• Avoid „combining cells“ – each data content has to be in its own data cell. Otherwise this WILL  cause unintended behaviour
• Format cells as text
• If you like to use MyDataMerge’s number formatting, format the cells as „number“ – other formats may cause unintended behaviour
• Colors, font size and other styling information will not be imported
• Formulas and other logic operations will not be imported – just the text content
• Line breaks will be imported/replaced as space character by default (you can change this in the import preferences)

To import Excel files, Microsoft Excel is required!

If you didn’t start it before running MyDataMerge, you will be presented this screen:

Click the “Detect Microsoft Excel” button to start the detection of Microsoft Excel. Once detected (or if you started it before running MyDataMerge) you will see this screen:

Drop your .xlsx file (note: .xls are not supported!) on the excel area [1] or load the file by clicking the folder button [2]. This will open the settings:

Here you can select the worksheet from which to import the data from [1]. MyDataMerge tries to detect the amount of records by scanning the file. Sometimes – even if cells look empty – they might contain space characters which causes the resulting amount of records [2] to be incorrect. Then (and only then) you can overwrite the total amount of records to import [3]. Note: The first row (with column labels) is NOT taken into account so record 1 starts in Excels row 2.

Once done, add a layout file, then you can import both files.

• Always expect long data. When preparing layouts for MyDataMerge, you have to add placeholders to text frames. Please make sure that text frames which contain placeholders are big enough to provide enough room for the data you want to merge in.
• Move unneeded stuff to master pages. Instead of keeping all items on the regular pages, move everything that’s does not need to be merged (like decoration, background images…) to the master page. For large databases, this will speed up the process a lot.
• Do not use styling options if every data record has the same styling. Apply styling in your layout document instead.
• Use locally installed fonts instead of auto downloading them from Adobe Cloud. Adobe Fonts can be installed locally as well in your Adobe Creative Cloud app. When loading them online, this can massively slow down the merge process or lead to errors.
• Scale images down. When merging thousands of data records its necessary to scale images down before the merge. No matter if the images are merged or part of the layout. This can save a lot of processing time.

This is the most effective approach to apply multiple records to one layout (with one or more pages). To tell MyDataMerge where your records should go in the layout you need to  create multiple groups of the same instance.

Example – Multiple business cards with front and rear side

You have a business card that you want to have 8 times on a sheet including their rear sides. First of all, layout one business card with all placeholders you need and group it. By grouping it, MyDataMerge knows now that all the placeholders inside the group belong together.

Next, duplicate (or copy/paste) the group to create another business card. Arrange it on your sheet in the order you want the data to be merged. This can be from left to right like in the below example [1 to 4] or right to left, or up to down …

Now on the next page you arrange groups of the rear sides of the business cards, but as the rear side is mirrored you need to start from right to left [1 to 4] with arranging groups:

Remember: The groups tell MyDataMerge which placeholders belong together and the order you arrange the copies with represents the order the records are merged.

Importing your layout is easy:

Open MyDataMerge, start a new project and drag and drop your .indd file on the INDD area [1] or select the file by clicking the folder button [2]

After adding a datasource you can import both files.

Most common issues that may arise

• If you have missing links or fonts, MyDataMerge will throw an error and ask you to fix this
• If you have no placeholders defined (surrounded by << >>), MyDataMerge will throw an error
• If you have auto-download fonts from Adobe Cloud enabled, MyDataMerge will throw an error – this is because InDesign loads these fonts asynchronously and doesn’t let developers (like us) check the loaded state of these fonts. You can bypass this issue by activating the fonts directly in the cloud (so they are always active)

If you want to export to JPEG files go to export > filetype and select the preferred filetype from the dropdown.

You can set a static filename in Export > Filetype > “Static filename” field.

With static filenames, every file will get the same name and a counting number will be attached. For example if you define static filename to be “mydatamerge” then files will be named like this:

• mydatamerge_1
• mydatamerge_2
• mydatamerge_3
• and so on

Please note that static filenames only allow a-z, 0-9, – and _ characters. Other characters will be removed or replaced.

GREP text actions allow you to search and replace specific strings matching custom search patterns with other strings or patterns AFTER the merge process is completed. They are applied to all documents generated.

Go to Export > Extras > GREP text

Here you can activate or deactivate your configured GREP text replacements. To edit them click on the pen icon of each row, to add new ones click on the gear icon in the bottom right. This will take you to the preferences where you can add new actions or delete existing ones (Note: Predefined actions cannot be deleted. They are flagged with [System] at the end of the name):

GREP text actions are stored locally on your machine. Only activated actions will be added to project files.