. I've tried using the merge option to delete the empty line, but it has never worked properly.
    My main concern is the second line. Not all records have a spouse associated with them and when merged, I have to go in an manually delete the entire line. Is there a way to fix this?

    I've tried using the merge option to delete the empty line, but it has never worked properly.
    That's odd; it's pretty much exactly what you are asking after. Can you tell us anything outside of "it has never worked properly"?
    Is there anything non-standard about your merge? (I.e. unusual text encoding, images, master pages, n-up merges, et cetera.) Can you take screenshots of your merge dialogs? Or give us a step-by-step rundown of what you are doing? Are you previewing before merge?
    I am an infrequent but long-time user of Data Merge, and I've always been able to use the "Remove blank lines for empty fields" checkbox without issue.

  • InDesign Data Merge - Data Grouping or Page Breaks

    I'm working on a plant catalog for a landscaper. I want to group the plants in the catalog by their plant type (i.e. Groundcovers, Trees, Shrubs, etc). Each plant name in the data source is assigned a plant type and I've sorted the data so the plant types are grouped together. I'm successfully using data merge to create a document with multiple records and I want to use the "Plant Type" as a header per group of plants that match that type. I'd be very happy if I could also create a page break between plant types. Is there a way to accomplish this with InDesign? I can accomplish this with Word's data merge but I'd much rather use InDesign.
    Additionally, I'm currently using a text variable at the top of the page and thought this would be the solution to my problem but I'm only able to set this up using the "First on Page" option. This doesn't work well because I frequently have items at the bottom of the page that aren't in the same category as the first item on the page. I'm basically running a merge for every plant type then putting the separate documents together in a PDF... its a little time consuming but not impossible.
    I hope I've explained my situation clearly. Any guidance will be appreciated.

    Data Merge is very primitive. It doesn't do anything but put unlinked frames with data on the page.
    That said, there are scripts, such as the text liner at Rorohiko.com that will link the frames in logical sequence, and paragraph styles can be set to start on next page, or you can add anther field to the data file and put a symbol or text sting into it only where you want a page break, then do a find change and repalce with the break after the merge.
    Are you doing a lot of this? There are catlog pugins which might make your life a lot easier, but they're pricey.

  • InDesign Data Merge using password protected PDFs?

    I am trying to print postcards with Data Merge and I've run into a problem. The source files for one of the images are password protected PDFs. They all use the same password, and I do know the password, but InDesign wants me to enter the password every time it processes a record.
    If I'm printing 10,000 postcards, I would have to enter the password 10,000 times to make my merged file!
    Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there a way to enter the password once and, maybe hold down [command + option + control + kitchensink] or whatever, while clicking "OK" to apply that password to all future password dialog boxes? Is there a script I can run that could automatically enter the password?
    The original source PDFs need to keep the password protection, so removing the security en masse isn't an option. Making non-secure copies of all the possible PDFs that could be used seems really unwieldy and would take up a lot of network storage resources, so I really hope there is a more elegant solution out there.
    I'm using CS5 on a Mac and I would LOVE it if anyone has any suggestions at all on how to fix this. Thanks!
    -Cole Hartson

    Your path needs to use a colon instead of a forward slash. Also you might need to add the name of your hard drive before Users.
    The easiest way to get the correct path is to manually place one of the images, then go to the links panel, right-click on the image name and select Copy Info > Copy Platform Style Path.

  • InDesign Data Merge Question....

    I have a calendar created using the data merge feature within InDesign.  The only question I have thus far is on each day of the week, we currently have a text frame linking to a .txt file that our customers add events to.  How do I link the specific .txt files to the frame?  I cant use the image function in my excel file as it does not reconize it as that.  Is there another way to script/put this in my source file to link and place the text in the .txt files (individual txt files for each day of the year).??  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

    I don't think I really undertand the structure of the data file you have. My sense, though is that this may not really be a data merge project.
    At its heart, Data Merge is is very primitive. It's great for mailing labels, but can get defeated by more complex projects. For the merge to work, all of the data must be structured the same for each record in terms of the number of fields, and the text you want to include needs to be in the fields (as far as I know, you cannot use a pointer to an external text file in a field the same way that you can use a pointer to an image). You have a choice when setting up the merge template, though, of putting the plceholders on the document page or on the master page.
    If you put the placeholders on the master page, the data can be updated AFTER the merge, at least in theory (doesn't seem to work well with images), but it doesn't really sound to me like that's what you need, but it is a possibility if you have a basic documenet and the clients add text later.
    In any case, if you are letting the client add text, you need to add that text directly into your data file, either in Excel and re-export the entire data set, or set up some sort of find/change routine to replace tags in the text file with the text supplied by the client.

  • 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 Image Alignments

    Greetings,
    I'm turning to this forum, as nothing I've tried has worked.  In a data merge using only merged images from a CSV Excel Workbook, everything is displaying generally the way I want.  But in one of the frames with a merged image the images will NOT align to the bottom of the frame!  I've tried setting the frame fitting properties *before* placing the image merge field into the frame.  I've tried selecting the previewed, linked image and configuring that.  Tried dragging the image. Nothing!  When I toggle the preview to refresh, it jumps right back up to the top left of the frame.
    I know this is not the most widely used practice in InDesign.  But any ideas would be appreciated!
    Thanks!
    Bill

    Thanks Mike!  Very kind of you to check back in.  I'm working with version 7.5.3 from CS 5.5 on a Mac.  I made sure it was up to date, and tried a couple more obvioius things.  But still nothing.  I can achieve my end without aligning the image to the bottom of the frame.  But the results are less than optimal.  I always become obsessed with this kind of thing until I can find an answer or a workaround.  One idea I thought might be interesting is to establish a grid and attempt to anchor the image to that grid.  But what makes this especially challenging is that we are dealing with variable image sizes that are linked to files on my hard drive.  If this were a static page, I"d be long done with this.  :-)
    To be clear about what I'm doing, I've hand-written variables from a contact list and scanned those contact variables (address, full name, salutation, greeting) into coorisponding directories on my hard drive.  On both the inside of a card as well as the outside of an envelope, I have two VDP frames, one above the other respectively.  In the case of the envelope, for example, I'd like the top frame that contains the contact's full name to format so the full name image sits on the bottom of its frame, so I can control how closely it displays above the frame containing the address below it.
    Anyway, still unsolved.
    Thanks again for checking back!
    Bill

  • Check InDesign data merge template for errors without creating document?

    I've got a big InDesign template with hundreds of rows. Producing a full batch takes over an hour, and sometimes crashes. The deadline is fast approaching, and I'm waiting for the final minor amendments to the content spreadsheet, which could virtually land any minute.
    I want to check for overset text errors on the current sheet without creating a merged document or PDF, so I can get on with fixing any likely major problems before the final sheet arrives - but I don't want to create a full merged doc, because that will take a very long time and will that doc's content will be obsolete, whereas the overall length of the text will change very little.
    When you create a merged document, you have the option to turn "Generate overset text report" off. What I want to do, is ONLY generate the overset text report, without actually storing the merged document in memory.
    Is this possible?
    The closest I can see is click through the "Next" button in the Data Merge palette with Preview turned on, while watching the "No errors" preflight panel notification at the bottom of the screen. This is probably faster than creating a full merge, but still very slow.

    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.

  • Data Merge Image Paths

    I'm using CS5 on Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6 at work (I'm at home now, so I can't be more specific at the moment), and experimenting with Data Merge. I place an image, and use the "copy full path" feature in the links manager and paste it into my spreadsheet. When I do the actual merge, it works (the image is imported with the merge) if the path leads to a folder on my hard drive, but not if the path leads to an external drive.
    Does anyone know if the path that the links manager creates is the wrong syntax for using data merge? If so, is there some place where I can read the "rules" of how the text string should look?

    Yes!! It is so frustrating! I have to use my old version of InDesign (CS5) to do all my data merges that have images saved in multiple folders.
    If anyone has any ideas see below for the image error message that I, and my whole art department staff, get in CC 2014.
    I have read through this thread and tried all suggestions... Please help!!
    Data Source File: Karns TV Template-Week 219.csv
    Target Document: Top10TV - Small.indd
    Report Generated: 2/2/15 9:22 AM
    1) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Seafood:Salmon Fresh Chilean Fillets.jpg
    2) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Meat-NEW:Pork Loin Whole Bone in Raw.jpg
    3) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Meat-NEW:Chicken Leg Quarter-Raw on Cutting Board.jpg
    4) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Meat-NEW:New-York-Strip-Steak-USDA.psd
    5) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Meat-NEW:Pork Chops Center Cut Rib.jpg
    6) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Deli-NEW:Roast Beef Sandwich.eps
    7) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Produce-Veggies:Apples-Variety.jpg
    8) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Beverages:Nestle Pure Life Water 24 count 16.9 oz 6827493471.eps
    9) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Dairy:Sargento Shredded Cheese Mozzarella 8 oz.eps
    10) Volumes:ArtClients:GROCERY STORE SIGNAGE::-Grocery Photos:Baking Goods:Essential Everyday Pure Granulated Sugar 4 Lbs 4130301545.eps

  • 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();

Maybe you are looking for

  • Recovered files in trash after sleeping

    Upgraded to Tiger 10.4.11 from Panther about 4 weeks ago using Erase & Install, then restoring apps, files, etc. with Migration Assistant from a clone. Flawless & painless--whew! However, I'm now having one minor but annoying issue--after playing Bur

  • Delete buttons in report region & javascript

    I managed to add a delete button on each line of my report region using 'Column link' with text <img src="#IMAGE_PREFIX#delete.gif" border="0" alt="Verwijderen Icon"> url f?p=&APP_ID.:504:#APP_SESSION#:TEST:::P504_DELETE_ID_LCNT:#ID# and some extra c

  • Where clause with substr for a update statement

    Dear Reader, Currently I am working on a package that will update a value in a column, this column always has a default value of 9999 and is named STATUS_FLAGS In my package I need to update this column's value for instance into 9919. Where 1 represe

  • ME57 pr not fixed if i assign a vendor

    Dear. I assign the fixed vendor for a purchase requisition using trx. ME57. The pr isnu2019t automatically fixed. Next mrp delete this pr. Do you help me ?

  • 错误"Cannot open the file due to an unknown error. (FRM0007)"

    在XI3.0,当打开3层deski的时候,得到下面的错误 "Cannot open the file due to an unknown error. (FRM0007)" -所有的deski文件都打不开 -用2层deski打开没有问题 -发生在某些特定的UserID上 -目前在两台终端机上发生 下面是进行拖拽部分的log文件,或许有帮助 <busobj_2812_xxx> 2009/03/02 01:33:38.468|==| |X| 2812|3592|}|||||||||||||||_BO