Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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  • 2019-10-02 at 9:39 am #10278
    frankdesign
    Customer

    Hi

    I have a 20 page InDesign document with about 1500 data merge fields. Rather than creating a single Excel file with 1500 columns, is it possible with this software to define multiple datasources, so I could have one Excel file per page in the InDesign file (so each Excel file would have about 75 columns each)? Then when I run the Data Merge, I would like to end up with individual 20 page InDesign files – one for each data set.

    Thanks

    F

     

     

    2019-10-02 at 9:45 am #10279
    Pat
    Staff

    Hi Frank and welcome to the forum. I yet don’t get your usecase exactly.
    You have a single indesign file with 20 pages. Each page has 75 different merge fields. So you have 1500 DIFFERENT merge fields in total (which would lead to 1500 columns)

    Is that correct?

    Official MyDataMerge Team

    2019-10-02 at 9:49 am #10280
    frankdesign
    Customer

    Yes that is correct. I’m trying to avoid the complexity of an Excel file with 1500 columns. Just wondering if I can use use multiple datasources to allow me to divide up the Excel files into smaller files (or sheets)?

    2019-10-02 at 9:57 am #10281
    Pat
    Staff

    This is a very interesting case.
    Yet its not possible cause of the different fields.

    You could split the 20 page document to single pages so that you have
    – 1. page, 1. excel
    – 2. page, 2. excel
    And so on.
    Then you have 20 projects you can save and reuse with new data at anytime. Each with a layout containing 1 page and an excel file.

    This setup will take round about 10 minutes if the fields in your layout match the wording of your excel columns (autolink feature)

    Pat

    Official MyDataMerge Team

    2019-10-02 at 10:00 am #10282
    Pat
    Staff

    Side note: we have batch processing on our roadmap so in future you could process these 20 projects with a few clicks

    Official MyDataMerge Team

    2019-10-02 at 10:03 am #10283
    frankdesign
    Customer

    Yes, I had the thought of that option, but I will end up with a lots of individual files that need to be merged back together. The data merge will have about 500 rows, so by any chance would you be aware of any scripts or automatic process to merge these files back into a single document per row of the data merge? The final output needs to be PDF, although I would be happy with ending up with merged InDesign files.

    2019-10-02 at 10:12 am #10284
    Pat
    Staff

    Without using tools i would…

    Case indesign:
    Create a book file and just add all indesign files so page numbering (if existant) will be created in aflow.
    Then export the book to one odf.
    Done with a few clicks. Once the indesign files are overwritten by newly merged files the book can update itself

    Case PDF:
    Open adobe acrobat (not reader) if available.
    Just add the files after the last page (few clicks, select all files at once). Just note that page numbering wont change in that case

    Official MyDataMerge Team

    2019-10-02 at 10:27 am #10285
    Pat
    Staff

    Side note 2: its recommended to split large files in smaller pieces. InDesign gets really slow with huge loads of pages.

    Using a book file is the best way to do that

    Official MyDataMerge Team

    2019-10-02 at 10:47 am #10286
    frankdesign
    Customer

    Thanks.

    On a completely side issue, is your licensing per seat or per site? We have two InDesign users here, so would I need to purchase 1 licence or 2 licences?

    2019-10-02 at 11:17 am #10287
    Pat
    Staff

    Currently the license is per machine.
    But in one of the next major updates we’ll change our license provider and the license can be used on two machines (like adobe cloud).

    If you purchase a license now you will be able to use it on two machines after that update. Pricing wont change.

    Official MyDataMerge Team

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