Indesign data merges

[tony_g_barnes@adobeforums.com]

Hi all,

Just playing around with the data merge in CS2 and am trying to find a good way to only RIP the fixed data once leaving just the variable data that needs to be sent multiple times to save time sending it all.

As it is it creates a 500 page document for the mailing I am planning, and sends the same pile of images, boxes, main text, etc, 500 times. I'm just trying to get it to RIP once and leave the variable sector open...

Any ideas?!?!

Cheers,

Tony

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

I'm just trying to get it to RIP once and leave the variable sector open...




For that you'll probably have to pay for third-party software which ain't cheap. Here's a good place to look:

<http://www.adobe.com/products/vdp/index.html>

[Natobasso]

Actually there's a free way to do this. A great article on creativepro.com:
<http://www.creativepro.com/story/howto/24462.html>

[Natobasso]

btw, i am not actually sure if this creativepro article answers your question or not, or if it does exactly what you want. Just seemed like a good resource.

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

I love the Data Merge feature, but it does generate separate pages for each instance of the variable items.

That's why I think a 3rd party solution may be necessary.

[Natobasso]

True.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

I'm just trying to get it to RIP once




It is the "just" that belies the misconception.

With standard postscript you cannot do this. each page is as it is.
There are printers and protocolls that allow what you dream of but, as Steve mentioned, that takes additional software and is not going to be cheap. If you do this often, look into it. If you do this once, print 500 pages.

[tony_g_barnes@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the quick replies, much appreciated.

So it seems I was pipe-dreaming looking for it for free... oh well!

It is for business use though - at the moment I simply print out however many colour copies, then overprint the addresses in black & white. This mailing of 500 is actually pretty small - usually 2-5000, so every time I do this, it's costing say 3000*£0.025 = £75 in B&W printing costs.

Time-wise, I can't really let my mac sit and individually rip a few thousand copies, far too time costly.

I'll have a look for some aftermarket software/plugins - or if any of you guys have used one before, a recommendation usually goes a long way in my book!!

Cheers

Tony

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

Tony,

without this being a recommendation (I do not know the product well enough), I know that XMPie in some extended state can do some thing in the direction of what you're asking.

It's too expensive (at least 4 digits in the price) for this one feature but in the center of the product is customisability of the single page. So you don't get 500 identical backgrounds for each person but, say, 5 x 100 depending on certain criteria on your database.

So if customized data printing is something to think about, look there.
Else start talking to printer manufacturers if they offer some option in your direction.
If I remember correctly "PPML/VDX" is something to google for.

[tony_g_barnes@adobeforums.com]

That's great - I'll have a google.

My poor eMac is just sat thinking about all the pages at the minute!! I really need an upgrade...

Cheers,

tony

[Brutus_Maximus@adobeforums.com]

I highly recommend XMPie uDirect if you're going to be doing this often. It is an industrial-strength VI tool that functions as a plugin to InDesign. The technology is scalable, meaning that you can upgrade to the uDirect Professional version, or even to the full Personal Effect version, and still be able to use files created with the Standard version. Even that version isn't cheap--we paid US$2,500 for a single license. Personal Effect is around US$20,000 or thereabouts.

PDF output is standard, but it's inadequate for graphic-rich files. That's where specialized VI output formats come to play. Instead of making a cumbersome output file, they cache the data and the static and dynamic elements, then let the RIP assemble those elements on-the-fly as it processes the file. You select one VI output format at the time of purchase. We chose to go with PPML, since we have native PPML support on our Xerox RIPs. Other formats available include VIPP and VPS. Do your research before you choose an output format--adding additional formats is very expensive.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

Brutus, thank you.
I was hoping there was someone here with more than a passing-glimpse knowledge on the matter. :)
All I saw was a 4 hour presentation of XMPie and that was quite impressive. Alas, the price range too ...

[Larry_Grohman@adobeforums.com]

A couple of lower end options... Print Shop Mail. That is a program that
works with PDF and has some pretty good features. The only thing I don't
like about it is it is licensed based on usage.

Also, you didn't say what color output device you are using, but if it by
chance is Fiery, you may have, or be able to get "Free Form" which works at
the rip to do exactly what you are needing. Create a static data file and
save to RIP, then send only your stripped down VD which is merged with the
pre-ripped static file and printed..
HTH
Larry

[Diane_King@adobeforums.com]

I don't know how this affects the rip, but you can do a data merge with the repeated data on a master page. This would make the file size smaller because you only have the images once in the document instead of linked to every page. This is probably just as slow ripping however. I've noticed that ID (by itself) is not the best data merge option for large print jobs. We use it for generating name tags and tickets and other small media that is easy to print in house. Our large merges we let our mailing house do.