How can we personalize our merchandising campaign using Adobe® InDesign®?

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Herff Jones Now's Your Chance ad sales templateCreate a more professional look for your merchandising campaign, as well as make less work for yourself, by using Adobe InDesign's Data Merge feature. Personalize your Now's Your Chance fliers and other mailings with student or parent names and addresses. Follow the steps below to take your Now's Your Chance flier mailings to a new level.

Items needed:

  • Adobe InDesign CS5, CS4, CS3 or CS2
  • Get Now's Your Chance template
    • Install from the Work the Plan CD in the Spring Planning kit.
  • List of student/parent names and addresses
    • Ask the school office for a copy of the database that contains this info or use the same data file you used in eBusiness.
    • Ask for the file to be saved as a tab delimited text file (.txt). 
      • Most spreadsheet or database files can be saved in this format.
      • Call your Technical Support Adviser at 1-877-362-7750 if you need help converting the file.
  • Now's Your Chance stationery
    • Order the stationery from your Customer Adviser at your plant or from your Herff Jones Yearbook Representative.
    • The stationary is FREE! (in reasonable quantities)

Format the text file

  • Open the list of names and addresses in a text editor or a word processing program.
  • The first line of the file must list the field names.
  • Use names that are self explanatory.
  • In our example the field names ares:
    • First_name
    • Last_name
    • Address
    • City
    • State
    • Zip
  • Save the file as a text file with the .txt extension in your Yearbook folder.

Data Merge-Text file

Now's Your Chance template

  • Copy the files from the Work the Plan CD (in the Work the Plan booklet) into your Yearbook folder.
    • The Now's Your Chance template is located in the Ad Sales Supoprt - Letter Size folder on the CD.
  • Open the Now's Your Chance template:
  • Personalize the template.
  • Add your school name and address to the text.
    • If a family has children in two different schools, make sure they know from which school they are buying the ad.
  • Type the date the form is due back to the yearbook staff.
  • Type the ad pricing on the form.
    • If your ads will be black & white and color, add pricing to the appropriate lines.
    • If your ads wil be only black and white or only color, delete the text that does not apply to your ads. Save the template.
    • Go to File > Save.
    • Type a name and click Save.

Edit the Now's Your Chance template text

Open the Data Merge palette

  • InDesign CS5 - Go to Window > Utilities - Data Merge
  • InDesign CS4-CS2 - Go to Window > Automation.
    • CS4: If Automation does not appear under the Window menu, go to Window > Workspace and choose Advanced.
    • Automation will now be under the Window menu.
  • Choose Data Merge.
  • The Data Merge panel/palette opens
    • Choose your data source (the text file from your school).
    • Click on the panel/palette menu (arrow in upper right corner).
    • Choose Select Data Source.
    • Scroll to your Yearbook > Business > Get Personal Template folder.
    • Locate the text file with the names and addreses you saved earlier.
    • Double-click on the file name or click on it once and click Open.

Data Merge - Select data source

  • The palette is populated with the field names from the first line of the file.
    • First_name, Last_name, Address, etc.

Data Merge-Source with data

Add the text data to your template

  • Select the Type tool.
  • Click to the right of the word Name on your template.

Data Merge-Select Name

  • Click on First_name in the Data Merge palette.
    • The bracketed First_name text snippet is inserted.

Data Merge-Select Name Added

  • Press the Spacebar to add a space.
  • Click on Last_name in the Data Merge palette.
    • The bracketed Last_name text snippet is inserted.
  • Click the Type tool to the right of the word Address.
  • Click on Address in the Data Merge palette.
    • The bracketed Address text snippet is inserted.
  • Press the Spacebar to add a space.
  • Click on City in the Data Merge palette.
    • The bracketed City text snippet is inserted.
  • Type a comma and press the Spacebar.
  • Click on State in the Data Merge palette.
    • The bracketed State text snippet is inserted.
  • Press the Spacebar to add a space.
  • Click on Zip in the Data Merge palette.
    • The bracketed Zip text snippet is inserted.
  • If you have more fields, continue to insert them.

Data Merge - Data Added

  • Delete the lines next to the Name, Address and City-State.
    • Use the Type tool to highlight the lines and press Delete/Backspace.
    • You may have to use the Tabs palette to delete the tab leader.
    • Go to Type > Tabs to open the Tabs palette.
    • Click on the Tab with the leader.
    • Click in the Leader: field, press Delete, then Enter/Return.
    • Close the Tabs palette.

Data Merge - Tabs palette

  • The font, size and style of the text snippets can be changed like any other text.
    • Highlight the text snippet with the Type tool and choose new settings.

Data Merge - Delete Lines

  • When you are finished, Save your file.

Preview

  • Preview your data to make sure it is formatted correctly.
  • Choose Preview from the Data Merge panel/palette menu or click Preview on the bottom left corner of the panel/palette.
  • Use the arrows at the bottom of the panel/palette to preview more pages.

Data Merge - Preview Merged data

  • Make any changes, if needed, by repeating the above steps.
  • Uncheck Preview when you are done.

Data Merge-Create merged docuentFlow the text

  • After the text has been tweaked, choose Create Merged Document from the Data Merge panel/palette menu or click the Create Merged Document button on the palette.
  • The Create Merged Document dialog box opens.
  •  In the Records panel:
    • Click All Records in the Records To Merge section.
    • Choose Single Record from the Records per Document Page pop-up menu.
    • Check Generate Overset Text Report with Document Creation.
      • You will be alerted if any text is hidden after the files are generated.

Data Merge- Create Merged file

  • Click the Options button (upper right).
  • If you have a large number of students, and you probably do, you'll want to generate the files in smaller groups.
  • Click Record Limit per Document to add a check mark to it.
  • The default is 50 pages per file.
  • Change this number to whatever is a manageable number for you.
  • Click OK.
  • This step may take a few minutes.

Data Merge- Options Record Limit

Files are generated

  • After the files are created, a dialog box with this text should appear "No overset text was generated when merging records."
  • Click OK.

Data Merge-CS4-No overset text found

  • Data Merged filesMultiple copies of the files with the same name were created.
  • Each group has a different number (1, 2, 3, etc.) appended to its name.
  • Save the files.
    • Go to File > Save as
    • Save them in your Yearbook folder.

Print the fliers

  • Put the Now's Your Chance stationery into your printer and print your fliers.
  • The same steps can be followed to personalize the Yearbook Sales Templates, Alternative Language Templates, Ad Sales Support Template and any of the letters included with Work the Plan.