Extract text fields from Indy

[Slappy]

Here's the deal: We've been doing a boatload of bus cards for a company lately, in the hundreds of people, and now they're starting to come back for reprints on several names, all from different previous runs. The CSR just gives me a list of names, NO previous job numbers and I have to go Searching through all of the jobs. I'm looking to export just one text field from the doc (preferably the name) and bring it into maybe an Excel file so I can reference the job number and keep a master list.

Any ideas if that's easily automated? When I did the first few large lots, I actually cleaned the client's Excel file up then used Data Merge with Character & Paragraph Styles to flow it all into the layout. I can't use that original data though, because they came back & made changes to several of the cards.

[DigiCorn]

You could create a master card in Fusion pro, and then set it up and link to a .csv.

Our Web storefront also has this option; create a master in PDF Lib Blocks, and then upload a spreadsheet and it will auto generate all the cards.

[gnubler]

Tell your CSRs to do their jobs.  Mine is really good about supplying old job #s.

If you have PDFs of all the BCs a Mac Finder search will find PDFs that contain certain words/names.

[Slappy]

You could create a master card in Fusion pro, and then set it up and link to a .csv.

Our Web storefront also has this option; create a master in PDF Lib Blocks, and then upload a spreadsheet and it will auto generate all the cards.

Yeah, I have neither of those resources.  :lipsrsealed:

If you have PDFs of all the BCs a Mac Finder search will find PDFs that contain certain words/names.

That's what I've been doing, in either the PDFs or the Indy file but it's already getting to be time consuming. A few months from now when I have dozens of previous orders it'll be a total cluster.

I think I'll just start combining the Excel files & add a column for the Job # since even if somebody's phone or email or title changed, all I need to reference is their name. I'll just have to copy-paste anybody who was manually typeset but it'll pay off in time.

[Greg_Firestone]

Are they all kept within a certain directory? I often search for documents using specific key words in the document. Mac 10.x will parse the text of certain file types.  I know it does PDF, not 100% about InDesign, but that might be a easy solution. Just search for "Jim Smith" or whatever and it should show up.

Greg

[gnubler]

That's the nerdy version of what I attempted to type.  :cheesy:

[Slappy]

Are they all kept within a certain directory? I often search for documents using specific key words in the document. Mac 10.x will parse the text of certain file types.  I know it does PDF, not 100% about InDesign, but that might be a easy solution. Just search for "Jim Smith" or whatever and it should show up.

Greg

Yeah, I thought it would too, but it's not finding anything in the Directory. I tried EasyFind too, and it's just slow, although it eventually returns the correct path. For multiple Finds, that  would take forever. Ugh.

[Duffy]

I got tired of all that BS for repeat cards and just set up a INDD template with the fields and had the reps supply a .XLS file  - that I sent them a template on - and they type in all of the info they want and do a Merge.
Takes a couple of minutes to save the XLS as a CSV and then run through Merge and identify the fields - cards are to the printer in 6 minutes from the time they come in to me.

Still they come back and ask how this card has the wrong info on it

[Slappy]

Yeah, I did that with repeat clients at the last shop too. I'd even set up Web2Print templates in Storefront and import the Excel files myself to generate nice PDFs. Not gonna happen here, it's like dragging these CSRs over broken glass to get them to do most anything right. I may suggest it for kicks, but I already know the answer. "Well, it's one of our biggest clients and we don't want to ask them to change the way they do things."

 

[Joe]

TextWrangler can search for text in files that are not open and it's pretty quick. I've used it a lot for mass changes to preps templates. Not sure if it would search Indy docs though.

[gnubler]

TextWrangler can search for text in files that are not open and it's pretty quick. I've used it a lot for mass changes to preps templates. Not sure if it would search Indy docs though.

Interesting tip, thx.

[t-pat]

TextWrangler can search for text in files that are not open and it's pretty quick. I've used it a lot for mass changes to preps templates. Not sure if it would search Indy docs though.

far out, I use emeditor to do the same thing, and use textwrangler for other things. That will be handy as I don't need to bounce between machines as much (I now have 2 virtual machines running on my mac, and a pc on my desktop as well, over 3 24" screens, kinda sucks).

I have a job I do all the time that the customer requests one record out of a bazillion over several csvs, the only way I have to identify it is by this number and have to search through sometimes 5-6 csvs.

[David]

TextWrangler can search for text in files that are not open and it's pretty quick. I've used it a lot for mass changes to preps templates. Not sure if it would search Indy docs though.

Very handy Tip!!!

thanks Joe, learn't sompin' new ever day..  (in my best country boy speak)