Adobe InDesign CS5 - Manual (Page 664)

658 USING INDESIGN
Automation
Last updated 11/16/2011
4 Change the content placement options. (See “ Content placement options ” on page 659.)
5 Click OK.
Merge records
After you format the target document and insert fields from the data source file, you’re ready to officially merge the
information from the data source with the target document. You can merge the records to another InDesign document
or directly to PDF. When you merge, InDesign creates a new document or PDF based on the target document, and
replaces the fields in the target document with the appropriate information from the data source file.
When you merge a document that includes data field placeholders on master pages, those master page items will be
copied into the master pages in the newly generated document.
Merge single or multiple records
1 With the target document open, do one of the following:
• Choose Create Merged Document from the Data Merge panel menu, or click the Create Merged Document
button
.
• Choose Export To PDF from the Data Merge panel menu.
2 On the Records tab, for Records To Merge, select All Records to merge all the records in the data source file, select
Single Record to merge a specific record, or specify a Range of records to merge.
3 For Records Per Document Page, do one of the following:
• Choose Single Record so that each record starts at the top of the next page.
• Choose Multiple Records to create more than one record per page. (For example, to print mailing labels.)
You cannot merge multiple records if the data fields appear on a document page in a document with multiple pages,
or if data fields appear on multiple master pages.
4 Select Generate Overset Text Report With Document Creation to automatically open a report that tracks overset
conditions created during the merge of the data into the InDesign document. (See “ Overset text reports ” on
page 659.)
5 Select Alert When Images Are Missing to display a missing link alert when one or more images are not available.
6 If you selected Multiple Records on the Records tab, click the Multiple Record Layout tab, and specify the following:
• For Margins, type values to specify the distance between margin guides and each edge of the page.
• For Layout Of Records, select either Rows First or Columns First, and then specify the spacing between the columns
and rows.
7 If you selected Multiple Records, select Preview Multiple Record Layout to review changes made in the Create
Merge Records dialog box. You can click the Page buttons to navigate the records.
8 Click the Options tab and specify the placement options. (See “ Content placement options ” on page 659.)
9 When you’re finished, click OK.
10 If you’re exporting directly to PDF, specify PDF options, and click Export. Then specify the filename and location,
and click Save. (See “ Adobe PDF options ” on page 506.)
If the data source file points to any unsupported file formats or images that are not available, you may need to correct
the data source file to point to a supported file, correct the path to any missing file, or simply move the file to the correct
folder so that InDesign can find it and place it.