Variable data and InDesign interface

I have a proposal that will have variable data in it and needs to stay editable. I created the document in InDesign and not sure what program I can use to create the interface in.
What I want is to set up an interface that either I or someone in my office fill out or select certain items they want in the proposal and it creates a document (that is still editable, just in case there are a few tweeks they want)
The variable data would include the basics such as:
Client/Company name
Address
etc.
They also want to be able to select a menu of "benefits" to pick from.
For example the interface would say:
What benefits would you like to include in proposal?
X Benefit A
    Benefit B
X Benefit C
X Benefit D
     Benefit E
Then the ones with the "X" would appear but not the rest.
Certain verbiage they use such as "customer or member" depending on what type of business they are writing the proposal for. For example:
What type of company?
A ....(verbiage would be customer)
B ....(verbiage would be member)
C ....(verbiage is customized)
Then there is some pages that will include math:
Product name                      prod $ (won't change)          qty                total investment
Is this even possible?
Ok discovered Conditional Text....very cool. So that answers the verbiage question.
Is it possible to create a dreamweaver page, import that into excel and then run a data merge or am I over thinking it....even bigger question is it too complicated for someone else to do?

I have a very similar project in mind for a client and am trying to figure out how to best research this. I'm struggling to even use the right terms to find discussion threads. This is the first one I have come across that comes very close. My client wants to have a bunch of documents available for a proposal, then have a window where he checks the documents he wants to use and the order they should appear. I imagine some of those documents will need to be created prior to this process or a window would allow them to fill in the variable data...client info, etc. I was thinking a more rudimentary way would be to build all the chapters and optional files out organizing them well in folders, then just using Acrobat to choose and combine the files, ordering them as needed. I guess that's my back-up plan, but would love more input/suggestions on how to be more dynamic within InDesign itself.

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G2 | FR
G3 | UK
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WG2 | Marketing
WG3 | Sales
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R1 | US
R2 | FR
R3 | UK
R4 | Finance
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Regards,
Robert

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This may be confusing so I will try my best to explain...
I am working on a report in which I need to allow the user to choose a specific Date and Time period. Now I have both Date and Time avaliable in my infoprovider. If I create a variable for both date and time seperately it will not be able to associate the date with the time (right?).
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Dear Matt;
I've the same problem!!!
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Here is something a little closer to your requirement.
report zrich_0001 .
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data: xT247 type T247.
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Regards,
Rich Heilman

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Msg 2715, Level 16, State 3, Line 3
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Msg 2715, Level 16, State 3, Line 3
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My goal is to populate each of these shapes with a different QR code and then output the whole sheet as a single .EPS or .PDF file.
You're barking up the wrong tree for this with Illustrator's Variables palette.
Think of it like this:
Imagine a typical spreadsheet with multiple rows of the same kind of data, except for the first row which serves as the "labels" of the columns.
The on-page objects which you define as Variables in Illustrator correspond to the first row; the column labels.
The datasets correspond to the following rows of values below the label row.
Cycling through the datasets simply moves up and down the rows, revealing one row's data at a time for each of the column labels.
Your multi-up array does not fit that data model. You are essentially trying to make a layout showing all the individual cells below the single label of one column (downward across all rows). (Illustrator's Variables feature doesn't even let you put multiple instances of a single variable in the document, so that the same value occurs in multiple places.)
You're trying to build the functional equivalent of a typical "gang up" press sheet, like a 10-up layout of business cards, each showing the same kind of data (name, phone, etc.) for multiple employees, so that you don't have to do separate press runs for each employee. That's certainly a common need, and one quite appropriate to a program like Illustrator. But Illustrator's Variables feature does not do that.
Essentially, what you are wanting to do is to replicate the basic functionality of any program which is used to print labels from data (like the typical mail merge function for address labels which are ganged up with some number of different labels on a page). What you want could be done in Illustrator via a custom JavaScript, but it would be a pretty silly exercise in reinventing the wheel. If it were me, I'd probably build the solution in FileMaker Pro (a database program), depending on the specific graphics requirements. However, you should be able to do it in InDesign, using its data merge feature.
JET

Variable data and InDesign interface

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