Indesign CS4 > Variable cell heights in Data Merge

[haildesign]

Hi all,
I am trying to setup a document in Indesign that formats a supplied Excel database. I can get all content to link and style correctly, however, each entry has a "description" field which varies in length (and therefore varies the height of that cell). I cannot get the "description" cell in the Indesign table to variable change height to fit the content.

I need to text box or cell to resize to fit content automatically for each entry as it creates the new merged document.

Currently, the "description" cell is set up as At Least 2mm Maximum 300mm.

Any advice?

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Is there another cell on the row with a fixed height? Note that the whole row needs to have a height defined as "at least" to make the row flexible.

 

[haildesign]

Hi Lukas, All cells are "At Least". On closer review, I think the table cells are resizing to fit content, but the Indesign Text Box is not. Ideally, I need content to flow like this:

LISTING
<name>
<phone>
<Description>

LISTING
<name>
<phone>
<Description>

etc.. for the whole document. I wanted to keep it linked to a DB so I can update the content in Excel later (and add additional content without having to re-design and shift multiple text boxes in Indesign.

Any ideas?

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Text frames do not automatically readjust. I do not see that there is any option besides using Java or some XML based workflow. You will not be able to achieve what you want with tables.

However, depending on the appearance you may be able to come very close by using Paragraph rules and/or underline in a creative way. (thinking that name and phone can be in paragraph syles and the description would get the default background of your text box. Adding keep functionality you can secure the structure by making each listing unbreakable)

DataMerge is worth looking into, it has other limitations, and uses tab delimited text.

There are a number of plugg ins that specialise in this kind of functions.

 

[c0d3gr1]

XMPie plug-in

XMPie plug-in

You can do variable tables with the XMPie plug-in too (uDirect Classic) and in the format you want. And if you have a PC you can link to Excel sheets as well.

Just letting you know. - deb
(www.xmpie.com)