Adobe InDesign CC 2015 - Manual (Page 633)

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Automation
Last updated 6/6/2015
2 Place the insertion point in the text frame where you want the field placeholder to appear, or select the text you want
to replace.
3 To insert a field placeholder, do one of the following:
• Click a field in the Data Merge panel list.
• Drag a field name from the Data Merge panel list, and drop it onto the text frame to add the placeholder. If you
drag a text field onto an empty frame, the empty frame becomes a text frame.
Text field placeholders appear in the target application within double angle brackets (such as <>) using the
current formatting attributes (such as font and size).
Note: You cannot create a valid field by simply typing the field name or editing an existing field. You must insert it from
the Data Merge panel.
Insert an image data field in the target document
• To insert a new inline graphic placeholder, drag an image field onto a text frame, or place the insertion point in a
text frame and click the image field.
• To insert a new floating graphic, drag an image field onto an empty frame or existing graphics frame. If you drag an
image field onto an empty frame, the empty frame becomes a graphics frame.
• To insert a field into grouped items, table cells, or nested items, drag the image field onto the target.
Image field placeholders appear as frames containing the field name.
Adding data field placeholders to master pages
If you insert data field placeholders on master pages, you have advantages that are not available when you insert
placeholders on document pages:
• The resulting merged document contains the original placeholders on its master pages and includes the merged
results on document pages as overridden master page items.
• The merged document maintains a connection to the data source, so if records in the data source are modified, you
can update the merged document contents by choosing Update Content In Data Fields. This option is especially
helpful if you change the layout in the merged document and then need to add new data from the data source.
• The settings in the Create Merged Document dialog box are the same as those used in the target document, so you
can quickly re-create the current document with the same appearance. You can also use these shared settings to
create an identical document with a different data source, or create a new document with a slightly modified layout.
Note: If you’re adding data fields to a master page, make sure that the text frame containing the data fields allows master
item overrides. Select the text frame on the master page and choose Allow Master Item Overrides On Selection from the
Pages panel menu. If this option is not selected, the data will not be merged. (See
Create masters .)
You cannot place data fields on both master pages and document pages. To merge properly, you must apply a master
containing data fields to the first page of the document.
Note: If an error message indicates that InDesign cannot merge the document because no placeholders are present, you may
have added the placeholders to the left master page in a one-page document. Page 1 is based on the right master page, so
add the placeholders to the right master page.
Update, remove, or replace data source files
• To update data source files, edit and save the data source file in comma- or tab-delimited format, and then choose
Update Data Source from the Data Merge panel.