How to use DATA MERGE in InDesign CC 2019

Data Merge is a brilliant time-saver feature in InDesign that allows you to automate and batch create variations on a layout. In this video, you will learn how to quickly generate multiple business cards with the names and details of each of the employees of a company using a text file and an Illustrator artwork.

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Use the Contents below to jump to a specific feature quickly:
CONTENTS:
0:00 Intro
2:05 Placing artwork to InDesign
2:40 Data Merge in InDesign
3:13 Create a Text file
4:29 Data Merge panel
6:12 Preview your data
6:50 Amend your design
8:46 Create the PDF
10:16 The best thing about Data Merge

BUSINESS CARD DESIGN with ILLUSTRATOR:

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[franktielemans]

Data merge saved me lots of time when I had to create 219 cards for boardgame It was a kind of trivial pursuit-like game with multiple choice questions...
The way I did it was: I created 2 answer fields (correct & wrong) exactly on top of eachother for each answer.
The excel file had 8 columns: question, answer1_correct, answer1_wrong, answer2_correct, answer2_wrong, answer3_correct, answer3_wrong, explaination.
When the first answer was correct, the good answer went in the answer1_correct column, answer1_wrong column stayed empty, the answer2_correct also stayed empty, answer2_wrong had the second (wrong) answer, and so on...
I created an excel file with some examples and I explained how it worked and when I received the excel file, it was like magic. 219 cards generated in 1 click.

[pavelalexandru]

Bro, you saved 10 hours of my time every 2 months BIG BIG LIKE!

[twinibini]

Just wanted to let you know your video was so helpful. My and my boss tried to figure out what’s wrong with importing excel sheet file to indesign program to make name tags and your step by step tutorial was SO HELPFUL thank you so much!!!

[MrPeterbuma]

Question, would you be able to custom the export of the merge to individual PDFs with a unique naming convention using text from your source file?

[ecmjr]

Thanks for the video! You just saved me hours of cutting and pasting. 44 business cards with 6 lines of data each in 15 mins instead of hours! Worthy of a click on the subscribe button!!

[denhamk]

I’m glad I watched till the end because I learned about “update” data source! Wow. Wish I had known about that two days ago! 😭😭

[Hubwood]

Can't believe nobody mentioned the Names you used yet. Brilliant ;)

[tomramzul]

Thank you, you save my life. I need to design a ticket with unique serial number and password. your video help! thank you so much. I pray for your health and well being and may you be granted with billions of dollar

[itsvisualtruth]

You sir have earned a sub, saved me so many hours filling in over 2000 nametags for my client

[FilmFactry]

Can you follow up on inserting JPGs? I have a project to print 150 School ID cards. Essentially what you show here but, I would also Like the Photos to Data Merge. Imaging the time savings. Doing 150 imports. Thanks Great series!

[ajcoopa]

Excellent tutorial. Very clear and easy to follow, and professionally presented. Going to save me a LOT of time.

[ellizjum]

Every 1, 5 years I have to use data merge and every time I stumble on this tutorial couse I can't remember how to do it. Thank you!

[dragon]

Martin is an excellent teacher... sharing info & enhancing our knowledge... So why the hell would some people give a thumbs down???

[nithin]

Hi, I'm Nithin from India, Your tutorial is really excellent and useful, A big thanks for your effort and the video.

[LatfyLatif]

Very clear instructions! Thank you for sharing!

[eugenioolazabal]

Excellent tutorial. I did it and it seems easy to follow along

[Reizeroworldnoyume]

Red dead Redemption 2's characters' name is a nice detail

[HctorVctor]

Wish there was a 10X like button for this useful video.

[ebicheesex]

hey, thank you for teaching this. i usually have a hard time learning, but your way really helped me. appreciate the help and the work you do

[maxjewel]

Fabulous tutorial. Thank you. One question, I have some addresses that have an address 2 (or even an address 3 line) and others to not. How do you make those extra
lines not show for those who don't have them?