More variable info needed

[Joe]

Need to do some raffle tickets numbered 1- 2000. They need to be numbered like below for each page where the first page would be 1 - 5. Page 2 would 6-10. Page 3 would be 11-15, etc...up through the last page which would be 1996-2000. One problem though is that the spacing between row 1 and 2 should be 2 inches while the spacing between rows 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6 needs to be 1.25 inches. Is that even possible in InDesign?

0001	0002	0003	0004	0005
0001	0002	0003	0004	0005
0001	0002	0003	0004	0005
0001	0002	0003	0004	0005
0001	0002	0003	0004	0005
0001	0002	0003	0004	0005

[Joe]

Finally figured this out. Placed text boxes down the far most left column positioned as needed and linked them each to the same data file then entered the amount of space needed horizontally between the fields. They show up just like the illustration above now. Now to see if they actually hit the paper where they need to on a color copier that should have been sent to the junkyard years ago.

[DigiCorn]

The way we do (and maybe you do too; it wasn't crystal clear) is that we make multiple columns in Excel (A, B, C headers, etc. for each column). Then we add the formula for numbering to each column. When we place in ID, we create a separate text box in the correct position for each number.

[Joe]

That kind of sounds like what I did. The excel document was just one column numbered 1 - 2000.

[DPSprint]

welcome to my world...
This is what I have to do as we print the files a few times up, between 2 and 20 up depending on size.
Some files have thousands of data fields and i have to split them into the number of times up in the data file.
 Exactly as Digicorn does

biggest was around 16000 names (plus address info in separate columns, so about 7 fields i think)... it takes forever to select half that many and cut and paste into the second set of fields (for 2up).
I have yet to figure out how to do it another way (and yet my math brain says there must be a way?!), and even my mum who was an excel guru cant work out how... I know f all about spreadsheets.

Numbers are a whole lot easier to split

[Joe]

You don't need to make it two up in the excel file if that is what you meant. To make the numbers 6 up on my page I created 6 text boxes vertically and linked each text box to the same field in the data file. Data merge did all the work from there. Turned out to be really easy.

[DPSprint]

Its not quite that easy as these are printed and then stacked, they have to stay in postcode address order, as in left half stacks on top of right...
this is the 2up version

the cool thing is that indeisgn recognises when a data field has the same name and just adds in a '1' after it in the fields.

oh and we add a sheet number onto the printed sheet, makes it easy to know if a sheet gets damaged along the process

[pabney]

I use XMPie for this, which makes it easy. However, if all you have to work with is InDesign Merge, take a look at the Colecandoo script that will adjust your data for you. Read this page for more info.

[DPSprint]

I use XMPie for this, which makes it easy. However, if all you have to work with is InDesign Merge, take a look at the Colecandoo script that will adjust your data for you. Read this page for more info.

oooooo I'm excited reading this!! ;-)