Data merging with InDesign - how it works

You save a lot of work and time when you use data merging in InDesign. In this practical tip, we will show you how easy it is.

Create data record - so it'll work

Data merging with InDesign means that you connect a target file, such as business cards, to a record. First you need to create a record:

You can do this with any spreadsheet program such as Excel or OpenOffice.
The data record must be such that the individual information such as surname, first name, street, postcode, town are in the first line. Below this are the respective data records, i.e. first names, last names etc.
When creating the data record, you must always use the tab key within one line to go to the next field. This is the only way InDesign can later recognize that it is a new feature.
When the data set is finished, save it as a TXT file. You must select "Tab-separated" or "Tab-separated text". Use OpenOffice, save as "Text CSV (.csv)", which is nothing more than a text file. Then select "Tabulator" in the pull-down menu under "Field separator". You can safely click away any warnings. You can then simply change the extension to "txt" for the saved file.
Now you have to close this so that the data record can later be merged in InDesign.

Now start InDesign and open the already prepared layout.
Via the menu "Window -> Utilities -> Data Merge" you reach the dialog window of the data merge.
If you click on the small arrow symbol at the top right, the context menu opens. Here you select "Select data source" and then the previously created data record.
Now it is important to assign the headers defined in the data record to the InDesign document. To do this, use the text tool to select the field in your InDesign document and then click the corresponding button in the "Data merge" window, for example "First name" in InDesign and "First name" in the data merge.
Repeat step 4 for all defined headers. Then select "Create merged document" in the data merging window and confirm with "OK".

By the way, since CS6 you can create an interactive PDF in InDesign.