Mac Indesign CS3 and Variable data.

[Shawn]

Steve Werner at Indesign Secrets did a series on data merge a while ago that I found really useful. Here are the links

InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Automating Data Handling
InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Data Merging - Part 2
InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Data Merging - Part 3


Shawn

[assinippi]

Twitch5253

If all you want to do is number tickets there is a simpler solution.m Download Easy Numbering 2.3 ($35). You can impose in application, create a pdf and then number them with lots of options. It creates a small pdf file compared to a data merge, and you don't have to create a data base for the numbers.

[kjacobson]

We do a lot of variable printing. We use XMPie, it will even impose for you so you can use 12x18 or what ever the largest sheet your digital press can run.

[Bowner]

We use HP Smartstream for all our variable needs.
You can download 100 days trial from here https://h30406.www3.hp.com/campaigns...ream/index.php
This thing has lots of potentials but some training is required.
However, if you have some free time to check this out, then you may be able to create a simple numbering without extra efforts.

[graficworx]

Once you get used to it, variable data in Indesign is a god send. You can use it to generate sales letters, customer followups, mass mailings for clients, just about anything you can think of. If your variable text needs to be perfectly in-line then you will need to use ID. If not, you could offset the master "blanks" and insert the text with an aftermarket program. We do this successfully on hundreds of thousands of sheets a month.

The problem with using ID directly is if your file is fairly complex your resulting job will be huge. You can get around this by doing a the jobs in batches.

The one thing to remember in creating your excel/csv file is your collumns need headers, so your csv file will look like this

first name, last name, street, city, state, zip
Ronald, McDonald, 101 Main St, Hilo, HI, 96720

this process sure beats a windmill for numbering or the need for a massive press with associative RIP software.

[graficworx]

Number Press is a great piece of software for doing large numbering jobs. You can even overlay numbers on top of a multipage PDF file, great for NCR forms.

Number Press - Fast, Easy Document Numbering with your Laser Printer!

[Mike Micelotti]

sure, there are other numbering software programs available but with mine you actually get to talk with a "real printer" (with over 30 years experience) that will walk you through the job and make sure that you get it out the door and make some money. that's the difference my friends.

QUALITYPRESSSOFTWARE.COM

[silurians]

Jecclr2003, data merge is the way to go for this job. If your digital press can run them single sided at the grammage you want then you can also do both sides manually. You do this by running all the odd pages first, flip, then send the evens. If you have a common front then you can send this separately.

For the data, youll need excel or neooffice. Open a new spreadsheet, delete sheets 2 and 3. Select all. Change the format to "text". This will honour whatever you type and not autocorrect numbers. In the first cell you type the name of the element that you wish to print, say "name". If you have the address in another location on your postcard, in the next cell to the right, type "address". Below these goes the actual data you wish to print; each address and name occupying its own cell. When all the data is in, save the file both as a spreadsheet and a csv file.

In indesign have all the art ready and have some dummy text for name and address how you want it to appear. Under Window > Automation > Data Merge, bring up the toolbar. From the side pullout select your data source: the csv file. With the name in indesign selected, double click the name in the data merge window. it will then look like this: <<name>>. Do the same for address. With the little preview ticked at the bottom you'll see how youre going. If the front is common to all cards, dont include this in the data document cos itll make it huge. Send the front through indesign with the same settings to avoid colour issues.

To create the 500 page doc, go to the top pull out, select "create merged document" and make them as single records. Let it run its course. If you have double spaces or other probs, use find and replace: this is the beauty of data merge over xmpie.

Away you go

[Stephen Marsh]

I have to agree with the previous posters - VDP is not just for mailing houses and is a competitive advantage to have as a prepress operator and for a printer or other service provider. Many printers have in-house artwork creation - it is not just enough to offer pre-press, a printer may also offer artwork or design services too.

Two big "flavour of the month" aspects of current printing sales are "Variable Data Printing" and "Web2Print". If one does not have W2P, then VDP can be used to streamline artwork creation in certain cases.

A regular job may be creating business cards for a corporate client. It could take a minute to setup each card, using copy/paste from the clients source file into InDesign. However, using DataMerge one can create hundreds of cards in a couple of minutes.

DataMerge requires the client to have their database setup correctly. We give advice on how to do this, and quote on the work being done from a "print ready" database - with the caution that there will be extra charges for having to monkey with the database if it does not meet our "print ready requirements".

My shop does not aggressively market VDP services (it is listed as a service however we don't chase this work), however we still seem to get at least one of these jobs each week. It could be a mailing job - or it could also be producing name tags for a conference or other event. We generally use the good old numbering machine to do numbering, however some jobs we have done numbering via VDP in a single print pass on our Xerox copier (rather than using the numbering machine in a second print pass).

I had to teach myself VDP with Adobe software - there are many resources freely available to learn this task. In the current market, it is a must have skill IMHO.

Stephen Marsh

[prepressguru]

Hey guys

Good thing I stumbled across this thread. I have a business card job with 250 names done in excel. So far data merge in Indesign is the way to go. But I have 1 issue. Some names have middle initials and most do not. I set up my data placements in ID with:

<<first name>>space<<middle>>space<<last>>.

This all works for the names with middle's but with the one's without I get 3 spaces, even when I use remove blank lines for empty fields. Anyone have a work around?

Thanks

p