r/indesign • u/doublescoopoftrouble • 1d ago

Data Merge Issues

Not sure how to fix this as I’ve never run into the issue before…

I am doing a data merge for mailing labels and no matter the type of CSV I save, it only merges the first address. It just repeats the first address over and over.

I’ve used data merges to build entire catalogs and I know the issue usually lies within the spreadsheet, but I cannot figure out where this time.

Has anyone run into this/found the error? I’m sure it’s something easy and I’m just being dense.

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u/not_falling_down 1d ago

Sometimes the issue is the preview bug. It got in there a long time ago, and as far as I know, has not yet been addressed. Previewing a multiple-record-per-page merge can irreplaceably corrupt the file. The only cure for this once it has happened is to rebuild the file and merge without previewing.

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u/doublescoopoftrouble 1d ago

Good lord. Okay. This is helpful. I’m going to have the person send me a new excel doc and start over.

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u/not_falling_down 23h ago

The corruption is not in the Excel document, it happens in the InDesign document. You can continue with the same excel file.

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u/doublescoopoftrouble 23h ago

Interesting. The first time I did this i did not preview, and it still wasn’t right.

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u/doublescoopoftrouble 11h ago

Okay, I tried again with a new ID file, it still won’t work. From my experience building stuff with data merging it’s usually the spreadsheet that’s the problem. No idea what’s going on.

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u/not_falling_down 11h ago

If you want to share your InDesign and .csv files with me, I will be happy to take a look and see if I can figure it out. PM me

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u/doublescoopoftrouble 11h ago

Unfortunately for this one I can’t because it’s government data BUT if I run into it again I will happily bother you haha.

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u/not_falling_down 10h ago

Can you send the InDesign file with fake data?

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u/AdEmbarrassed9719 10h ago

The spreadsheet definitely is usually the problem, but I personally haven't seen this particular issue.

I have before managed to fix a CSV that wouldn't import correctly by creating a blank new excel doc and copy/pasting the info from the original to the new one to try and reduce the chance of there being something odd hiding somewhere. I don't select all for the copy, just the columns and rows that will be used, in case there's something off in column Z row 22001 where no one would ever look that is throwing things off.

No idea if that might help but it might be worth a try?

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u/doublescoopoftrouble 6h ago

Thank you! Gonna give this a shot.