4 Replies Latest reply: Jan 7, 2010 8:45 AM by linziloop RSS

    Placing and linking excel tables - i need help!

    linziloop Community Member

      Hi there,

       

      I'm hoping someone on here has done a lot with, or just knows a lot about placing excel documents into indesign! I'll try to explain this as simply as possible...

       

      I'm using CS3 on a Mac Pro, OSX 10.5.8

       

      I am doing a price guide for work. I have converted it from Quark to InDesign in the hope that the option to place excel files into it will make our lives a whole lot easier.

       

      Throughout the document the tables a styled in a very specfic way. They have varying amounts of columns and rows. The excel sheet has the product specification headings only once at the top, and then simply lists the products below. I have been simply placing a cell range into InDesign, changing the styling of the table, and then inserting the product specifcation headings by inserting an extra row at the top of the table, copying from a pre-made set, and pasting in.

       

      However, when the table is updated in excel and i relink it, all my styling is lost. This also loses my product specification headings. Now while i could select al the tables and re-apply the styling, re-putting the product specification headings back into 100's of tables is looking quite the daunting task. Especially since i am not likely to know what has been changed in the excel file (and so will have to update all tables), and inserting the product specification headings into the excel file is apparently not going to be done (for reasons outside of my control).

       

      So i guess basically i would like to know if there is any way at all possible for InDesign to link to the excel file without all my table styling being lost? I can't do the styling in excel....it just doesn't have the same capabilites and i have to keep to a corporate style. My biggest problem is it deleting the heading i have had to manually put in, and i don't want to make these a separate table - it could get quite messy, things will be a pain the line up - we're talking 100's of tables...

       

      I'd just like it to update the numbers without anything else budging - is that so much to ask!?

       

      I hope that makes sense, i am happy to provide any other information you may need to help me out!

       

      Any table placing pros out there!?