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The Role of Xdata or InData

Xdata and InData are document-building tools that bring the full layout-, design-, typographic-, and picture-publishing power of QuarkXPress and InDesign to data-driven, repetitive-publishing tasks — such as calendars.

Simply put, Xdata and InData work like a mail merge on steroids. Each uses simple text statements to format text and graphics — during the import process. Xdata and InData can build documents at hundreds of pages per hour, or a simple calendar in just a few seconds. Xdata and InData will apply pre-defined style sheets to the custom and holiday text as you import it. You will not have to go to every text chain, or every date, and apply a style. You may, of course, but it will not be necessary.

Setting Preferences It is very important to prepare Xdata and InData to receive the type of text that the calendar database exports. This is true whether you are using the demo version or the commercial version.

Follow the instructions that were included in the Xdata or InData demo download for installation and launch your desktop-publishing application. Upon successful installation, QuarkXPress will include an Xdata option and InDesign will include an InData option along the top menu bar.

Open your preferred calendar template, choose Preferences > Data from the Xdata or InData menu. Choose Basic Format > Tab Delimited and click OK.

Prototypes

Xdata and InData work through the use of a prototype. Like building cars or houses, if you intend to build many of them, you'd build a prototype so that all the assembly workers or contractors could look at the prototype, measure, and use it as a general guideline for the manufactured product.

Prototypes can be very simple or very complex. Xdata and InData can even import and position pictures along with text. Here is a sample of a prototype that is more complex in that it handles pictures, but still rather simple.

Notice that there are conditional statements in the sample prototype below. That means that Xdata and InData will do one thing if a certain condition is met, and another thing, if it is not. For instance, if the company name is not the same as the company name for the previous record, Xdata and InData will insert the company name of the record and apply the style sheet that reverses the text from a black horizontal line.

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