Adobe InDesign - Manual (Page 809)

Data merge
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About data merge
Basic steps for merging data
About data source files
Add image fields in the data source file
About target documents
Select a data source
Insert data fields
Adding data field placeholders to master pages
Update, remove, or replace data source files
Preview records in the target document
Switching preview on or off
Edit data field placeholders
Set content placement options
Merge records
Update data fields
Overset text reports
Content placement options
About data merge
To create form letters, envelopes, or mailing labels, you merge a data source file with a target document. Data merge is also referred to as mail
merge.
The data source file contains the information that varies in each iteration of the target document, such as the names and addresses of the
recipients of a form letter. A data source file is made up of fields and records.Fields are groups of specific information, such as company names or
postal codes, whereas records are rows of complete sets of information, such as a company’s name, street address, city, state, and postal code. A
data source file can be a comma-delimited file (.csv) or a tab-delimited (.txt) file in which each piece of data is separated by a comma or a tab,
respectively.
The target document is an InDesign document that contains the data-field placeholders, plus all the boilerplate material, text, and other items that
remain the same in each iteration of the merged document.
The merged document is the resulting InDesign document that contains the boilerplate information from the target document, repeated as many
times as it takes to accommodate each record from the data source.
Data merge
A. Data source file B. Target document C. Merged document
Basic steps for merging data
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