Adobe InDesign CS5 - Manual (Page 658)

652 USING INDESIGN
Automation
Last updated 11/16/2011
Data merge
A. Data source file B. Target document C. Merged document
Basic steps for merging data
1. Make plans to determine which data fields you’ll be using in your source and target documents.
Determine how you want the final document to look, so that you know which fields are necessary to accomplish the
merge. For example, if you are creating a postcard that will be mailed to customers, you might want to use the following
data fields:
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Your spreadsheet or database might look like this:
Sample data file
2. Save the data source file—usually a spreadsheet or database file—as a comma-delimited (.csv) or tab-
delimited (.txt) text file.
Make sure that your data source file is structured in such a way that you can include the appropriate fields in your
target document. For example, the top row of a spreadsheet should contain the field names that you’ll use in the target
document, such as “Company” and “Address.”
For more information, see “ About data source files ” on page 653.
3. Create a target document that includes text and other items that remain the same in each version of the target
document.
For more information, see “ About target documents ” on page 654.
4. Select the data source using the Data Merge panel.
For more information, see “ Select a data source ” on page 654.
A
B
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