InDesign & Excel... Table importing question.

[creativecenter]

Hi there, I'm responsible for publishing a monthly newsletter that uses data from a table in excel as a part of the content. I have to copy and paste the information from each cell into a new table in InDesign every month. This doesn't seem to be the best way to go about getting the data into a formatted table (some bold text, some big, some small, various BG colors, etc.) there are quite a few cells...

Is there any way to work around this? Perhaps though a script? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much. /emoticons/ibf-iamstupid.gif

[~Digital_E.V.O~]

I know an excellent technique in QUARRRKKKK.. But you are using ID. I could possibly do it using a similar technique. Can you post a small sample, and I will see if I can figure out a method in ID. The one drawback is that I am working (Quark environment), but when I go home to watch my new Futurama® DVD Vol.4, I could possibly... I am sure there is an easier way, but I learned this technique years ago. I used to format thousands of records in 2 hours with little editing, while others took 2 days or more. I need to see what you are working with to write the steps....

stefanTHOMASisaia

[creativecenter]

Thanks for your help!! Here is a sample pdf of the Indesign table and the Excel file. I want to keep the style/format of the InDesign table, but just import the next month's data.



Thanks!

[creativecenter]

oops, I guess you cant attach an Excel file, so here is a pdf of the excel file...

[~Digital_E.V.O~]

Right now I am in the Quark environment, others call it work. But I will tonight if I can come up with a system.

stefanTHOMASisaia

[Tyger]

I just finished a catalogue based on info on an excel spread sheet and ran into the same problem. However I found a way! I'm not sure right now 'cause i don't have ID here at work but i'll double check when i get home. I think what i did was 'place' the actual file in ID. So try to go under file, choose place, then adjust the table accordingly. I know you can import excel files in ID cause i've done it. But as i said i have to check later but try this. It's either import or place.

Let me know if that helps.

http://www.geocities.com/angelvex/tygsig.jpg

[uncle carbunkle]

i'm currently having the same problem. client seems to think that it's a version incompatibility between id & excel. any thoughts?

::just a feeling::</font>

[~Digital_E.V.O~]

lol.. show's you how much I know.
Tyger is correct. Placement is possible.
And you can format the cells accordingly by highlighting multiple cells.

If {you can do it, that is keep the formatting,}
then {I am obsolete.}
else
I have a way to do it.
End If

Or make a PDF of the sheet, especially since I don't see any graphics.

stefanTHOMASisaia

Post Edited (~Digital_E.V.O~) : 2/4/2005 12:20:49 AM GMT

[Tyger]

just confirming that it works. This will save you loads of time. It also copies over the cells so you could modify it as desired.

http://www.geocities.com/angelvex/tygsig.jpg

[Foxsake]

Creative Centre Designer, Id be interested to hear of your progress on you Indesign / Excel job.. im about to undertake a similar job and found this forum helpful through almighty Google. My job involves removing a lot of the columns from excel to merge the rows into one or two Indesign table cells.. any thoughts??

[uncle carbunkle]

oh for foxsake. hahaha.

::just a feeling::</font>

[Tyger]

lol@unc!

Foxsake (i luv that name!), what exactly do you want to do? if anything i think your safest bet is to 'import' or i should 'place' the the Excel Document in Indesign. There you could manipulate the tables in any way you want. I'm not sure at this point if there's a way to import rows and columns. I'm still kinda learning the ins and outs of ID.

anyone else?

http://img237.exs.cx/img237/6410/sig1sy.jpg

Post Edited (_Tyger_) : 2/8/2005 4:23:19 AM GMT

[Tom-D-Signs]

I have a similar question

I have been workin on a form off and on for about a week now.

I had the trouble first of having a pdf but not the file it was created from. So i decided i would recreate the file in indesign. My question though is most of the data is in table format, and i was sent an excel file which to me looks like it is what thr original was made from.

When i try to import it however it either imports just the cells and headers and what not...basically the outline of what the table looks like (this is when i choose "formatted")....... or just the text comes through but the table is set up wrong and doesnt look right (this is when i choose to import the "unformatted") I havent found a way to get both to show. I will include a copy of one page from the pdf file i have, which is basically what im trying to get to from importing tables from excel

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/Tom-D-Signs/RoughDraft.gif

Windows XP Pro
Adobe Creative Suite
Freehand 9
QuarkXpress 4.0

[robloud]

i'm having a similiar problem. i can not import the table data, just headers and outlines.

[Macnewbie]

If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat (I have 7.0 Standard), you can save your Excel chart/table as a PDF, then Place it into an InDesign file. Just learned this today -- works great, so far!

[DeleteYourself]

I wish I head read this thread this morning. Stupid me for not procrastening!

</d'oh>

[Trinity1]

When you import a table in InDesign you can choose to import it both with the original formatting and without.

When you go to File> Place and the Place window shows up, make sure you check the "Show Options" box on the bottom left of the Place window. Once you choose which file to place, InDesign will ask you which part of the original formatting you want to import.

[PrintPharmacist]

What we do is we select the text in Excel, copy it, paste it in illustrator (be sure to only copy the cells you need),ungroup it (delete any extra cells that might have tagged along) and save it as an eps, and it should be fine. A few greyscale colors might tend to convert into CMYK, but all you have to do is select all in Illy and convert the Document into greyscale. This is the best way that I have found so far, as I also do a lot of things in this nature.

[PrintPharmacist]

^^^^ Mind you that everything you copy is fully editable in Illustrator...

[hydropeek]

hi is there a way you can save the alternating fills and strokes as a style so you can reuse the style over again? (like character styles--but for tables)

[janedoe]

You can place excel files, even named ranges in the excel files, into ID.

But to keep all formatting, there is a great plugin from Teacup (TableStyles and CellStyles) that works in conjunction with the Paragraph Styles in ID. It allows you to make changes in your excel file and just update the link in ID.
Perfect for using excel files that get modified on a regular basis.

The cell styles contain all the cell info: fills & strokes (alternating), etc. while the connected Paragraph Styles contain all formatting.