It fit in the upper-left grid square that we created in step 2. (There are some special instructions for working with graphics, which we describe in the next section.) We added a single frame for the first instance of the mailing label (Figure 15-19). Create placeholder frames for text and graphics by using the Type tool for type and the Rectangle Frame tool for graphics. The Create Guides dialog box can be used to create a page grid.Ĭreate text and graphic frame placeholders. (You could also place data-field placeholders on a master page, but we didn't choose to do that.)įigure 15-18. 25-inch gutter between columns, and clicked OK to add guides to our document page (Figure 15-18). We decided on a 2 x 7 array of labels, with a. Because we wanted to place multiple mailing labels on a page, we found it helpful to use the Layout > Create Guides feature to preview how many labels we wanted to place on a page. (Optional) Use guides to make a grid for multiple records on a page. Create a new InDesign document that will contain any boilerplate information and data-field placeholders. Data-source file for a mailing list.Ĭreate the target document. We started with a Word file with tabs between the fields (Figure 15-17).įigure 15-17. Open your data-source file and save it, if necessary, into a tab- or comma-delimited format.
Let's create a mailing list as a simple example of a data merge.Įxamine your data-source document. The merged document is the InDesign document that contains the boilerplate information, repeated as many times as it takes to accommodate each record selected from the data source. It may also contain other boilerplate informationfor example, the text in a merged letterthat remains the same in each iteration of the data merge. Here are two more bits of terminology: The InDesign document that contains data-field placeholders is called the target document. A record is the complete set of fields that extend across a row of the data: Each field is separated with a tab or comma character, and each record is ended with a return character.
#Indesign data merge multiple master pages zip
A field is a category of informationfor example, an address or a zip code. If you're not familiar with data sources, it's helpful to understand their language: A datasource file (which contains the structured information of a database or spreadsheet) is made up of fields and records. You can, of course, do a mail merge in Word, but in InDesign, you have access to all its typographic refinements. But you have a wide range of sources: Any data source that can create comma- or tab-delimited text is fair game (including Excel spreadsheets, database files, or Microsoft Word documents with tabbed text). The data for the personalization comes from the structured information in a database.
InDesign also has its own unique approach to automation: It can create documents which have personalized, or variable, informationsuch as business cards, mailing labels, form letters, even simple catalogs.
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