Indesign to Excel

My company has created a 1100 page catalog containing the products that we sell. Is there anyway to export the data in the catalog to Excel? Ive tried exporting it as a PDF and then opening it as a spreadsheet, as well as different methods of copying entire pages and pasting them but none of them work.Acrobat hasn't been any help either. The only way ive been able to do it so far is by going in and copying and pasting line by line. Is there a quicker way to do this, such as a script or something of that sort?

SoMarDesigner wrote:
Acrobat hasn't been any help either.
Really? Open pdf in Acrobat (I use X Pro), File>Save As> Spreadsheet> Microsoft Exel Workbook.
Works nicely for me with text-only sheets. Not sure about complex ones, with images, etc.
However, you should give it a try.
Crossposting... Huh, if it's NOT tables in fact, than, I'm afraid, you're hard luck...
Message was edited by: winterm

Similar Messages

Table data in Indesign - XML, Excel or other?

Hi
We are setting up a document that will include a lot of tables for a range of different products.
The last 2 columns in the tables are for prices and delivery. We need to be able to increase the prices in the Indesign tables easily as and when we need to as the prices increase/decrease for products.
The increase will most likely be global and by a certain percentage.
How would we set up the tables/data to be able to do this?
I'm guessing some kind of external file is fed into Indesign, like XML or Excel, so we can change the prices externally and they are then 'pulled' into Indesign.
Please help!
Thanks in advance

I had not noticed the direct export from InDesign to RTF. You had to put the cursor inside the story to make that option appear!
It looks really good, and I've sent the result on, to the ones who are going to use it, for them to check whether it's good enough, and if they can take it on to excel or work with it in the RTF format as it is.
Thank you so much for pointing out this option!

InDesign to Excel - Export & Import Utility

Hello,
My wife is a freelance designer & im a software developer. We worked together on one of her freelance assignments which involved transcreation of indesign document in variuous languages.
I wrote software which would export all the text content from indesign idml file to excel sheet. Any one can edit these excel sheets & software will be able to merge it back and create new idml file from it. Basically its easier to export and import text back in to idml files.
Heres use case : Take idml file , export all text content to excel sheet with just click of a button and send it to translators/proofreaders/editors. When they are done with it - simply merge it back in to original idml file within seconds (without graphic designer spending time on copy-n-pasting in to indesign file)
I think this can reduce indesign text copy-n-paste job time by 90%
I would like to know is there any market for such utility & would it make any sense to develop it any furthur.
Thanks.

I don't mean to discourage you, but there is actually already a large and robust market for such tools. See SDL Trados, Kilgray memoQ, et cetera. I think that Rorohiko's StoryTweaker is the closest match to what you've done. I know few translators who prefer working in Excel over other applications - in fact I have a folder full of VBAs to move multilingual content out of Excel into Word and back, simply because the text-editing tools in Excel are pretty abysmally bad, at least from the perspectives of the translators I have asked about the matter.
Besides, if you wanted to work in a tabular format, you'd already be using an app like Trados or SDLX or something like that.
(without graphic designer spending time on copy-n-pasting in to indesign file)
Actually, over the last fifteen years I've spent as a DTP wonk in the translation industry, I've found that graphic designers are pretty universally bad at this task. Each language has its own typographical conventions, and the graphic designers that recognize this fact are unfortunately quite rare. Furthermore, you only have to do one control-c alt-tab control-v job before you realize that there must be a better way to do it.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but you're kind of reinventing the wheel here. That being said, the firms that have a lock on the Compuer-Aided Translation tools (CATs) or Translation Environment Tools (TEnTs) tend to have fairly high prices, even on their introductory toolsets. There may be some slack points in that market that I don't see. I'd suggest asking someplace else, like ProZ or Translator's Cafe, or places where InDesign expertise is less common.

Copying table data (including images) from InDesign to Excel (or other format such as RTF)

Hi,
We've got a problem trying to get data from InDesign over to Excel.
There's this pricelist in InDesign, with images and small "icons" (also images) that indicate which item is displayed as the main image for each row in the table. Each "table row" can contain a number of items, separated by Carriage Return + Line Feed or similar combination.
The problem is that we can't get good data and images to appear in any other editable format. Copying and Pasting directly into Excel has yet been the most successful, but there the images are lost. Exporting to PDF and from Acrobat Pro exporting to other formats always seem to fail in one way or another (tables are put on top of each other, images lost and so on, different for different export formats).
The data copied to OpenOffice Calc (then saved as an excel format file). Yellow areas added to show where the images were in InDesign.
Prices blurred in the illustrating image above.
Are there any good ideas how to copy the InDesign table to another editable format (that doesn't require Adobe licenses...)?
Thanks,
Andreas

I had not noticed the direct export from InDesign to RTF. You had to put the cursor inside the story to make that option appear!
It looks really good, and I've sent the result on, to the ones who are going to use it, for them to check whether it's good enough, and if they can take it on to excel or work with it in the RTF format as it is.
Thank you so much for pointing out this option!

InDesign and Excel

Background: I have a localised InDesign file with a bunch of English "terms" identified by character styles. I need to find each term in the document and look it up in an Excel spreadsheet. When I find a match in the spreadsheet, the ajoining cell will have the correct value for that term. I then replace the term in the InDesign document with the value from the spreadsheet. My question here is, what is the best way to interact with Excel spreadsheets with InDesign scripting. I normally use JavaScript for the scripting language, but does VB give me more options for getting access to the spreadsheet? Or, should I build a NET application that will control both Excel and InDesign. I am mainly looking for some pointers for best practices for working with Excel and InDesign. This will give me a starting point for designing my solution.
In a FrameMaker/FrameScript environment, I have a couple of choices. I can FrameScript to access Excel as a COM (ActiveX) object and get at its data. Or, I can use ADODB and query the spreadsheet with SQL commands. Are either of these choices available to me with InDesign scripting?
Thanks in advance.
Rick

My question here is, what is the best way to interact with Excel spreadsheets with InDesign scripting. I normally use JavaScript for the scripting language, but does VB give me more options for getting access to the spreadsheet?
I think you know that it does.
It's really impossible to say whether you're better off using VB or .NET. Or even writing the ID side in JavaScript and having it call out to the Microsoft side written in whatever.
One observation is that COM+ and .NET access to InDesign has some rough edges, and is not well documented, and you won't find a lot of support for it here. (Not that there are a huge number of VB users here, but there are some.) But I think it's really about your comfort in those environments.

Synchronize InDesign and Excel data

Hello there! I am making a catalog with pricing and text information. Just curious if there is a way to bind your excel data to a textframe. For example, once you have placed your text frames with the text information and later you decided to change the prices but I don't want to manually update it one by one. Is there a way to tie this data to a textframe and later if I change my data on the excel file I will be able to pull the new information?
Please let us know. Thank you very much.

There are ways to do this, but it sounds to me like you really want a catalog plugin of some sort. (That you'd have to pay for, of course.) It depends on how often you need the data to update - are you willing to relink/update a csv file to update all prices all at once? If so, perhaps you don't need a commercial plug-in; look into the built-in Data Merge tool in InDesign.
But, if you're expecting to use your Excel file as-is without any pre-processing, your options are more limited. You can import named ranges of Excel files; I've seen that described on the forums but have never tried it myself.

IDCS2 How to make excel automation in Indesign Javascripting?

Hi all,
I have an excel sheet with several columns.I need to replace one of the column in the excel sheet with another set of values using (Indesign)javascript.
Please help.
Provide me with code snippets.
Regards
amu

>in the excel sheet [...] using (Indesign)javascript
It seems to me you think that javascript ("InDesign" JS??) can control any application on your computer.
Not so.
InDesign has 'generic' support for external programming languages. It can be controlled using JavaScript, Visual Basic for Applications (on Windows), AppleScript (on the Mac), and COM-aware programs, such as C++. The support for this is built-in into InDesign.
Excel has built-in support for Visual Basic. This probably means you can steer both Excel and ID from within the same VB -- I know it's possible through Word -- but has nothing to do with JS. Or with InDesign's support for JS. Or InDesign Scripting in general.
So, is it possible with VB? Well, it might be, but you might want to ask that one on a Microsoft forum, or this one:
>Provide me with code snippets.
(snip)

Placing Named Ranges from Excel into InDesign

InDesign CS3 5.0.4, Excel 2003, Windows XP.
I have placed named ranges from Excel into InDesign and linked them. The Excel file consists of multiple worksheets. I go back now a few months later to update the files. I go to place a couple of new ranges from new worksheets and they don't show up under the correct sheet. ALL my named ranges now show up under the first worksheet only.
Anybody ever had this happen?
JAG

I've upgraded to CS5.5. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred placing named ranges into InDesign from Excel works fine. One time out of a hundred I still see all my named ranges on the first worksheet and none on the rest of the worksheets where I originally named them.
I save the Excel files as XLS.
Am I the only one in the universe having this problem?
Can I get an answer?
JAG

Is there an easy way to see how many rows in a table? (selected or unselected)

Hi all,
Forgive me if this is a REALLY dumb question but I would love to know if there there is an easy way to to see how many rows there are in a table in InDesign?
(And I bet I am really going to kick myself when I hear the answer and how simple it probably is..lol !)
I am working on a huge catalog and am dealing with LOTS of tables...very long tables too at times. I am also doing a lot of copying and pasting back and forth between InDesign and Excel and it would REALLY help if I knew how many rows there are in a table without having to manually count them (TIRESOME!!).
Also, is there a way to see how many rows I have selected at any one time? It would be SO WONDERFUL if the info box could also provide this information.
Thank you SO MUCH in advance for your help:))
Christine
**UPDATE**
Oh boy I AM going to kick myself! Why only NOW that I wrote this question did I suddenly notice that the Table palette shows the number of rows and columns? lol.
Okay, then is there a way to see how many rows I have selected at any given time?

@Christine – try the following ExtendScript (JavaScript):
if(app.selection.length === 0
    || !app.selection[0].constructor.name === "Cell"
    || !app.selection[0].constructor.name === "Table"){
    exit(0);
var sel = app.selection[0];
if(sel.constructor.name === "Cell"){
    var tableRowLength = sel.parent.rows.everyItem().getElements().length;
if(sel.constructor.name === "Table"){
    alert("All "+sel.rows.everyItem().getElements().length+" rows selected in current table." );
    exit(0);
var numberOfRowsSelected = sel.rows.length;
var indexOfSelectedRows = sel.rows.everyItem().index;
var startRowSel = indexOfSelectedRows[0]+1;
var endRowSel = indexOfSelectedRows.length+indexOfSelectedRows[0];
alert(numberOfRowsSelected +" row(s) selected.\r"+startRowSel+" to "+endRowSel+" out of "+tableRowLength+" of current table.");
You need not select whole rows, just one or a couple of cells.
Then run the script.
An alert message is telling you how many rows belong to the cell range you have selected and:
which rows of the table are selected…
A typical message would be:
6 row(s) selected.
3 to 8 out of 20 of current table.
The script does some basic checks of the selection.
If no cell or table is selected, it will just do nothing…
Uwe
Message was edited by: Laubender | Some language cosmetics in the alert message

Shift or Adjust All Pages/Content for Print

Is there a way to shift all content in an entire publication by specified amounts, from one central location or command - as a temporary "effect"?
I work with a document containing a set of labels (@70) that print the variable, b&w text portions of products onto otherwise pre-printed labels (color background images and logos).
I export the document to PDF for printing the labels, because the production crew that prints the labels on demand doesn't have access to InDesign (nor do I wish to teach them to use InDesign). So I'm actually printing from the PDF, but nevertheless all the content therefore has to be shifted in InDesign.
When printing, the printer always prints off by @ 1/16" in one or more dimensions. (Changes with the weather, too; or maybe with wear on the printer.) This printer does not have functionality in its driver to shift the page images.
(Getting a different printer is not an answer. We have to have certain printers because they set the ink hot enough to make it stick to the labels, but are still affordable enough. Besides, every printer ends up having its quirks - even our larger printer that is the exact same as those used by Kinkos for more routine color printing.)
Given the quirks printers always have, I'd be sorely surprised if InDesign doesn't offer some functionality to easily allow shifting of all content before printing, exporting to PDF, or other purposes; but I can't find any sign of such a feature. This would be a useful feature, Adobe folks (hint, hint ).
My prior solution for smaller label sets I've created in InDesign, is to create a new layer, copy all content, including those on master pages, and then shift that content, thereby maintaining an exact, true layout for future needs, too. I really don't want to do this for 70 labels, though; plus it'd be nice to not have the worry of potentially creating out-of-sync content between the different layers.
I see Liquid Layouts, but I don't think that'll accomplish what I need any better. I need the page to stay the same size with the content in a slightly different place on it, not to change sizes. Can Liquid Layouts be made to work anyway? It could at least keep the content synced.

I tried to dig up some links for you re: InDesign's excellent support for automation in Javascript, but it seems like recent changes to Adobe help resources have caused link breakage, e.g. what should have been a link to the CS5 Scripting Guide was actually a page about how cool InDesign CS6 is going to be. In Turkish. You don't read Turkish, do you?
If not, forums regular Jongware has a bunch of really useful Javascript reference material publicly available in a variety of formats.You may want to pay a visit to the InDesign Scripting Forum if you are interested in that kind of thing.

Need Help with HTML Batch Processing

Hi,
New to this forum so be kind
I am trying to work out a way to batch process html's.
The html template is used in our eBay listings.
All the information I want to change is the same.
Eg in my template I have the number "0234" it appears for 6 times, sometimes in the text sometimes in part of the image title I am loading.
I then have an excel sheet listing all my codes that i need to make htmls for - 0234, 0235, 0236 etc etc...
I use say 10 templates depending on what number im doing.
So next cell to the codes (in excel) I list what template I would need.
Now I know in dreamweaver I can search for "0234" in my html & replace to create my new html. But I have 1000's to do, and I am sure I am doing it a long way manually.
Is it possible to use the excel sheet and dreamweaver together to process all these changes in a scripted batch system? and even load which html to use?
Or maybe use a different software?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Kind Regards

The closest to this I have done was in using Photoshop and text files to create hundreds of photoshop designed banners that all had different copy/type on them but based on a template and, the same idea but with pharmacy magnets using InDesign and Excel.
The idea is that you put text boxes in the document and specify a variable for them and then equate those boxes either to variables in a text file or to column headers in an Excel file.
Google on "Data Merging" and perhaps you'll find something.
I'm not aware of a way to do this with html documents but if you approach the html as just a text file, then conceptually, you should be able to create a template whereby you assign a variable to certain divs or input boxes or whatever. Then, you might have to re-process the entire lot to remove the code needed to distinguish a field as dynamic but that would easier to remove.
I'll watch this post as well because massive replacements are always something to know about!

DATA MERGE SLOW

I'm running Windows 7, plenty of RAM, InDesign CS6, Excel 2007
Data Merge from Excel spread is very very slow above 100 records.
Turned off preflight and report generation to see if that helped..not resolved I'm afraid.
The merge works well with 100 records...
Any suggestions, as to what to try next
dave

its almost 7000 records, with approximately 70 individual placeholders per
final page, and the placeholders are located within an excel csv file, so I
am merging a delimited file.
rgds
dave
In a message dated 12/27/2013 11:32:54 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Re: DATA MERGE SLOW
created by MW Design (http://forums.adobe.com/people/MW+Design) in
InDesign - View the full discussion
(http://forums.adobe.com/message/5959682#5959682)

DVD Authoring: How to Make a Menu/Home/Splash Screen

I searched for "DVD menu" and "DVD authoring" but came up empty for what I am trying to do.
I am a newbie to InDesign (CS3), using mostly Premiere Pro. I am a teacher at a High School and for our 4th quarter project we are making a Senior year video. Anyway, one of the groups have the task of designing the cover art, liner notes, DV-disc cover, as well as the menu screens for the DVD itself.
I clearly see that InDesign has some nice templates for most of this stuff, but is this the proper software to be using to create a menu screen to load the chapters, view additional content and things of that sort?
Thanks for the guidance. I'm looking forward to this project but want to make sure I understand the general process first. I'm a quick learner but want to make sure I am studying the right software this weekend!

InDesign is excellent for the printed material, but almost wholly useless for DVD menus. At best, you could create some graphic backgrounds by exporting the layout to JPEG - and that might be an approach to make your printed materials and menus match - but it has no features for creating or editing the menus themselves.
What you want is a DVD authoring tool. There are quite a few around, most of which have flexible titling and menuing functions. Some very limited packages only work with a canned menu; others have some support for user-created menus and titles; others are full-function design and layout tools for those purposes.
I find that Adobe Encore handles most of my needs, but you may be looking for a less expensive alternative. (Encore is about $200 with an academic license, if I remember rightly.)
A general web search for "DVD Authoring" should turn up a selection of tools in all price ranges and with a spectrum of capabilities.

Data Merging Preview Error CS3

I am attempting to merge the names and position of people into nametags through InDesign and Excel.
The excel file seems to work fine.
When I go through the steps to create a data merge I chose to preview the results before clicking ok.
My setting use Multiple records so I wanted to make sure everything was in the right order.
After I set the layout options and previewed I clicked ok and after a few minutes a new document was created with pages of the name tags and filled in information. However instead of using all of the different name and positions as it had shown in the preview it only repeated the same name and position for all 15 pages.
My question is what steps can I take to makes sure all the names are used instead of getting 60 tags with the same name?

I have done that with the same results.
If it is helpful to note, it always chooses the 8th row and repeats that data. If I ask it only to insert specified rows and there are more than 8 it will take the 8th from that number. For example if I want it to insert rows 11-29 it will choose row 18 and repeat.

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/

Indesign to Excel

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for