Since the printing factory can print the serial number automatically, in the 2 1 century, under the condition of advanced technology, this repetitive machine-side work without mental effort can already be automated.
In this article, we will introduce the following advanced automatic typesetting usage of InDesign. Since many designers don't use InDesign, the next article will introduce the advanced automatic typesetting usage of Illustrator.
Advanced advanced tutorial, non-zero basic introductory tutorial. However, as long as you are familiar with the interface and tools of InDesign, you can use the following zero-based advanced skills to complete automatic typesetting.
Let's start with a comprehensive case.
Whether it is InDesign or illustrator, if you want to use these advanced skills of automatic typesetting, you need the close cooperation of EXCEL tables. EXCEL tables are the source. We just need to throw the processed data into the template of InDesign.
Create the data fields you need. take for example
Just tell InDesign the storage path of your picture and you can read it. Therefore, you should tell InDesign the correct path of the picture in a format that it can read. The data domain name of the picture needs to be @, which means that this column of data needs to be read in picture format.
You can't directly enter @ pictures in EXCEL, which will warn you that the function is invalid, so you need to enter the symbol @ and add an @ before it.
MAC: Mac HD: User: Name: Photo: BillTucker.jpg.
WIN:C:\ photos \BillTucker.jpg
You can put a picture in InDesign, click the picture, and then copy the path of the picture in the link information.
There will be two problems here. One is that once the picture is moved and edited again, InDesign can't find the position of the moved picture and needs to repeat the above process again, thus losing the meaning of automatic typesetting. Secondly, if there are hundreds or thousands of photos, it takes time to copy and paste them one by one. Therefore, we need to use the merge function of EXCEL.
Connection function
Through the "merge function", you can control the quantity and variables and realize semi-automation. The name of the picture should still be named by yourself! For example, here "name" is a variable, and "image path prefix" and "image format suffix" are quantitative. We only need to tell Excel how to operate through the CONCATENATE function, and Excel will write the image path we need according to the formula.
* Tip: Pay attention to the suffix of the unified picture. For example, Jpg and. Jpeg is different. Jpg or. Jpeg is used uniformly.
InDesign only recognizes UNICODE formats. UNICODE is an international character encoding. Convert the processed EXCEL file into Unicode text format that InDesign can read.
The computer originally used ASCII code, that is, binary code, which stipulated the 128 character code. Because the character 128 cannot be covered in languages other than English, such as Chinese, the common Chinese code GB23 12 appears. As a result, different languages in the world have different character languages, so UNICODE appeared. UTF-8 and UTF- 16 are the most commonly used implementation forms.
In Mac OS system, Excel can choose to save as CSV UTF-8 (comma separated. CSV) or *UTF- 16 UNICODE (. txt)。 Suggested text format. Txt, and the Chinese characters in the classified column may be garbled. csv。
Menu/Window/Utility/Data Merge
In the data merge window, click the small icon in the upper right corner. Select a data source. If the file is in Unicode format, then InDesign can read it, and there may be two common error situations.
One is the error of EXCEL content. You need to check whether there are empty columns in the form and delete them.
One is an EXCEL file error. It's just that the save format is wrong. Check that it is saved in the correct Unicode format.
This is the last page of the presentation. In fact, "determining the layout" should be the first and most important step. This is the last step as a tutorial.
Match data fields with template blocks. You can see the effect through the preview.
You can select "Single Record" or "Multiple Records" in the content placement options.
"Single record" is suitable for multi-data output of a picture template, and "Multi-record" is suitable for writing multiple pieces of data in a page. We choose "multiple records" here.
This is the interface after the data record is written. You can see that each data template has no spaces directly.
You can also adjust various spaces in multiple recording pages.
You can adjust the way the picture is filled in the options.
When all is done, just "create a merged document".
* Tip: A document can only have one "multiple records". Therefore, if there are more than two "multiple records" from different data sources in a document, you need to create a new document to write data, and then copy and paste it.
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Send the most sincere care.