3 Replies Latest reply on Aug 4, 2017 5:05 PM by patrickm32673193

    Data Merge has issues

    patrickm32673193 Level 1
    patrickm32673193 Aug 4, 2017 11:54 AM

      Hello InDesign Community.

       

      I've recently started using Data Merge function for InDesign and it's been working wonderfully, up until now. I'm not sure what's causing this, but the data is being not-merged or merged in the wrong places. It appears like the csv might be corrupted, however, I've spent hours troubleshooting the issue, including rebuilding the template, recreating the csv files, basically anything and everything. I'm starting to believe it's a glitch in the program.

       

      Please advise! I have files I can send over if required further clarification.

      1.JPG2.JPG3.JPG4.JPG

        • 1. Re: Data Merge has issues
          SJRiegel Adobe Community Professional & MVP
          SJRiegel Aug 4, 2017 12:41 PM (in response to patrickm32673193)

          I don't think your csv is corrupt, but I do think there is a problem with how it is built.

          Any paragraph returns within a cell will cause InDesign to see the start of new Record.

          The places where you have listings like

           

          94 pts Wine Advocate

          90 pts Wine Enthusiast

          90 puts Wine Spectator

           

          with a return after each within the same cell, it throws the whole thing off. Put some kind of placeholder symbol in the spreadsheet to indicate the returns, and then do find-and-replace to get the returns into the InDesign document later.

          2 people found this helpful
          • 2. Re: Data Merge has issues
            patrickm32673193 Level 1
            patrickm32673193 Aug 4, 2017 4:29 PM (in response to SJRiegel)

            I wish that was the case.  The "94 pts Wine Advocate" portion is its own data ( <<Proscore>> ) and is only separated by a space in the InDesign template. In the csv, there are no paragraph returns within any of the cells. I'm mainly concerned with the consistency of the information within the cells being inserted or replacing other data placeholders. It's strange because I've been duplicating the same csv and switching around the information for the last 5 projects and they've all been fine, except for this current one. If anyone has ANY direction on what I should do, please please help! 

             

            I'm starting to wonder, is it a cache or a memory related issue?

             

            Here is the csv in word form.

            5.JPG

            • 3. Re: Data Merge has issues
              patrickm32673193 Level 1
              patrickm32673193 Aug 4, 2017 5:05 PM (in response to SJRiegel)

              After further investigation, SJRiegel You are absolutely correct. The invisible Carriage Returns are near impossible to spot. A bit of advice, when using Google Sheets, you can:

               

              Ctrl F

              ... (for more options)

              search for "\r\n|\n|\r"

              Search using Reg expressions

              Replace with whatever.

               

              YT link below on how it's done.

              Remove Line Breaks in Google Spreadsheet - YouTube

               

              THANK YOU!!!!

              1 person found this helpful