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Hello.

I created a diploma design for my school and was wondering how I could add all the learners names.  Every page needs to have a different name as it is an diploma for another learner.
The trouble comes when I need to insert hundreds of names and what the different diplomas goes for.  That could take hours.  Is there a way to automate this?  Is there a way to have all the names of the learners and what they get diplomas for in a list,  like in excel, and then automatically import them (line 1 goes to page 1,  line 2 goes to page 2 ........ line 159 goes to page 159 etc.)?

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This sort of thing is entirely possible in APub.

Design the certificate. Place the certificate design on the Master Page of a document that is not using Facing pages.

Switch the the first page of the document. I would add a layer at this point for the text. Add a single text frame where the names go. Make a paragraph that centers the text. Set the paragraph style to begin on the next page like so:

capture-002379.png.1e20f42d10f508e770913c8559361398.png

Then simply import the text. It will overflow and I find it distracting, so I shut it off at the lower right corner of the text frame. Then shift-click the flow icon and all the pages will be built automatically. Takes mere seconds.

I have attached a simple example as a ZIP. It contains the APub file, the certificate graphic and a text file.

Certificate.zip

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BTW, to get the names Excel file into a text format, you can either export as plain text from Excel. 

You can also copy the names and paste into a text editor, but then you will also need to replace the tabs that will be between what was columns with plain spaces...

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/20/2018 at 2:00 PM, MikeW said:

This sort of thing is entirely possible in APub.

Design the certificate. Place the certificate design on the Master Page of a document that is not using Facing pages.

Switch the the first page of the document. I would add a layer at this point for the text. Add a single text frame where the names go. Make a paragraph that centers the text. Set the paragraph style to begin on the next page like so:

capture-002379.png.1e20f42d10f508e770913c8559361398.png

Then simply import the text. It will overflow and I find it distracting, so I shut it off at the lower right corner of the text frame. Then shift-click the flow icon and all the pages will be built automatically. Takes mere seconds.

I have attached a simple example as a ZIP. It contains the APub file, the certificate graphic and a text file.

Certificate.zip

This is fabulous! Great! 

Question: will this work if we use different styles? I mean, for instance, sometimes I need to personalize names and sessions the guy attended. With data merge it's a piece of cake. But this way I'd need to create 2 boxes, right? One for each text file... Did you try this? (i'll do it and let you know what happens)

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9 minutes ago, AleMello said:

This is fabulous! Great! 

Question: will this work if we use different styles? I mean, for instance, sometimes I need to personalize names and sessions the guy attended. With data merge it's a piece of cake. But this way I'd need to create 2 boxes, right? One for each text file... Did you try this? (i'll do it and let you know what happens)

Nope, I didn't try that.

It may be possible, though, to use two text styles that are linked via the Next Style setting, then after the names and sessions are in, to highlight the entire text and to apply using Apply Next style (or whatever it is named as I don't have APub open).

But otherwise, flowing two text files ought to work out...

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I've tried my idea. Didn't work.

In page 1 I created a new text box. SHIFT-clicked the upper box the flow icon and Publisher created the pages.But it added a "empty" page between each name tag. Probably because the text format I have in Mac.

870498692_ScreenShot2019-01-01at12_02_57.thumb.png.e70e52bb14c13da71fea8a266c620622.png

Then I SHIFT-clicked the second text box flow icon and Publisher added a lot of new pages. I'd expect it would follow the page count. And, again, and empty page between sessions...

916251324_ScreenShot2019-01-01at12_03_09.thumb.png.4581b93a00d4e6ac78d3ef7d9d68b465.png

Probably I need to work on styles, perhaps asking Publisher to flow to next frame. Just don't know how to work the text file for this. Paragraphs, right?

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1 minute ago, AleMello said:

I've tried my idea. Didn't work.

...

Probably I need to work on styles, perhaps asking Publisher to flow to next frame. Just don't know how to work the text file for this. Paragraphs, right?

The text style with the Start in next frame should be whatever is the last text "record" that appears in the text file. So if the Session the attendee was at is the second text, it should have that paragraph setting.

I literally sat down with my first cup of coffee for the day at my last response. I'll give something a whirl in a bit and see if I can do something.

In the meantime, a sample of dummy data would be great. That way I don't need to invent something that may not apply. Just a couple made up records that follow your data file format.

Mike

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1 minute ago, MikeW said:

The text style with the Start in next frame should be whatever is the last text "record" that appears in the text file. So if the Session the attendee was at is the second text, it should have that paragraph setting.

I literally sat down with my first cup of coffee for the day at my last response. I'll give something a whirl in a bit and see if I can do something.

In the meantime, a sample of dummy data would be great. That way I don't need to invent something that may not apply. Just a couple made up records that follow your data file format.

Mike

Don't worry. And let's leave that for tomorrow. BTW Happy New Year. 
I'll work on the text file later and send it to you.

Best regards from Brazil

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  • 2 years later...
10 hours ago, Cin Meo said:

I m going to buy Affinity Publisher, but want to know if this feature was added or not yet. i have gift cards and one time codes inside cvs file. will this work?

 

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Affinity Publisher adds a Data Merge feature in the 1.9 release, which should be available soon as it is nearing the end of the beta test phase. Perhaps that will do what you want.

-- 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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Data merge really is the best and simplest tool for this. I just did 200+ accreditation certificates. Had the static artwork all done, set the text for the company names as well as another variable field. Use the data in csv and merge. Job is done in minutes, clean and simple. Now this was Indesign, I have not had time to play with data merge in the Publisher beta but from the little I have read this should be just as simple and easy.

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1 minute ago, wonderings said:

but from the little I have read this should be just as simple and easy

Correct. I did a mailing with 2500 addresses and all worked well.

------
Windows 10 | i5-8500 CPU | Intel UHD 630 Graphics | 32 GB RAM | Latest Retail and Beta versions of complete Affinity range installed

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Just now, Cin Meo said:

Is there any way to generate QR codes based on imported data?

No, I mean not AFAIK.

------
Windows 10 | i5-8500 CPU | Intel UHD 630 Graphics | 32 GB RAM | Latest Retail and Beta versions of complete Affinity range installed

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7 minutes ago, Cin Meo said:

That's just grate. Data merge is working fine. Is there any way to generate QR codes based on imported data? Adobe InDesign is able to do this.

Indesign can create QR codes so it works with data merge. I do not think Publisher has the ability to create QR codes so it would not work in data merge. Now if you had an image of all the QR codes you can merge the images in. Not as slick as doing it the Adobe way and is extra steps but still doable.

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2 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Indesign can create QR codes so it works with data merge. I do not think Publisher has the ability to create QR codes so it would not work in data merge. Now if you had an image of all the QR codes you can merge the images in. Not as slick as doing it the Adobe way and is extra steps but still doable.

That's interesting. I can generate QR code vector files separately. It's not 1 or 2. It's for gift cards more then 1000 :/

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