Change font color via Data Merge

[TheZBillDyl]

Hello! I'm trying to use Publisher to create some cards for a board game I am working on. It works very well so far, but I am struggling to figure out an easy way to change colors of things via Data Merge. I made a slight work around with images by using a direct path to the image that's a different color, but I cannot do that with text. Is there anyway to change colors of things with Data Merge? 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[kenmcd]

@TheZBillDyl 

How many colors do you need for the fonts?

It is easy to change the color palette in COLRv0 fonts (takes minutes). Affinity apps support COLRv0 fonts. And it is relatively easy to convert a monochrome font into a single-color COLRv0 font.

So if you needed four colors you could have four fonts.

Could you run your merge in four batches?

@lacerto 

Any easy way to swap the font during the merge?

---

Edit: Or any way to tag the incoming text so a style could be applied later?

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[anto]

Another way to do this is without using a font.
Create colored rectangles. Set the path to them in Excel. In Publisher, use the following layers structure as in the video

 

[bbrother]

@anto couple words from me,

Your trick of using colored images whose path comes from "Data Merge" and clipping them to the text to get the multiple coloured text after doing the merge operation — Well, my jaw dropped.
I haven't seen such a clever method on this forum in a long time, if ever.

Congratulations and a deep 🙇🏻 @anto

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Old Bruce]

16 hours ago, TheZBillDyl said:

I cannot do that with text. Is there anyway to change colors of things with Data Merge? 

Welcome to the forums @TheZBillDyl, 

Would not applying a Paragraph or Character Style to the various Data Merge Fields not work for you? Just set the Style to use the colour you want.

[TheZBillDyl]

9 hours ago, anto said:

Another way to do this is without using a font.
Create colored rectangles. Set the path to them in Excel. In Publisher, use the following layers structure as in the video

 

 

This is genius thank you. Is there a good way to ask for an official feature? I feel like changing colors via a spreadsheet is an important/useful feature with many applications. 

[TheZBillDyl]

19 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Welcome to the forums @TheZBillDyl, 

Would not applying a Paragraph or Character Style to the various Data Merge Fields not work for you? Just set the Style to use the colour you want.

I dont believe this would work. Since im making a card game, I want the title text to be a specific color on certain cards. For example, if it's a special card, the title should be blue. If it's a normal card, then the title should be black. 

[MikeW]

24 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Welcome to the forums @TheZBillDyl, 

Would not applying a Paragraph or Character Style to the various Data Merge Fields not work for you? Just set the Style to use the colour you want.

Only if/when Serif adds scripting and/or logic the APub's merge capabilities.

I do something akin to what the OP is looking to do via merge logic, character styles and different master pages in a different application. The working sample code is:

«fields bizcolor,biz,name,title,addy,csz,blurb
«if bizcolor = "blue"»«set master of this page to "B-blue"»
	«word 1 to 3 of blurb» «word 4 to 40 of blurb»
«biz»
«name», «title»
«addy», «csz»«endif»
«if bizcolor = "yellow"»«set master of this page to "D-yellow"»
	«word 1 to 3 of blurb» «word 4 to 40 of blurb»
«biz»
«name», «title»
«addy», «csz»«endif»
«if bizcolor = "green"»«set master of this page to "C-green"»
	«word 1 to 3 of blurb» «word 4 to 40 of blurb»
«biz»
«name», «title»
«addy», «csz»«endif»

The screen shot below is a compilation of the tab-delimited merge file (which has a field for color), the result after the merge (separate pages), the imposed result and the above merge code.

[anto]

25 хвилин тому TheZBillDyl сказав:

I dont believe this would work. Since im making a card game, I want the title text to be a specific color on certain cards. For example, if it's a special card, the title should be blue. If it's a normal card, then the title should be black. 

If you place the card titles in different columns in Excel table, and in Publisher, the fields are below each other, and assign a different text style to each field, it will work. If you need an example, I can record a video.

 

Edited April 11 by anto
video added

[TheZBillDyl]

17 minutes ago, anto said:

If you place the card titles in different columns in Excel table, and in Publisher, the fields are below each other, and assign a different text style to each field, it will work. If you need an example, I can record a video.

 

 

Honestly this is also a good work around. Thank you again. I love you all. I really hope Serif decides to implement color changing via Data Merge. I think it's a very useful feature that has many applications. If there's a good place to submit this as a request, please let me know. Otherwise, thank you all!!!!