CHAPTER 3
58
PageMaker Plug-in Pack Features
About data merge
To create form letters, envelopes, or mailing labels,
you merge a data source file with a target
document.
The
data source file
contains the information that
varies in each iteration of the target document,
such as the names and addresses of the recipients
of a form letter.
A data source file is made up of
fields
and
records.
Fields
are groups of specific information, such as
company names or zip codes, whereas
records
are
rows of complete sets of information, such as a
company’s name, street address, city, state, and zip
code. A data source file can be a comma- (.csv) or
tab-delimited (.txt) file, meaning a data format in
which each piece of data is separated by a comma
or a tab respectively.
The
target document
is an InDesign document that
contains the data-field placeholders, plus all the
boilerplate material, text, and other items that
remain the same in each iteration of the merged
document.
The
merged document
is the resulting InDesign
document that contains the boilerplate
information from the target document, repeated
as many times as it takes to accommodate each
record from the data source.
Data merge
A.
Data source file
B.
Target document
C.
Merged document
Understanding the data merge workflow
Follow these basic steps to merge data. Each step is
described in detail in the sections that follow.
1
Make plans to determine which data fields
you’ll be using in your source and target
documents. (See “Planning a data merge” on
page 59.)
2
Save the data source file—usually a spreadsheet
or database file—as a comma-delimited (.csv) or
tab-delimited (.txt) text file. (See “Working with
data source files” on page 59.)
3
Create a target document that includes text and
other items that remain the same in each version of
the target document. (See “Setting up the target
document” on page 60.)
A
B
C
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