[Implemented] Data merge

[Simon_DK]

I have bought APh and ADe for both mac and iPad, but can't get myself to buy APu before mail merge is implemented. Its pretty much useless to me until then - and as others have stated, Adobe gets my money each month because of this single missing feature. Come on Serif!

[Richard Broom]

Still waiting to pension off InDesign and other CS programmes but it all turns on Data Merge.  Data Merge central to our workflows.  Given the number of requests for it here, can't believe the Affinty Publisher design team aren't responding.

Listen up Affinity Publisher team!

Richard

 

[PaulEC]

I have to keep my old PagePlus X9 just so that I can do Mail Merge jobs. 

(and, occasionally, to open PDF files with embedded fonts that Affinity can't open correctly!)

[fde101]

2 hours ago, Richard Broom said:

Given the number of requests for it here, can't believe the Affinty Publisher design team aren't responding.

They generally do not respond to feature requests, but they actually did respond to this one a few times:

 

etc.

[petrpastor]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:18 PM, fde101 said:

They generally do not respond to feature requests, but they actually did respond to this one a few times: 

 

etc.

Yes they did but not to any satisfaction of the people requesting  this feature for the past two years.

It would be nice if the affinity developer team took this huge  community needing this feature seriously.

 

-pp-

 

[MEB]

Hi petrpastor,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
We do take community feedback seriously but it doesn't mean we can fulfil all requests as soon/fast as people would like - even in two years. Affinity Publisher is on its infancy. There's still various areas that need some work (integration with the other two apps, file presets/templates, linked/embedded file management, PDF import/export improvements, preflight etc (besides bugs to fix) until we can add more features. As explained several times we have limited resources compared to other known companies and are also developing a design/vector application and RAW developer/photo editing app at the same time for three different platforms alongside with Publisher, not Publisher alone. All this requires time. I think the teams have achieved quite a lot considering some years ago there was nothing at all. Please bear with us. 

[Misha Savranski]

+1 Just wanna say I will wait for this function! It would be awesome to have if not full Google Sheet integration but at least import option.

[Ross B.]

+1, and P.S. Make it great!

[lois_wa]

And yet another person who does not feel that Affinity Publisher is complete without a Mail Merge ability. Please add this feature. PagePlus had it and it worked very well.

While you are at it, make sure that it can import .csv or and the very least .txt files into whatever database file it creates. Many times it is necessary to create and sort a merge list in a more robust program such as Excel so it is essential to be able to import the generic list.

This is a deal-breaker; your new program should have at least the same functionality as the one you have retired. I appreciate some of the new features (OpenType and the fact that you do not have to close and reopen the document when you load a new font to name a couple), but please don't sacrifice basic functions in the rage to have new features.

P.S. Though I am a 'newbie' to this forum, I have used PagePlus and DrawPlus almost from the beginning (when the program files were distributed on 3.5 inch floppies attached to tech magazines...) I used to be really impressed with Serif programs; it would be nice to feel that way again.

Edited January 24, 2020 by lois_wa
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[FredVig]

Yes a mail merge ability is needed ! More and more personalized documents are made, for a pdf to read on screen, or because of digital printing.

Thanks

PS . Great job !

[David_be]

+1 for data merge.

I really need this too

[Loquos]

I know a lot of people are frustrated with the lack of an integrated data merge feature in Affinity Publisher. I think we can all agree that while Adobe's InDesign had the feature, there was a lot of things even it could not do well at all.

Fortunately, my husband knows a bit of coding. He created a little program for me that takes a spreadsheet converted to a .tsv file, which does the data merge into a plain text document for me, resulting in one file that I could simply cut and paste into the text frame in Publisher, and with one click add as many pages as was need to fit all the text.

Yes, you could do this sort of data merge in Word if you owned Microsoft Office products, but there were variables in what I needed to do that even Word wouldn't have been able to handle. A few lines of code, and everything was done for me!

Adobe could only make individual text frames for me, of EACH entry (there are over 200 entries), which I then had to stitch back together into one text frame. If a cell was empty, it would ignore, but if I had specified a coma between two values pre-data merge, then I'd have a lonely coma I'd have to go back and delete. Imagine sifting through over 200 multiline entries to find all these straggling lonely items!

While Adobe's auto format during data merge is nice, the amount of time I took to set up some quick format keys in Affinity and format all the text created using my husband's few lines of code took me a LOT less time than the awkward process in Adobe.

If Affinity could read and apply formats based on text markup, my husband's code solution would be absolutely perfect. But the lack of data merge isn't going to stop me from using Publisher or encouraging others to do so. 

[undercovergypsy]

I wonder if your husband is willing to sell it?  :)

[mforeman]

Another here for data merge.

[mpower9]

+1 need to import data from Excel or CSV file.

[Bright]

Data Merge- A must have feature for my needs 

[fde101]

On 1/24/2020 at 3:29 PM, lois_wa said:

does not feel that Affinity Publisher is complete without

No software is complete, and no software ever will be.  If it was, it would consume an infinite amount of space and take an infinite amount of time to develop, so you would never have the opportunity to use it.

[Loquos]

On 1/31/2020 at 4:50 PM, undercovergypsy said:

I wonder if your husband is willing to sell it?  :)

Haha! I'm sure he'd give it for free... but it's hand-coded and was built specifically to my needs. You'd have to know the coding he used (don't ask me, I don't know!) and how to change it to suit your needs.

However, maybe there's a niche market for this? For a small fee, specific code to meet your specific needs? :-) If you're dead serious, I'll ask him if he's interested in a side job.

[paull]

it's starting to make me sad coming back to this topic just to see it's still not implemented :(

[PaulEC]

14 minutes ago, paull said:

it's starting to make me sad coming back to this topic just to see it's still not implemented

Me too! – But I really can't see it happening until at lease version 2! 🙁

[Bryce]

I don't know if this is pertinent but for those who want to abandon Indesign can you use the Acrobat plugin Quite Imposing Plus 5. It now can take your Affinity PDF's (or any for that matter) and apply CSV merges to them.

I also am excited for the day when we can finally have mail merges. That and raster to vector conversions are the only thing I see needed just about! Maybe vector warping.

[LordDuctTape]

Data merge is the only reason I haven't switched from Adobe yet...

[wonderings]

I agree mail merge is needed but not before the PDF import is fixed. Much of the data merge I do is on top of supplied PDF's. I can in no way shape or form trust Publisher with any PDF in its current state. If I was going to have an order it would be PDF import with NO attempts at editing the PDF then data merge capabilities. That along with preflight would make it a much more usable and pro like app. 

[Bright]

On 2/26/2020 at 8:11 PM, PaulEC said:

Me too! – But I really can't see it happening until at lease version 2! 🙁

Me too

[ChrisD.]

On 3/7/2020 at 5:20 PM, Bright said:

Me too

+1 for DataMerge

I buy Affinity Products to support your development. I have not swiched however because mailings are most important and not possible without data merge. Please prioritize!