I was at the CreativePro Week 2017 in Atlanta, and sat in on one of Russell Viers‘ sessions.
He showed us how you can start from a spreadsheet, export the data in tabbed text format, import the data into InDesign, replace all tab characters by hard returns, then use a style setup with styles that each have a ‘Next Style’ set, to format the whole dataset in one go.
It’s a cool technique, but it is not quite straightforward.
I felt there had to be an easier way to do simplified database publishing. I presented a different solution at the CreativeWow! session.
This tool is available free of charge, and is to serve as an example of what can be achieved through custom automation.
If you have tasks that are boring and repetitive, you should try and estimate how much such tasks are costing you or your company.
Add up an estimated dollar value for the time spent, the cost of errors, the cost of materials.
This number gives you a good ballpark figure of what budget you might be able to spare for custom automation to get such a task automated. Our custom solutions will typically pay back for themselves in a few months time.
https://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/autostyletagger/
You can download and use this free of charge.