Data merge in Publisher

[Kijoli]

I read somewhere that you can use a data merge function in Affinity Publisher to create text variables, i.e. if I write "Gain 1 {gold}", I can make the text {gold} be exchanged for a gold icon. Could someone point out where in Publisher this function might be found?  

[Old Bruce]

In the 1.9.0 beta.

And it is a bit more complicated, you need to work with a spreadsheet or CSV file to get the fields for replacement.

[Kijoli]

Okay thanks, are there any tutorials on this? Or do you know when the beta will be released?

[walt.farrell]

Serif does not have any tutorials for it, but perhaps there are some by users on YouTube. The 1.9 beta Help has a page on Data Merge and another on the Data Merge Layout Tool.

No one outside of Serif knows when 1.9 will be formally released, and those in Serif who know won't say. The usual answer is "when it's ready".

[Kijoli]

I'm starting to feel a bit annoying x) but after going through tutorials on data merge for Affinity Publisher 1.9 I still cannot find a way to create text variables the way I described in my initial post. I can import text and image sources from a spreadsheet, yes, but I still have to import them separately to text frames and image frames respectively. But the ability to import text as an image seems to be lacking. To be really clear, I want to create playing cards like these ones, where some text phrases can be seamlessly converted to game icons:

[h_d]

I think what you're asking for isn't actually a data merge (which is typically used with structured data from a spreadsheet or database to create bulk mailings/form letters/labels etc etc). What you actually want is the ability to embed inline graphics (horses, planes, harps etc) in the text flow?

If so then I'm pretty certain the answer is that there is not really any way of automating this: Affinity Publisher doesn't have any straightforward way of importing or modifying tagged text .  It is possible to embed graphic documents into the text flow, but as far as I can see this would only work as a manual one-by-one cut-and-paste process. If on the other hand the graphics were characters in a specialised font, it might be possible to code them.up as character styles, but you'd need to use some mind-bogglingly complex search and replace routines to process the imported text.

(And you're not at all annoying...)

Cheers,

H

[Old Bruce]

I think h_d is on the right track. Your example shows about a dozen 'glyphs' in the text in the descriptions which would need the replacement.

You could do a search  for the word Glyph_Artillary and step through pasting in the image, this could be a dozen times or hundreds of times which is not practical.

Font creation is beyond my pay grade but your best bet is to find a font with the glyphs you want to use, you may need to hire some one to create one. Then it is a simple find and replace for oddball characters to be replaced with a Character Style which uses that font.

[Kijoli]

Inline icons is the term I am looking for, thank you h_d. I'm a bit surprised that Affinity does not have this, when they have so many other features! There are some much simpler programs that have this, so I am going to have to rely on one of these instead.

Cheers

[kenmcd]

On 1/2/2021 at 11:39 AM, Kijoli said:

I read somewhere that you can use a data merge function in Affinity Publisher to create text variables, i.e. if I write "Gain 1 {gold}", I can make the text {gold} be exchanged for a gold icon.

As long as the icons are just black you can create a font with ligatures which would automatically substitute the icons. What font are you using for the text?

Also, what game is this for? Often the game itself has a font included which displays the text icons. Or sometimes fans create their own fonts for writing about the game.

[Kijoli]

LibreTraining,

The game, Forces of History, is one that I am creating myself:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1661241863/forces-of-history-a-world-history-simulation-game/preview

The card images above were just examples from the board game Through the Ages.

The font has not yet been decided upon. But creating a font of one's own seems difficult and some icons will probably have color in them. Thanks anyway!

 

[kenmcd]

35 minutes ago, Kijoli said:

But creating a font of one's own seems difficult and some icons will probably have color in them. Thanks anyway!

I was going to offer to create the font for you, if you could provide vector drawings of the black icons. But, if you must have color ... Affinity apps do not yet support color fonts so kinda pointless at this time.

[Old Bruce]

10 minutes ago, LibreTraining said:

I was going to offer to create the font for you, if you could provide vector drawings of the black icons. But, if you must have color ... Affinity apps do not yet support color fonts so kinda pointless at this time.

But @Kijoli could choose an ink colour for that glyph.

Post Script: That is a very generous offer.

[kenmcd]

2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

But @Kijoli could choose an ink colour for that glyph

Yeah, he could just use a character style with a color.

But I think he means multicolor, which to me means color-SVG font. Which would be fun to make, but it will not work for this case (yet).

[Herenow]

I am very late to this, but maybe look in to the pinning panel? The InDesign equivalent is the anchored object where you insert images within the text box that flows with the text.

Ignore this if this has been solved!