InDesign CC Data Merge and Variable Data Printing

From sim­ple form let­ters and mail­ing labels to per­son­al­ized chil­dren’s books and ebooks, from cat­a­logs to year­books, from batch-created busi­ness cards to direct mail­ers that make recip­i­ents’ names and past pur­chas­es part of the art­work, InDesign’s Data Merge lets you and your clients eas­i­ly incor­po­rate Variable Data Printing (VDP), auto­mat­ed doc­u­ment gen­er­a­tion from InDesign tem­plates, and per­son­al­iza­tion into your designs. Personalized mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als gen­er­ate a 36% high­er response rate and whop­ping 48% increase in repeat orders non-personalized mate­ri­als gen­er­ate. This course will help you mas­ter the pow­er of data merge in InDesign so you can help your clients get those high­er response rates, increased repeat orders, and amaz­ing 31% high­er revenue.

3 Powerful Avenues Open Up with Data Merge

InDesign’s Data Merge fea­tures open three avenues that are closed off to you with­out data merge:

  1. Personalized, vari­able data pub­lish­ing of single-page, multi-page, and long doc­u­ment projects;
  2. Automatic and semi-automatic gen­er­a­tion of repetitively-formatted con­tent in one doc­u­ment or book, and;
  3. Database-driven and database-updatable publications.

Watch Excerpts From the Course

Course Contents

Module 1: Planning for Data Merge and Variable Data Printing

InDesign’s Data Merge helps you cre­ate data-driven, vari­able data pub­li­ca­tions and designs. This mod­ule explains the con­cepts and ter­mi­nol­o­gy you’ll need to under­stand, and then helps you pre­pare data sources for use in Data Merge.

  1. Learning Data Merge Terminology
  2. Understanding Data Merge
  3. Preparing Data Sources

Module 2: Creating Data Merge Projects

Now that you’ve got your data sources pre­pared and have a con­cep­tu­al under­stand­ing of vari­able data pub­lish­ing, it’s time to go hands-on and turn those con­cepts into com­plet­ed projects. This mod­ule will teach you not just the fun­da­men­tals of VDP with data merge. By the end of it, you’ll be able to cre­ate, from start to fin­ish, the types of projects that rep­re­sent 90 per­cent of all data merge use.

  1. Preparing a Form Letter Data Merge
  2. Generating Form Letters
  3. Removing Blank Lines Made by Empty Fields
  4. Preparing to Merge Multiple Records Per Page
  5. Merging Multiple Records Per Page
  6. Working with Multiple Records Per Page
  7. Building Multi-Page Variable Text Publications
  8. Getting Creative with Variable Text

Module 3: Adding Variable Images in Data Merge

Now that you’ve got the hang of using Data Merge for vari­able text, adding vari­able images to your reper­toire will open up a wide new world of vari­able data pub­lish­ing and con­tent cus­tomiza­tion and personalization.

  1. Preparing the Data Source for Images
  2. Adding Images to the Data Source
  3. Adding Variable Images to the Template
  4. Working with Merged Placeholders in Overset Text
  5. Auto-Fitting Images During Merge

Module 4: Mastering Data Merge and Variable Data Projects

At this point in the course you know every­thing you need to know, can DO every­thing you need to do, to pro­duce 99% of the vari­able data pub­lish­ing projects pos­si­ble with InDesign. This mod­ule will get you across the fin­ish line to mas­tery by prepar­ing you for that remain­ing 1% of InDesign VDP projects.

  1. Using Advanced Image Auto-Fitting
  2. Automatically Preventing Overset Text
  3. Anchoring Objects to Merged Text
  4. Saving Costs on VDP
  5. Updating Data After Merging With and Without XML
  6. Adding Variable QR Codes with Enhanced Data Merge
  7. Creating a Yearbook with Inline Text and Images
  8. Using Data Merge to Populate Non-VDP Documents
  9. Next Steps