August's CompTIA IT Fundamentals course includes 19 hours of basic computer principle modules and prepares you for the certification exam. It's free for Premium Members, Team Accounts, and Qualified Experts!
COURSE of the MONTH
11 days, 15 hours left to enrollBecome a Premium Member and unlock a new, free course in leading technologies each month.
Solved
InDesign CS6 Data Merge Problems
Posted on 2014-02-09
Hello!
I am working on a draft guide, and all of the info from my client has been compiled in a excel document.
I have exported the file as a csv and have done a data merge in Indesign CS6; however, I am getting odd blanks and breaks within my file when I created the merged document.
Please see the attached InDesign file for reference.
Since I'm dealing with a document involving multiple pages, I'd love to figure out the issue instead of having to correct everything by hand.
I am working on a draft guide, and all of the info from my client has been compiled in a excel document.
I have exported the file as a csv and have done a data merge in Indesign CS6; however, I am getting odd blanks and breaks within my file when I created the merged document.
Please see the attached InDesign file for reference.
Since I'm dealing with a document involving multiple pages, I'd love to figure out the issue instead of having to correct everything by hand.
[X]
Welcome to Experts Exchange
Add your voice to the tech community where 5M+ people just like you are talking about what matters.
- Help others & share knowledge
- Earn cash & points
- Learn & ask questions
10-
10
20 Comments
PDF of the indesign file is attached as well as the excel sheet with data needed for the data merge
Copy-of-SlantData-2014.xlsx
The-Slant-04-2013.pdf
Copy-of-SlantData-2014.xlsx
The-Slant-04-2013.pdf
Active today
The Problem is in the data source.
If you look in the Excel file, for ex in cell E3, you'll see that it has 2 lines of text:
Oviedo, FL
Oviedo, Fla
When converting to csv, those cause a line break, thus breaking that row into 2 lines that Indesign import into 2 pages.
There were several paragraph characters inside your data source. Removed them and attached the csv.
Did not see any more problem pages in Indesign
HTH,
Dan
Copy-of-SlantData-2014.csv
If you look in the Excel file, for ex in cell E3, you'll see that it has 2 lines of text:
Oviedo, FL
Oviedo, Fla
When converting to csv, those cause a line break, thus breaking that row into 2 lines that Indesign import into 2 pages.
There were several paragraph characters inside your data source. Removed them and attached the csv.
Did not see any more problem pages in Indesign
HTH,
Dan
Copy-of-SlantData-2014.csv
You are a lifesaver! Thank you SO much. This fixed it!
I have about 100 other entries that will be coming my way. Is there any way you can tell me how exactly you fixed the file, so that I'll know what to do moving forward?
Thank you again. You have saved me HOURS.
I have about 100 other entries that will be coming my way. Is there any way you can tell me how exactly you fixed the file, so that I'll know what to do moving forward?
Thank you again. You have saved me HOURS.
Active today
The easiest way is to look inside the csv using a text editor.
I use Notepad++, but plain/old/vanilla notepad will do just fine.
Just make sure Format->Word wrap is NOT selected.
Then just look at the beginning of the lines: if it's a player's name, it's ok. If not, then probably that line was cut because of an end line character in Excel.
Put the cursor at the beginning of the line and press backspace, to join the line with the previous one, where it belongs.
You'll get quickly the hang of it. It took me about 30 sec on your file.
I use Notepad++, but plain/old/vanilla notepad will do just fine.
Just make sure Format->Word wrap is NOT selected.
Then just look at the beginning of the lines: if it's a player's name, it's ok. If not, then probably that line was cut because of an end line character in Excel.
Put the cursor at the beginning of the line and press backspace, to join the line with the previous one, where it belongs.
You'll get quickly the hang of it. It took me about 30 sec on your file.
Active today
Here's a quicker way: in Excel, press CTRL+H (Find and Replace).
Click in the Find box and press CTRL+J. The cursor will change to a dot (.)
Click on the Replace box and press SPACE.
Then click on Replace All
What you just did is delete all the line breaks in the file and replace them with spaces, so now you can save as csv and all will be ok.
HTH,
Dan
Click in the Find box and press CTRL+J. The cursor will change to a dot (.)
Click on the Replace box and press SPACE.
Then click on Replace All
What you just did is delete all the line breaks in the file and replace them with spaces, so now you can save as csv and all will be ok.
HTH,
Dan
Active today
Have you tried COMMAND + J? I don't own a Mac, but usually you can substitute CTRL with COMMAND and ALT with OPTION.
If it does not work, try inserting it manually as OPTION+010 or OPTION+013.
HTH,
Dan
If it does not work, try inserting it manually as OPTION+010 or OPTION+013.
HTH,
Dan
Got it to work using dreamweaver as my text editor and your previously mentioned advice.
The Option 010 wont work either
Thanks!
The Option 010 wont work either
Thanks!
So, it appears this will no longer work!!! Any suggestions on how to fix it?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dbjp2sq91cash8l/TheSlant-DraftGuide-2014-PlayerSheet.indd
Wishing the client had had me do all the merging at once, as I feel the going back in multiple times has caused issues.
If i try to update the source with the next round of info. all of the fields in my data merge go blank.....
Copy-of-SlantData-2014-WR.csv
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dbjp2sq91cash8l/TheSlant-DraftGuide-2014-PlayerSheet.indd
Wishing the client had had me do all the merging at once, as I feel the going back in multiple times has caused issues.
If i try to update the source with the next round of info. all of the fields in my data merge go blank.....
Copy-of-SlantData-2014-WR.csv
Active today
I see you updated the indd with Indesign CC. I only have Indesign CS6, so you will need to do a save as and choose "Indesign CS4 or later"
Seriously - cannot thank you enough for all of your help with this. You've saved me SO much time!
I do have two fields that I will need to go back through and enter for all of the pages. Any suggestions on the best way to go about doing this? Will I have to go in page by page and do it by hand, or could I figure out a way to data merge it? (it's the vertical and bench press that were just recorded at the combine....)
I do have two fields that I will need to go back through and enter for all of the pages. Any suggestions on the best way to go about doing this? Will I have to go in page by page and do it by hand, or could I figure out a way to data merge it? (it's the vertical and bench press that were just recorded at the combine....)
Active today
Are those 2 new fields or fields that were already on the page, but you had them blank in the csv?
If they are new, redo the template and then re import the data.
If they were in the template, but with no content on the csv, empty the template and then re import the data, cause it's faster.
If they are new, redo the template and then re import the data.
If they were in the template, but with no content on the csv, empty the template and then re import the data, cause it's faster.
they are two fields that are already on the page but they're blank
Empty the template within indesign and just code for those two fields? It wont touch anything I've already merged, right?
But how do i get it to do this for all the pages? Originally if i tried to data merge on a multi-page document it would not work....
Empty the template within indesign and just code for those two fields? It wont touch anything I've already merged, right?
But how do i get it to do this for all the pages? Originally if i tried to data merge on a multi-page document it would not work....
Featured Post
Ready to improve network connectivity? Watch this webinar to learn how SD-WANs and a one-click instant connect tool can boost provisions, deployment, and management of your cloud connection.
Question has a verified solution.
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please ask a related question
Preface:
When I started this series, I used the term CommandBars because that is the Office Object class that it discusses. Unfortunately, when Microsoft introduced Office 2007, they replaced the standard Commandbar menus with "The Ribbon" and rem…
Microsoft Word is a program we have all encountered at some point, but very few of us have dug deep into its full scope of features, let alone customized it to suit our needs. Luckily making the ribbon (aka toolbar, first introduced in Word 2007) wo…
This Micro Tutorial well show you how to find and replace special characters in Microsoft Word. This is similar to carriage returns to convert columns of values from Microsoft Excel into comma separated lists.
In this sixth video of the Xpdf series, we discuss and demonstrate the PDFtoPNG utility, which converts a multi-page PDF file to separate color, grayscale, or monochrome PNG files, creating one PNG file for each page in the PDF. It does this via a c…
- Document Management
- Document Imaging
- Printers and Scanners
- Images and Photos
- Adobe Acrobat
- Photos / Graphics Software, *Scripts, *batch, *PDF
Suggested Courses
Course of the Month11 days, 15 hours left to enroll
752 members asked questions and received personalized solutions in the past 7 days.
Join the community of 500,000 technology professionals and ask your questions.