CSV import without data merge

[tersmuse]

Is it in Publisher (macOS) now possible to import CSV data into paragraph and character styles?

Very important for this question, I mean an import WITHOUT DATA MERGE! Data merge forces to use fixed sizes, restricts professionals too much. Therefore, please no answers from beginners who do not understand what is essential in a professional sentence.

Don't get me wrong, data merge is great for creating business cards that are always the same size. But I'm purely interested in the use of paragraph and character styles in a text flow across pages. In this case, data merge is totally unsuitable.

To get back to my question: is there a way to import CSV data into paragraph and character styles?

[walt.farrell]

I'm not sure what you mean about importing the CSV data "into paragraph and character styles". Can you provide more details on that?

CSV data is typically plain text, and completely unstyled in my experience. So it would be easy to open a CSV file in a plain-text editor, copy it, and then paste it into a Publisher Text Frame, where it would paste with whatever Text Style was appropriate for the current text cursor position. 

But I suspect you don't want it that raw, but are expecting some kind of (at least) tabular data as you would get in a table, since that's what CSV text represents.

For that, you could Open your CSV file in Word, or LibreOffice, or any other application that supports CSV. You could then select the data, and Copy it. You could then Paste the data into a Table in Publisher (as long as the Table fits on a single page of your document). Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience to comment on whether all the Table formatting you've setup ahead of time will be applied. Sorry; I'll have to experiment with that.

[tersmuse]

@walt.farrell 

Exactly, that is what I need. Importing the individual data lines, but don't “just” let it flow in. I need the selected rows to jump to relevant variables.

In data merge it looks like this:

<p>
<title><br>
<date><location><br>
<info>
<p>

When designing in Publisher, you define paragraph and character styles, work with tabs for spacing and so on. This gives you a flexible layout that adapts to the amount of text. Event calendars, appointment calendars and much more are created in this way.

Then there would be no variable <title>, it would simply be the column, e.g. <a> and so on. This would look like this:

<p>
<a><br>
<b><br>
<c>
<p>

To keep it understandable I used html code above. <br> = line break, <p> = paragraph.
It illustrates that the variables (a, b, …) have already been formatted before the import. The next line starts with the closed paragraph. This makes it very easy to obtain a completely formatted document. This can be hundreds of pages in the text flow in seconds, fully preformatted.

[walt.farrell]

Thanks. No, you can't do that. 

You can do this:

1. "Tag" your CSV file data, so each field has a recognizable tag-pair around it. For example, <title> and </title> around the title data, <date> and </date> around each date field, etc.
2. Use Data Merge to merge the tagged CSV data into your Publisher file.
3. Use Find & Replace to locate the tags and apply the formatting.
   
   For example, a regex Find for <title>(.*?)</title> with a Replace that specifies $1 and the format you want to apply.
   Then another regex Find to handle data, and another to handle info. Etc.

[tersmuse]

It's a pity, then I just use Quark or Adobe. Mmhhh, why is there no interface for other suppliers? Em Software is a great provider of Xtensions for desktop publishing apps. Unfortunately, Affinity or Serif does not allow third parties to code Xtensions. Quark and Adobe allow it. Too bad.

"You can do this:"
Thanks for the suggestion. Too time-consuming with thousands of lines, a too high error rate due to if or else entries.

Thanks @walt.farrell, the question is answered.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome. Sorry it's not a better answer.