Linking or referencing text through document, Auto Find and Replace?

[smithgroupla]

Hi All,  I'm trying to create a text document (a contract for services) in InDesign (CS6).  I want to be able to create a place holder in certain areas that change from project to project and be able to have them filled out automatically by filling out some text elsewhere on the document.  For example, I want to be able to fill in X, Y and Z below to have it automatically filled in the paragraph below.

XX: New Single Family Home

YY: $20,000 (Twenty Thousand Dollars)

ZZ: 6 weeks

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Smith,

Thank for contacting our office for your "XX" project.  Based on this scope of work, I propose a fee of "YY" and a timeframe of "ZZ".  Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to working with you soon.

I figured I would use the last page of InDesign to setup a series of AA, BB, CC .... XX, YY, ZZ, AAA, BBB, CCC ... etc. that I would fill in and it would automatically populate the rest of the contract before.  The easiest way would be to do find and replace but I don't want to do that because I have somewhere close to 40-50 occurences of these reference type lines.

I would greatly appreciate a response. Thank you all in advance.

[tpk1982]

Try Datamerge option

[smithgroupla]

Thanks TPK but can you recommend a good youtube tutorial on how to play around with datamerge?  The tutorials I've viewed are very simple and just show how to copy a name over a number of certificates or mailers.

Also, I tried to a simple data merge and kept getting the following error.

"The data source cannot be opened. Confirm that the file exists and that you have rights to open it, then choose the Select Data Source command again."

Any ideas?

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Cross-References!

(^/)

[smithgroupla]

Thanks Obi but I'm not trying to point someone in another area, I want to fill in the blanks in the text document but filling it out elsewhere.  Please take another look at my original post.  Thank you!

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Yes, DataMerge is your answer with many sources (database) for serial publishing. If you just need a reference to be the same in only one document, then you can use Variables. A Variable can be changed so it will change everywhere where you used the variable. See Adobe InDesign Help for more info.

[Barb Binder]

Are you trying to change the values in one file at a time? Variables are so much simpler that data merge.

Merge data to create form letters, envelopes, or mailing labels in Adobe InDesign

To create form letters, envelopes, or mailing labels, you merge a data source file with a target document. Data merge is also referred to as mail merge.

vs

Create and edit text variables in InDesign

A text variable is an item you insert in your document that varies according to the context.

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Hi Barb,

Variables can't be cut in 2-lines text!

(^/)

[Barb Binder]

I see your point, Obi-Wan. I'm going to revise my answer and go with... wait for it... X-refs!

Otherwise, smithgroupla​, you are going to have some very ragged right edges because the text variables won't break across lines, as X-references do.