Categorized data Merge

[saule]

Hello,

Is it possible to merge categorized data in inDesign CD2?

I have about 5000 items in 50 categories. I want to create a catalog with auto merge, but I would like that each category would have different background color.
Also, it is possible to insert a page breaks after each category?

Thanks

 

[jmgalvin]

Without knowing how the origianl data is formatted, it's kind of hard to give you any hard and fast advice.

First page breaks - make sure that you ahve a master text frame for your document and that you have more pages than you'll actually need because you don't want to run short.

If you bring in all the stuff you can place the text cursor at the beginning of a new category and go to Type menu/insert break characther/page break. That will move the category to the next page.

Background colors (for an entire page) can be done by making a master frame with a color and applying it to the necessary pages.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[saule]

Thanks for the fast reply.

The original data is formatted like this in excel:
Columns: category, description, itemcode.
I then save as .csv.
In inDesign I create 3 text fields: one for category, one for description, one for itemcode.
I merge data as multiple record layout.
I would like to visually distinguish somehow between categories.
The only thing I came up is to create extra field for image, assign and merge a different image for each category.

 

[MarcusStringer]

Under Window>Automation>Data Merge.

http://www.digitalmediadesigner.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=27902-1

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au