Publisher - Data Merge text in a single Text field (v1)

[D.Usagi.75]

My Data Source is Excel. It contains three columns with data. 

<d20> <Mission Title> <Description>

In publisher I have created the master with facing pages and two text fields with text flow.

I like to populate the text into one (with text flow to consecutive) text field. 

<d20> <Mission Title>

<Description

After generating the merged document, each page contains the data from only one row. 

In MS Word I am used to enter the fields as above on one page. It will then populate the pages with text flowing from first to the last page without breaks.

How can I create this data merge file in Affinity Publisher

[thomaso]

Possibly a filter is set, limiting the records to 1 ?
Can you show your Data Merge Manager window?

[D.Usagi.75]

I am not using the Data Merge Layout Layer. As this would create separate fields.

[thomaso]

I think you don't need the Layout Tool if you want one set per page but just notice, you can reduce the layout to 1 row and 1 column.

Do you see more records if you activate in the Manager window the option "Preview with record" + then click through the records (before generating the merge)?

EDIT: your screenshot mentions in "Merge Pages" a total of 37 pages. That might indicate that using the Layout Tool could help to avoid this result.

Edited June 27, 2023 by thomaso

[D.Usagi.75]

I have tried:

1 column, 1 row and 0 record advance with both versions of layout order. Still one row/record per page.

The Merge Page total is my frustration. When generating the merged end document, not only will each record be on its own page, it will be on the page (I have the facing page option selected) were I entered the merge data. Resulting in one page with text and a next page empty.

The Layout Tool will create individual fields. The text in <description> is of variable length (between 200 and 1200 characters). I will then need to manually change each page.
I have now opted to just creating the merge data file in MS Word, as this will generate the records consecutively from first to last page, and pasting it in my Publisher document. This is quicker then using the Layout Tool in Publisher 😅. 

[thomaso]

I think it would work in APub, too. Maybe you want to upload your data source + the layout .afpub for a test? – Below my example, with no Layout Tool and all in 1 text frame. Note, it says a total of 1 page (while I am not sure what this number refers to by "Repeat") but outputs 10 pages for the 10 records.

 dataMerge setup.afpub -  dataMerge result.afpub

[D.Usagi.75]

Here is the end result with data merged in MS Word. This is how I need the end document to look like.

The result via AP gives me this (with 38 total pages). I selected the minimum merge pages (which gave me 1-2):

I have attached the Excel source file.

Table (Missions).xlsx

[thomaso]

Oh, I assume this is not possible in APub: It seems to need automatic text-flow combined with data merge + requiring several records on every page (-> Layout Tool) but with a flexible area size for the various records (-> varying layout cell sizes for the different records being auto-adjusted according to the amount of data for each row) – while APub appears to enable either 1 record per page OR a "grid layout" (in V1 and V2) with fixed, continuous cell size.

[D.Usagi.75]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Oh, I assume this is not possible in APub: It seems to need automatic text-flow combined with data merge + requiring several records on every page (-> Layout Tool) but with a flexible area size for the various records (-> varying layout cell sizes for the different records being auto-adjusted according to the amount of data for each row) – while APub appears to enable either 1 record per page OR a "grid layout" (in V1 and V2) with fixed, continuous cell size.

Correct 😄.

I will use the work-around with MS Word.
For all my other Data Merge files APub works just fine.