INDESIGN DATA MERGE FIELDS SCRAMBLING SOFTWARE
INDESIGN DATA MERGE FIELDS SCRAMBLING FREE

I type one command to combine those files into a single PDF.I type one command to generate a file for each badge.This might seem a bit complex, but from my perspective the process is simple, and the following things are true: With the disclaimer out of the way, let’s look at the process. Anyone following along on other systems might have to work out discrepancies or weirdness in their own environment. I mainly work on a Linux machine, and this description is written from that point-of-view. It’s probably best not to follow along at all if you’re not somewhat comfortable in the command line. This is for informational purposes only, and may not work on your system. That said, someone else somewhere might find it useful. It’s essentially documentation for me, so I don’t forget again. That’s the main reason for me writing this, and for a couple of people who requested it. My biggest problem with this workflow is that I kept forgetting what I did the previous time.

INDESIGN DATA MERGE FIELDS SCRAMBLING SOFTWARE

If print design were still my profession, I would most likely use the best software for the job. Note that I’m not doing book design here my use case is fairly simple. By the time you’ve finished reading this, InDesign should be open and ready to go.

INDESIGN DATA MERGE FIELDS SCRAMBLING FREE

That said, feel free to laugh at my awkward process. It’s not a perfect process, but it works fairly quickly and well for me. The workflow involves using the command line. Instead of doing everything in one GUI app, a few different programs are involved. That flexibility and freedom have a price, though. Since Inkscape is an SVG drawing program, and SVGs are text, I figured there might be some flexibility there.

:-) So I’ve set out to make these badges in one of my favorite drawing tools: Inkscape. That doesn’t justify the cost to me, not only financially, but also in disk space. Really, the only thing I ever used it for was for making badges. Since I switched my OS to Ubuntu a while back, I haven’t had a need for InDesign. I used to make these in Adobe InDesign, which has a mail merge function that, while kind of weird (I seemed to be required to use UTF-16 CSV files to merge with), worked pretty well. As the resident designer, I’m often tasked with making the name badges that everybody wears. I co-organize some popular conferences in Amsterdam with a few friends/colleagues.

Indesign data merge fields scrambling