Multiple Character Styles in Multiple Data Merge Project

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Working on a PC running XP Pro, using InDesign CS2, I am doing a directory of information about trees. I am working on a master page which has a header, as well as a footer that has a page number on it (left side pages numbered on the left, right side numbered on the right)and two columns. Each 3-line entry takes up the column width, by 1/2" of depth, which includes a bit of extra space between entries. I'm estimating that I will have 16 pages.
Each kind of information for each entry is designated in different character styles, for example:
Line 1: Common Name is Bold, 12 point, genus and species is a different typeface and medium italic, 10 point all in PMS color.
Line 2: new typeface with 5 tabs, all black
Line 3: 2 tabbed entries of information in same typeface as line 2, then first and last name of owner tabbed to the far right and in italic.
Seems to me that I should be able to import my information from Excel into pre-formatted fields, right? And that it should just merge beautifully down two columns per page til it gets to the end, right? Yeah, that's what I thought, but I am truly stumped. It seems like I don't have enough places in the data merge pallet to tell InDesign all this stuff. I need help from a guru, please!

Thanks,
Peggy

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Book about trees. Stumped. Surely not.

What you want to do seems perfectly feasible but you are not telling us what your problems are, beyond that you have a
problem.

Information comes into DataMerge from a text file – comma-delimited or tab-delimited – as words and spaces, nothing
more. All the formatting you want to do is done to the placeholders that the information will replace. So you format
your placeholder <<Common name>> or whatever it's called to be 12pt bold, and when you do the DataMerge, the incoming
information will take on that formatting.

DataMerge is best thought of as a label production utility. So design your layout as if it were labels. Make one entry
or "label" and size it so that it is an 1/nth of the page where n is the number you want to get on it. So in your
example the layout should be no more than half a page wide. Then use the multiple label format options and DataMerge
will create multiple versions of your layout, populating them progressively with the information.

k

[P***@adobeforums.com]

To get the formatting, select the field labels in your document and apply the styles, just like you would with ordinary test. The applied style will be use on the merged data.

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your reply! Everything is working until I go to merge it and regardless of whether I do rows first or columns first, I get one entry at the top of every column and every page. I know it's a brain glitch about measurements, but why won't it flow nice and easy, down each column to the top of the next, etc.
Thanks, Peggy

[K***@adobeforums.com]

That is most probably because you have made your layout too big to get what you want. Your text frame(s) should be no
bigger than is needed for their contents. InDesign then clones these as many times as it can on the page.

k

[P***@adobeforums.com]

My text box in the merge format is 1/2 inch deep, by column width. In the merge palette these are my settings: Multiple records, Margins 0, Columns first, space between columns .5, space between rows 0.
And I've had another thought which is a bit scary . . . . if I ever get this to work, this will not be continuous flow. So if the customer adds an entry anywhere, I will have to manually move them all or start over.
Perhaps I need to re-think this. How would YOU approach this project??
Again, many thanks!
Peggy

[P***@adobeforums.com]

I suspect the problem may be here:

I am working on a master page which has a header, as well as a footer
that has a page number on it (left side pages numbered on the left, right
side numbered on the right)and two columns.




Try working on a page without the header and footer, and put only one instance of your merge labels on the page. AFTER the merge is complete, add the header and footer to the master page.

Peter

[P***@adobeforums.com]

BINGO!!!! Genius - thank you Peter!

. . . any thoughts on how to actually get a continuous flow here, instead of individual text boxes?
Thanks,
Peggy

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Data merge doesn't do "continuous" in the sense you mean, I think.

You have two options, single or multiple records per page. In Single Record mode you get a new page for each record and you can inset the fields pretty much anywhere you want. In Multiple Record mode ID creates a copy of EVERYTHING that is on the page and does essentially a step and repeat with a new record as many times as it will fit inside the page area. That's why having the header and footer was causing the problem -- you already used up all the space on the page.

Peter

[P***@adobeforums.com]

I should add, though, that once the merge is complete you have an ordinary document and you can thread the frames or move them around and change sizes as you wish.

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Which makes perfect sense, even though in the Knowledgebase file I read (or maybe it was InDesign Help) it was stated that you couldn't use multiple master pages, you could only use one, and the footer was on the master page. However, yes indeed, entry at top, footer at bottom, it was, indeed a full page!
Again, my thanks, Peter.
Peggy

[P***@adobeforums.com]

And in the end, I will go through the tedium of combining all of these text boxes I think. . .
Peggy

[K***@adobeforums.com]

This may help with combining your text frames.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b5ed45/13

k

[P***@adobeforums.com]

I think you can use only one master page for the "source" document, or the one you are creating to do the merge, but once the merge is complete, that's a brand new ordinary document and you can do whatever you like. It's a lot faster, by the way to add the master items after the merge, too.

[P***@adobeforums.com]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! That will do it!
This forum is awesome. . .

Peggy