Text variables in PL

[maho]

Hi guys,

I've got an unusual task I am hoping I can do in PhotoLine.

Let's suppose I have a PLD document that contains a text layer. The text layer looks like this:

Congratulations {{Name}}! You have been a PhotoLine {{Role}} for {{NumYears}} Years!

Outside of PhotoLine, I have a .CSV file that has entries like this:

Name,Role,NumYears
Martin,developer,28
Gerhard,developer,27
maho,user,21

What I would like to do is to produce one new Page in the document for each row in the .CSV file, that has the variables {{Name}}, {{Role}}, {{NumYears}} replaced with the values in the .CSV.

Is there some way of doing this?

This type of functionality is commonly seen on various online label makers (eg https://www.avery.com/).

Any help greatly appreciated!

[Gerhard Huber]

"Layout > Text > Serial Document..." can do this.

[maho]

Thank you for your quick reply - I will try that and see how it works.

[maho]

It worked first time - a very powerful feature!

[PPaul]

Indeed it is powerful, I use it often.
- Paul

[Herbert123]

"Layout > Text > Serial Document..." can do this.

I was wondering: is it possible to link a placeholder layer to a data field that contains an image file name and have it place images from a preset folder?

[Martin Huber]

I was wondering: is it possible to link a placeholder layer to a data field that contains an image file name and have it place images from a preset folder?

No, currently there is no way to do that.

[Vivi_Ram]

I was looking for this feature. Found it! Thanks @maho for starting this thread

@Martin: It would quite good if we can do a data merge for placeholder image layers too from a specified folder. I use this often (daily!). For reference, if you have Affinity Publisher, look at their simple but effective Data Merge function and auto flow. Both of which are huge time savers! Thank you!

[Hoogo]

There is also something special to create bar codes from text files, maybe QR only... But I'd have to search for that function, something with {}

[Vivi_Ram]

@Hoogo: If you find out, kindly post here. I'd appreciate it very much. Thank you!

[Gerhard Huber]

There is some documentation in 7.4.89 Barcode

[Hoogo]

There is some documentation in 7.4.89 Barcode

I see, it's missing in the English help. Google translated that missing part to this:

With {pf} as code, the function opens the file dialog. A CSV or xlsx file can be loaded here. The first column is used to create a multi-page document with the content of this column as a QR code.

It is also possible to create a multi-page document with a consecutive number. To do this, select e.g. {p:13}More{##}or{#3}. Here 13 indicates an offset. A QR code is now created on each page of the document with the page number plus offset at the "#" position.

[Vivi_Ram]

Great. Thanks!!

[maho]

This feature no longer seems to work.

I have a single page .PLD document, with a single text variable. I have a .CSV file with the values to replace. When I try Layout > Text > Serial Document, it successfully parses the .CSV file to read Data Sets and Data Fields. When I click Create Serial Document, PL creates a new file with the appropriate number of pages; however, the text variable was NOT updated with the appropriate values.

[maho]

It does work... note to future self, or anyone else who stumbles by:

In the .CSV file, each variable must have double quotes around it, like this:
"Name","Role","NumYears"
not as
Name,Role,NumYears

In the .PLD document, each variable should be written in the Text layer exactly as, without any delimiters, eg:
Name Role NumYears
not as
{{Name}} {{Role}} {{NumYears}}