This is the second article in the Data Merge “Did You Know” series. If you’ve not read the first article, be sure to do so here. Carrying on from the first article, let’s dive into more lesser-known Data Merge behaviours of Adobe InDesign.

Data is there… even if the link is missing

If you ever have to share a Data Merge file with anyone else but do not want to share the data with them but instead only give them the base InDesign file, note that simply removing the link doesn’t remove the data.

In Part One, I wrote that InDesign doesn’t package the source file of a Data Merge… but that doesn’t mean the data isn’t there. Take this example of a packaged InDesign file used for a Data Merge. While opening the document, there is a missing link warning.

Once the document opens, I can then see in the links panel that there is a warning next to this text file that was used as the source.

If I right click on the link, I can’t unembed the text file as it simply isn’t linked

However, if I go to the Data Merge panel and check the preview box, I can see the records that were in the unlinked text file.

If the file didn’t have fields added to the page, I can also add those fields to the page and check the preview button on and the data will appear for these records.

It also merges correctly to PDF and InDesign files.

Be aware of this if you ever have to package a Data Merge file to others whom you do not wish to provide unredacted data.

Merge fields can be removed via the hyperlinks panel

A Creative Pro article referred to this as “ghost hyperlinks” but it is a great way of solving issues where a newly provided data merge source file can’t be previewed because of a mismatch of source names.

By opening the Hyperlinks panel, it is possible to see the fields that InDesign is using for the data merge as they are within this panel, though they aren’t obvious at first glance.

If one of the hyperlinks is double clicked, it will reveal the field that is being referred to.

From here, a hyperlink can removed, thereby replacing the field codes in the document back to regular text.

Shift clicking during the import does not show options

If the show import options checkbox is toggled off when placing an image, it is possible to perform a “one-time” request to show the import options without clicking on the checkbox. This is done by holding shift and then clicking Open.

But this doesn’t work with Data Merge. A similar option is available when selecting a data source, though holding shift and clicking Open will simply open the document – the Show Import Options checkbox has to be checked if it needs to appear. Hopefully this is a bug that is eventually fixed.

Put linked images in the same folder as the source text file…

While it is possible to add images to a data merge project by supplying its link in the source file, I so often see users put the complete file path of the link being used in the field.

If the images are filed in the same location as the text file, the only item that needs to be added here is the name of the file.

However, this means the links need to be in the same folder as the source text file.

…or use relative syntax as well

It is also possible to use syntax that is relative to the folder where the database is. Take the following folder structure.

To link to these images, the database needs to use syntax for the previous folder and then folders above. That will look like this

I hope you found this short series useful, and if you have any Data Merge “did you know” tips, please feel free to submit them either in the comments, or contact me via my contact page.