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Automatic data filling based on Excel


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Hi,

I am using Affinity Designer.

I want to create around 200 namecards with different name and other personal data printed on it. 

I have created the base template for the namecards and I also already had the names and data of the people that will be printed to that namecards.

Is there any way to automatically fetch the personal data from other source like Excel into Affinity Designer? So my namecards would be automatically filled with the prepared data.

 

Thanks for your help

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This is for Publisher (not Designer) but you can currently get the beta version of Publisher for free so you might want to try it. (Or anyone else that wants to try it)

Set up a new document page the size of your namecard

Add a blank text frame and change the font, font size etc to what you want printed.

Outside of Publisher take your Excel file (or whatever) and create a text file with the names and data that you want printed on each namecard.

In that text file end each person's data with a unique set of characters like xxxxxx

Back in Publisher in the text frame select Text > Insert Text From File and insert the text file you just created.

Use Text > Find to find and replace all occurrences of xxxxxx with a page break command

Then Shift-Click the text flow arrow of the text frame to automagically add a new page for all the data records in your text file.

Hopefully you will end up with 200 namecards ready to print but I don't have the time to create 200 data records to test this out so consider the above a working theory of how I would try it, you may need to make adjustments along the way.

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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Another possibility is to store/export your Affinity Designer namecard layout with some embeded name place holders (#name# etc.) into some portable text editable format like SVG/EPS and then use some script or scripting language to do your own data merge handling with that namecard file then.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
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  • 3 months later...
  • 8 months later...
5 hours ago, OdFori said:

Any update?

This function is not yet supported.

You will know it's available when it appears in one of the beta releases, probably for Publisher not Designer if I had to guess.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 7 months later...

If the case is only to print name cards, do this workarround:

  1. design your card with no test data (name aso.)
  2. print it as many cards you need (with no name on the card)
  3. Use MS Word and Excel to print the card data with label Print
    match the position so it fits to the printed name cards from Designer
  4. Overprint the in Word created labels on the printout of Designer

This method is known well in the printing industry

But, it would be great if the Designer could read SQL / ODBC (or at least Excel or CSV files) data in future :)

 

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