Adobe 17510676 User Guide - Page 62
About data merge, Understanding the data merge workflow, as many times as it takes to accommodate each
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58 CHAPTER 3 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. A B , Adobe Systems, Inc. 345 Park Avenue C San Jose, CA 95110 dotPS Document Production Services 6365 Santana Row San Diego, CA 92110 Empowered Writing 17404 NE 25th Street Vancouver, WA 98684 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.)