Data Merge: Text Blocks 1

Mary,

I don't know of any way to merge text blocks other than Edit>Cut, Edit>Paste. Slow and tedious. Maybe one of the other gurus here will know of some shortcut that I am missing. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

Hi Mary,
I think I am having the same problem and hope to find an answer here. I've got a website catalogue data file in .csv format and am trying to make a print catalgoue in PageMaker 7 as well, using the same data.

I'm not very familiar with PM, but I've got the field names on the target publication OK, but when I merge, some text gets bunched up/overlaps because some records for say, description, have only a little data in them and some have lots.

I'm looking for a method of placing the field names relative to one another so each field will expand, as necessary.

I think this is the same question/problem as yours. As well as this problem, if you can suggest a text to read or some good general PM tutorials that would be great, since I know I have a lot to learn before I can get this project completed.

This website is the best resource I have found for locating tutorials on anything! Adobe.com also has a ton of tutorials inthe knowledgebase. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

Hi Diane,
I have found the Support by Product for PageMaker at adobe.com has some useful information as well as the forums there. Maybe you can find some more help there. I don't have the exact problem you do as I probably don't have as much text in the fields as you do. But being able to merge all the text blocks seems like the answer for both of us. At this stage unfortunately I think it has to be a manual process. Scripts might work but I don't know much about PageMaker scripts.

Thanks
Mary

Adobe forums have a PM FAQ, here is one that deals with data merge, maybe useful:
Scripts are another thing altogether, last wek or so I remember a thread that dealt with scripting. If you do a search on the Adobe Forums, you might find some useful items. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

I posted this same question/problem in the Adobe Pagemaker forum and the experts told me that the only way to do it is manually (copy and paste) ARGH!!! I had to manually do this to around 20 pages.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'm off to learn more. I find it a little silly that PM has this merge feature, but it's so useless. But at this stage I think I may not be using PageMaker for the catalogue since mine will be over 130 pages, two columns in each, and I'm in a hurry to have it complete. I've got the website almost ready and all the data is in the database, now for the print catalgoue. I was playing around with Word and it merges perfectly. I'll try the Place feature using the Word merged document(s), and if that doesn't do it, it will be time for serious alterntive choices. And I'll read up at Adobe and at the other suggestions.

Thanks again for all your help.

Diane

Diane,

If your catalogue is going to a service bureau for printing, I highly advise you to NOT use Word. Word is a word processor app, not a DTP app. You could run into some costs.

Word does not support CMYK, which is critical for prepress, so if you have any graphics in your pub, conversion by the service bureau will run into money. Your best bet, if you are intending to use word, is to talk to your service bureau and ask them their opinion between a publication from Word as opposed to one from a genuine DTP app.

PM is weak in many areas, basically due to it's age. Adone now has InDesign which addresses many of the issues, and is a professional app on par with Quark. They also have FrameMaker, which I believe may handle your sort of publication better than PM. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

Thanks for the warnings, Voil

I've talked to my client and we are putting the print catalgoue on hold and focusing on completing the on-line catalgoue, shopping cart and web site and will get back to the print catalgoue later - after suitable research or possibly hiring someone who can take the data from the site and easily incorporate it into a print catalgoue for us.

I looked at the specs of INDesgin but there was no mention of database or merging capabilities. I'll check out FrameMaker once I get some time.

I told my client that I just coudln't be working on the three things at once (and the print catalgoue isn't in my contract with her anyway and therefore not realy my problem).

Thanks again for your heop everyone.

Diane

Hi Diane,
I have found a solution to my problem that was suggested to me at the adobe forums. Maybe it will help you also.
I created a new document. Then I used "Place" to put all the "stories" from the original into the new one. When you select "Place" a list of all the records will appear, select all "stories" and they will come into the new document as one text block. I was told that they may well come in "out of order" since PM reads text blocks by page position, not by what you see on the page, but for me they all came in in the right order. This may fix the text flow for your fields if everything is in one text block.
One quirk I found was that if I tried to place the document as is, nothing appeared in the list of "stories" to be placed. However if I saved my document with the merged data as a PM 6.5 document, then when I tried to "Place" all the records appeared as stories. Not sure why and don't really mind since it works.
Good luck and let me know if this helps you at all.

Mary

Thanks so much Mary, your suggestions did it. I'm not completing this projet myself but your hints were the answer. Thanks again.

Diane