Data binding and Conditional formating

[Tibo77]

I am very sorry for putting question without searching forum topics, but now I am just searching for which DTP software is worth to dig into. If it was already answered, please navigate me there.

There is one (two) functionality I need and I dont know which one of the DTP software has it, becasuse it is not the "basics".

Firstly I need, like in the Microsoft enviroment like the Publisher (or Word) can read fields from Excel.

But then I need the DTP software to allow conditional formating of imported values. For example, change the color of the field based (depended) on the imported value.

Is this functionality present in the Affinity Publisher 2 ?

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Tibo77 and welcome to the forums,

Publisher has very limited support for Excel files, i.e., while you can Place an Excel file in Publisher there is no live link back to the Excel file so any changes made to the Excel file won't be automatically reflected in the Publisher file though this is something that has been requested on numerous occasions in the forums...

You can use an Excel file for running a Data Merge much like you can with Microsoft Word but again, there is no live link back to the original Excel file...

There are no Conditional Formatting options in Publisher I'm afraid, I think we're a long way off seeing that functionality added to Publisher though both options would be a very welcome addition...

I hope that helps and I'm sorry it's not the answer you were perhaps hoping for...

[Tibo77]

Thank you for answer,

Do you think is there a chance to find any DTP software with Conditional formatting of Merged data option? 

[MikeW]

On 8/28/2024 at 8:09 AM, Tibo77 said:

Thank you for answer,

Do you think is there a chance to find any DTP software with Conditional formatting of Merged data option? 

Not natively that I am aware of. However, InDesign has two options, depending upon one's needs. With scripting (there is at least one example script via the web to be found) one can handle variable formatting.

There is also a great plug-in from Em Software called InData (I use a version for QXP that Em Software no longer updates). That plug-in/XTension has handled conditional text, conditional formatting, etc., quite nicely for me over many years.

[Medical Officer Bones]

On 8/28/2024 at 8:09 AM, Tibo77 said:

Thank you for answer,

Do you think is there a chance to find any DTP software with Conditional formatting of Merged data option? 

I am aware of a free and open source Scribus extension that is quite dynamic and would do everything (and more) that you @Tibo77 are looking for.

https://berteh.github.io/ScribusGenerator/

Scribus is also free and open source: https://www.scribus.net/

[Tibo77]

Thank you very much for your help, I appreciate that!

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Tibo77]

Very usefull tip, thank you very much for advices.

Thank you all for helping.

T.