Adobe InDesign - Manual (Page 811)

To the top
Example of comma-delimited data source file
Name,Company Name,State
Bill Tucker,CoreVent Labs,Nevada
Dat Nguyen,"Brady, Hunt, and Baxter, Inc",Delaware
Maria Ruiz,"Brinquist Enterprises, Inc.",California
If you want to include a comma or quotation mark in a comma-delimited file, enclose the text within quotation marks, such as “Brady, Hunt, and
Baxter, Inc.”. If you do not include the quotation marks, each name is treated as a separate field.
You cannot insert a line break within a field in the data source file. If it’s necessary to split a field across different lines, create two different fields,
such as <> and <>.
You can choose Remove Blank Lines For Empty Fields when merging the document to prevent empty lines. However, if any characters, including
spaces, appear on the line, the line is not deleted.
Add image fields in the data source file
By adding image fields to the data source file, you can allow a different image to appear on each merged record. For example, when you merge
documents that include information from various companies, you may want to include an image of each company’s logo as part of the merge.
1. Open the data source file.
2. At the beginning of the data field name, type an “at” symbol (@) to insert text or paths that refer to image files.
The @ symbol is required only in the first line; subsequent lines should include the image paths. Paths, which are case-sensitive, must
follow the naming conventions of the operating system in which they’re stored.
If you get an error message when you type the @ symbol at the beginning of the field, type an apostrophe (') before the @ symbol (such
as '@Photos) to validate the function. Some applications, such as Microsoft Excel, reserve the @ symbol for functions.
(Windows) Example of image references in data source file
Name Age @Photos
Bill Tucker 36 C:\Photos\BillTucker.jpg
Dat Nguyen 53 C:\MyDocuments\dat.gif
Maria Ruiz 26 C:\Photos\Ruiz.psd
(Mac OS) Example of image references in data source file
Name Age @Photos
Bill Tucker 36 Mac HD:Photos:BillTucker.jpg
Dat Nguyen 53 Desktop:Family:dat.gif
Maria Ruiz 26 Mac HD:Photos:Ruiz.psd
You can use InDesign to view the path of an image on your operating system. Insert an image in an InDesign document, and then use the
Links panel to view the image’s location. With the image selected, choose Copy Info > Copy Full Path from the Links panel menu. You may
need to edit the path after you paste it in your data source. This technique is especially useful for images on a server.
806