Expert: Ken Black - 10/9/2009

Question
I am attempting to design a book with an immense amount of information.  It will be similar to a telephone book, but given a special design, with information location pending.  I am curious if you know a simpler way to link each cell in an Excel document into an Indesign file.  Possibly a way I could type a cell number into a text box in InDesign.

Is there any other information I should be including in this query?

Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Phillip,

I am not sure how you are currently performing this task, but, you should import the excel file the same way you would text by using the Place command under the file menu (command-D on Mac, ctrl-d on PC).

In the import dialog there are 2 check boxes in the lower right hand corner, Show options and Replace Selection.

Check the Show Options box.

After you choose your file, the options dialog will open. You can set the Cell Range in this dialog, either as a range or a single cell.

For example, if a spreadsheet has 5 rows with 5 columns and you want the whole spreadsheet, the range would be A1:E5. If you only wanted, say the info in cell B3, then enter only B3.

To put this into a specific text box, simply have the box selected when Placing the Excel file.

Depending on what version of Indesign you are using, the options dialog also includes some different methods of importing the spreadsheet. Either as a table or as text, with some different formatting choices.

Thanks,

Ken Black

www.bestprintingonline.com