Excel stuff

[pspdfppdfxhd]

I have been in variable data hell this week, very complex jobs
sheesh, I was in the bathroom yesterday taking to myself "I Hate this job"!!
I have so much going on personally right now, I don't feel like being this intense at work.

Been there, got another one coming in the new year. Spike up the egg nog!

[Tracy]

I'll skip the Egg Nog, just give me the spike part 

[Tracy]

Variable Data question, but it is more of an excel question I think.
I already told them I couldn't do it the way the data was sent, but they were able to do it in Word
so I'm thinking it's my skill level that couldn't do it.

Excel file had 30,000 records there were duplicate rows with different "gift" amounts and different "dates"
so there really was only like 6000 records but the data was needing info from the duplicate rows
the only way I could do this is with columns

Is there a way for this to be done with InDesign?

There is no way I would fix 30,000 records, if it was small I would fix it.

[Joe]

Not sure if this would work:

Transpose (rotate) data from rows to columns or vice versa

[Tracy]

Thanks! I will try it, I'm sure it won't work for me 

[Tracy]

That actually kind of worked, I would of still had to go through the 30,000 records
and select the ones I wanted and copy/transpose the duplicate names separately

This will work for me with small batches, to me the customer should supply the data correctly.
can someone let me know if this is wrong thinking?
Sometimes I get an attitude about customer files 

[DCurry]

I agree with you that the customer should supply the data however you need it. Because if you alter the data and something goes wrong and isn't caught til after it prints (and mails!), then you're on the hook. I certainly wouldn't mess with that many records!

[Tracy]

Thanks D, oh yeah I know I would screw it up 

good to know it's ok to kick back bad data, not sure how they did it in word
they had to of fixed the data

[Possum]

Nobody is smart enough to ask the printer how they want art or data supplied, are they? I never had the pleasure of working for a place that charged extra for the extra work to straighten crap out, but I bet the customers would have howled if they were billed for what it actually costs for their laziness.

I have had to spend over four hours on a tee shirt design, first trying to get it so that it could be delineated in Illustrator, then cutting it down from six colors to three because they didn't want to pay for six.

It's always fun trying to decide what color to make people's faces when your only choices are red, green and white. Boy, I was tempted....

[Joe]

Thanks D, oh yeah I know I would screw it up 

good to know it's ok to kick back bad data, not sure how they did it in word
they had to of fixed the data

This file they sent sounds like the classic example of the customer thinking "I will do it like this to help the printer out".

Always ends up like this:

[Tracy]

right on the nose Joe - Train Wreck is right
6289 Letters 6289 Statements and 6289 Envelopes 
XMF did not like their word pdf that I put into indy with their Letterhead
so I had to multipage import this piece of @$% R#$ into indy for 2-up on the letters and statements
just found out they put the wrong date on the letters
The date on it is January 26 (that's when they want it)
The bindery has to put stamps on 6289 pieces and it still has to run
and I still need to fix their letters, You want it by the 26th?

[DCurry]

I have had to spend over four hours on a tee shirt design, first trying to get it so that it could be delineated in Illustrator, then cutting it down from six colors to three because they didn't want to pay for six.

And then they send a new file.  

[DigiCorn]

right on the nose Joe - Train Wreck is right
6289 Letters 6289 Statements and 6289 Envelopes
XMF did not like their word pdf that I put into indy with their Letterhead
so I had to multipage import this piece of @$% R#$ into indy for 2-up on the letters and statements
just found out they put the wrong date on the letters
The date on it is January 26 (that's when they want it)
The bindery has to put stamps on 6289 pieces and it still has to run
and I still need to fix their letters, You want it by the 26th?

Is this a VDP job? Are you using XMPie or FusionPro?

[Tracy]

InDesign
I may have to look into VDP Programs, not sure if I want to tho

[DCurry]

When I first started doing VDP over 15 years ago, I hated it. But as I've done more and more of it I really came to enjoy it. It helps immensely if you have a decent software for it. My last job about half of what I did was variable. Some was very complex and while sometimes it can be frustrating it's just cool when you figure out how to do something tricky. 

FusionPro would be something to look at. It's probably the best bang for the buck and is extremely powerful, but downside is the interface kinda sucks and you have to work in the PDF. 

I'm using XMPie currently. Still learning how to do some things but it is very tightly integrated with InDesign.