Importing Into Quark 5

[ldmeguiar]

Is there anyway to import data into Quark 5 or 6.5? I have a database that needs to go into a Quark document. i.e., 1 line of information from an Excell file needs to go into 1 Quark text box. Does anyone know of any way of doing this? Thanks.

 

[jimoblak]

I believe for version 5 you must import as CSV. Excel (XLS) import was not available until after version 5.

 

[ldmeguiar]

So it's possible in v.6? I haven't tried it yet because I just v.6 and haven't really started using it.

 

[jimoblak]

Yes, version 6 imports/links to XLS files.

http://www.creativepro.com/printerfriendly/story/22921.html

 

[ldmeguiar]

Can you tell me how to do it?

 

[jimoblak]

That is what that link is for. Is the tutorial on that web page not working?

 

[dropkickmurphy]

Thats fine for importing tables but not for VDP. For that you will need an xtension. Though how you are using the data will effect what type of xtension you will need. Here are some (none of which are cheap lol)

xData (Good for data intensive jobs)
xcatalog
DesignMerge
Personalizer-X
.. plus others

QuarkXclusive is free, though made for use with an Indigo but I think you can export to pdf. Never really bothered with it myself though. I dont think it does variable images but dont quote me on that.

Quark 7 was supposed to have it built in (Basic VDP) but I think I heard they had licensing problems with PPML. So that was yanked after the beta. XML may be an option but I havent played with it yet.

Most times when I do stuff like that I just use InDesign. IND CS2 I believe comes with the pagemaker plugins good to go.. and CS1 you needed to install the PM plugins. Gives you basic VDP ability with text and images. More complicated stuff though and you will need serious plugins. Really liked the 30day no limit trial on uDirect. Also you can play around with XML in Ind but this is the quark form lol.

As always, download the demos and find what works for you.

Cheers

 

[jimoblak]

Ahhh... I saw the word Excel and totally ignored the application of the data as variable printing.

In that case, you might get by with a plain text file that flows through multiple frames as you pre-define them on a master page. At least that is how I do them in InDesign. I have not tried this in QuarkXPress.

 

[dropkickmurphy]

Just went looking around, XML Plus Xtension might be able to do it for you:

http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/xtensions/xmlplus.html

I just tried putting it in but it doesnt seem to like 6.52 so I cant tell ya for sure. It says it works with 6.5 though.


Alot of bs though to do something as simple as adding a little bit of text. You could do it in InDesign CS2 in 2 seconds with DataMerge

Window>Automate>DataMerge
Select your CVS data file and then drag and drop your field(s) where you need.

Thats what it sounds like what you need.. but for quark and free

Ah well..

 

[ldmeguiar]

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to try the extensions. I have a 200 page publication with about 50 pages of business card size text boxes that need names, addresses & phone numbers that are in an Excel file. I'm trying to find a way to keep from retyping all of them.

 

[jimoblak]

Do not ever retype if you alreday have data in a file!

If you must, you can export the spreadsheet as CSV and then use find/replace to change the comma separators to new line breaks. Then just thread it through text frames.

 

[dougal77]

I've found xdata pretty good for this sort of thing