Publisher v2 Data Merge images - what am I missing?

[ThisIsMyName]

Can someone help me out? I'm trying to follow the info in the help docs. I basically want to have a list of images in a csv file, and populate a document based on that.

I set up a simple test csv file with one file name in it.

Under Windows > Data Merge I added the data source.

The help docs say that the next steps are:

To insert image link fields:

1.Draw a picture frame and keep it selected.

2.On the Data Merge section of the Fields panel, double-click a field that contains an image link. You can preview your records to reveal the image's path in the panel and the actual on-page images.

Step one done. I've looked high and low and see nothing like a Fields panel. I selected the image frame. I right clicked. I looked all around the menus top and right and under all the subtabs I can find. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Some screenshots would really really help in the help files.

I also see a Data Fields Layout Tool icon at left. I tried drawing a box but couldn't find any way to then add an image field.

How is this supposed to work? Is there better documentation online somewhere with screenshots maybe? Would love any info and insights!

Thanks,

David

Edited December 1, 2022 by ThisIsMyName

[Komatös]

Maybe this tutorial helps to understand the data merge

 

[4dimage]

This is so cool 😍

[4dimage]

I didn't really notice this feature until now. Like it 😊

The above youtube tutorial is realy helpfull ! (though a little bit long)

 

How to use images

It is possible to either use absolute file pathes (e.g. c:\somefolder\myimage.jpg) or relative file pathes (e.g. images/myimage.jpg) in your underlying data field.

Here is a little project with 4 photos:

v2-publisher-data-merge-test.zip

They reside in a subfolder "images" relative to the position of the Publisher document file. The .xslx data file is beneath the Publisher document. So the whole "project" ist self contained and can be packed.

 

The Excel spreadsheet contains 1 header row with the data field names and 4 data rows with each 2 Strings and as third field a relative file path. This path refers to the "images/" folder which is a subfolder of my project folder. So there is only one relative path step followed by the file name.

I strongly recommend to name your image files AND your field names according to strict variable names:

- only latin chars a-z and number 0-9
- use either underscore _ or minus - as separator
- name must not start with a number but with letter a-z or underscore _
- use explicit and appropriate file  extension: .e.g ".jpg", ".png"
- NO lanuage specific special chars, no whitespace etc.

These recommendations also apply to the folder pathes !

A bad path/file would be: these are great! images - aren'they ? / this is my cool image N° 1 & it's so hot.jpg 🤢

A good path/filename would be: these-are-great-images_arent-they/this-is-my-cool-image-and-ist-so-hot_001.jpg 😇

Don't have testes this, but there may be a limitiation which file formats work with data merge and which not. Maybe just choose typical internet fileformats as JPG, PNG and similar.

Also there might be a maximal path STRING length ?!

 

And this is how the Publisher file looks with the Fields panel and the data merge assistant window open. The preview option in the data merge assistant window is ticked so you can check if the field references work properly.

 

To refer to the <imagepath> field i created e standard empty image frame, having it selected then double clicked onto the field name in the fields panel:

 

NOTE: head some errors when i reopened the Publisher document. The preview page flip in the data merge window didn't work properly. Had to type in the follwing page number by hand.

I will report this bug in a seperate post...