InDesign Plugin
For DataMerge Pro
InDesign Plug-In for DataMerge Pro
DataMerge Pro subscriptions include a convenient InDesign plug-in. This plug-in focuses on the basics of field positioning, default field formatting, and the collection of assets such as fonts to make creating a template faster and easier. This plug-in enables you to configure many of your DataMerge Pro template's settings directly in InDesign.
After creating your template in InDesign you will need to log into DataMerge Pro to complete some settings before the template is usable. In the same way that some DataMerge Pro capabilities are not available in InDesign, not all capabilities in InDesign will be available in DataMerge Pro.
The current version of the plugin is 1.1.3, and it was released on 5 October, 2015. If you experience any problems with the InDesign plugin, please report the problem to us by opening a support ticket.
1.1.3 is compatible with InDesign CC (2014) and with InDesign CC (2015), which are new versions of the application that have been recently released. Please make sure you download the CC2014 or CC2015 version and not the plain CC version.
Important: the configuration screen for the plugin has been simplified, and now also displays what version of the plugin you are using. See "Configuring the Plugin" below.
See a brief video about using the plug-in: DataMerge Pro InDesign Plugin Instructions.
Note: this video is somewhat out of date. There is no longer a need to manually edit the .cfg file. See "Configuring the plugin" below.
Select the appropriate plug-in version based on your operating system to access installation instructions and download the plug-in:
Mac Installation Instructions
Mac InDesign CC 2015 Version
Click here to download the InDesign CC 2015 plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires OSX (Mac) systems and InDesign CC 2015.
Mac InDesign CC 2014 Version
Click here to download the InDesign CC 2014 plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires OSX (Mac) systems and InDesign CC 2014.
Mac InDesign CC Version
Click here to download the InDesign CC plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires OSX (Mac) systems and InDesign CC.
Mac InDesign CS6 Version
Click here to download the InDesign CS6 plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires OSX (Mac) systems and InDesign CS6.
- Make sure InDesign is not running.
- Download the plug-in file (above).
- Move the plug-in into the InDesign plug-ins folder. The plug-ins folder is most likely "Macintosh HDApplicationsAdobe InDesign CS6Plug-Ins"; however, it may be different on your computer. Double-click the DMG file to mount it on your system. A window will open. Then drag the content from this window into the InDesign plug-ins folder.
- See "Configuring the plugin" section below.
Windows Installation Instructions
Windows InDesign CC 2015 (64-bit systems)
Click here to download the InDesign plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires InDesign Creative Cloud 2015 on Windows 64 bit systems.
Windows InDesign CC 2015 (32-bit systems)
Click here to download the InDesign plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires InDesign Creative Cloud 2015 on Windows 32-bit systems.
Windows InDesign CC 2014 (64-bit systems)
Click here to download the InDesign plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires InDesign Creative Cloud 2014 on Windows 64 bit systems.
Windows InDesign CC 2014 (32-bit systems)
Click here to download the InDesign plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires InDesign Creative Cloud 2014 on Windows 32-bit systems.
Windows InDesign CC (64-bit systems)
Click here to download the InDesign plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires InDesign Creative Cloud on Windows 64 bit systems.
Windows InDesign CC (32-bit systems)
Click here to download the InDesign plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires InDesign Creative Cloud on Windows 32-bit systems.
Windows InDesign CS6 Version (all Windows systems)
Click here to download the InDesign plug-in for DataMerge Pro. Requires InDesign CS6 on all Windows systems.
- Make sure InDesign is not running.
- Unzip the plug-in into the InDesign plug-ins folder. The plug-ins folder depends on your version:
However, it may be different on your computer. Unzipping the plug-in should result in a new eDocBuilder folder being created. - When the plugin is first loaded and InDesign is launched, the plugin will try to create a file eDocBuilder.cfg in the directory containing the plugin. If the permissions for the Windows user account assigned to InDesign do not allow it to modify or create a file in that directory, you may see an error when InDesign starts up or when attempting to use the plugin, it will also not save the plugin preference configuration details. To correct this, find InDesign.exe in the installation directory for the application, right-click for context menu, go to Properties, then to Compatibility, check Run as Administrator and Apply the settings.
4. See "Configuring the plugin" section below.
Configuring the Plugin
- Start InDesign and begin a document.
- Next, we need to configure the plug-in by adding some connection information (Mac screenshot for illustration only). To do this, go to the InDesign > Preferences > eDocBuilder menu, and the eDocBuilder Preferences should be presented.
3. In Preferences you will enter your DataMerge Pro Admin connection information:
- For Server - Enter the following: http://www.datamergepro.com/edocengine
- For User - Enter your store ID. Same store ID you use to log into your Account Manager.
- For Pass - Enter your DataMerge Pro Admin password.
Using the Plug-In
We strongly recommend creating and testing a single page document with one text field as a test before progressing to a more involved template. Creating something more involved could be frustrating if you later discover you are doing it wrong and it all needs to be corrected.
Please note - do NOT set a bleed in your InDesign file. This will cause issues with the field placement after importing into DataMerge Pro. Please use the bleed setting in DataMerge Pro instead.
- Let's make sure that the eDocBuilder window is showing within your tool bars by going to the "Window" menu and adding a check mark next to "eDocBuilder", after that is done you should see this.
- To prepare the document for DataMerge Pro, you will be tagging the text and image areas your customer will be able to change. With the eDocBuilder window open (as above) select a text or image area frame using the arrow Selection tool. The controls on the eDocBuilder palette will activate.
- This frame area will become a field on the resulting DataMerge Pro Master PDF. Select the Type of field. Enter the Name and Prompt you want for this field.
Field names must be alphabetical characters only (A-Z or a-z)
- Numbers or special characters cannot be used
- Names may not contain spaces
- No duplicate names are allowed
The Prompt is whatever label you want the user to see for this field input. For example, "Name", or "Title", or "Phone", or "Your Photo", etc.
- After tagging text or image frames in your new InDesign document, send the template to the DataMerge Pro admin server. Use the eDocBuilder tab menu drop down to name your template, choose a Template Type and click OK to upload.
- Once InDesign has finished uploading your template, you should see:
- Now you can log into DataMerge Pro admin at http://DataMergePro.com and continue editing and testing your template online.