XChange announces DataLinker plug-in for Adobe InDesign CS3

Tag : Plug Insert

XChange International announced the release of DataLinker for Adobe InDesign CS3 . The plug-in lets users quickly and easily connect external datasources to Adobe InDesign documents.
Users can link CSV (Comma Separated Value or a flat text data file)and with an add-on plug-in, ODBC-compliant databases to a documentby using a simple, user-friendly palette. DataLinker willautomatically insert new information or changes made to the datasource with a synchronise feature.
The versatile plug-in offers powerful merge capabilities to insertdata from a data source one field at a time or from multiplerecords simultaneously. DataLinker integrates closely with theTableStyles/CellStyles and BarcodeMaker plug-ins, offering extraproductivity gains for users working with tables or barcodes.DataLinker is a valuable time saver for anyone who needs to connectdirectly to dynamic and changing external data such as price lists,product catalogues, budgets or annual reports.
New features in the CS3 version:
• Regular expression/GREP find and change on incoming data asit is placed in the document. This allows for much more flexibledata formatting
• Unlimited field length when using the ODBC plug-in.Previously, DataLinker could only handle the first 1000 charactersin an ODBC data source.
• Prefix and suffix areas in alphanumeric fields can nowhandle all Adobe InDesign special characters, such as n for a carriage return, and t for a tab.
• Use XML rule scripts to modify data after it is merged intothe document, using the full power of the Adobe InDesign scriptingAPI.
Ideal for anyone working in catalogue publishing or with pricelists, DataLinker allows an unlimited number of data sources to beadded to a single InDesign document for flexible data management.One palette controls all of the plug-in’s capabilities andwith just a few clicks, data is connected. Users often have rawdata in their database that they want to format by adding orchanging characters when it flows into a document.
Currencies are a classic example. A database might have the number34 stored in the database, but when it’s placed into thedocument it should read £34.00. With the addition of regularexpression/GREP find and change capabilities, DataLinker has addedvery robust support for virtually any kind of formatting scenarios.Utilising the same engine as InDesign’s native GREPFind/Change feature, DataLinker now offers the full robustness ofregular expressions for formatting database data.
DataLinker takes advantage of InDesign’s XML Rulefunctionality to allow users to write simple scripts to modifytheir layout depending on the content of the data that comes fromthe data source. Now, DataLinker users can take advantage of all ofthe robustness of InDesign’s scripting API to write scriptsagainst their data. XML Rules scripts are short and simple, makingit easy for users with a beginning knowledge of scripting to get upand running with scripts for DataLinker-created documents.
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