Airtable and Acrobat/InDesign

I too would love to have this integrated into Airtable directly… WebMerge was too costly for our use case and while not attempting the HTML approach (as described in this forum post) with Zapier and cloudprint I am concerned with my ability to pull any of this off successfully.

I should have mentioned Adobe Acrobat. InDesign is not needed if we get real-deal integration with PDF Forms.

Couldn’t you just use 65 bit catalog software, an indesign plugin? and then use airtable >> export out CSV >> then just use that?

I suggest looking into Adobe Indesign plugins, https://www.65bit.com/

Cloudprint, why not just run phraseexpress (autohotkey application) ? You can port in excel data and automatically generate forms from it

http://www.phraseexpress.com/document-generator.htm

Literally just export out your CSV and integrate it into anything that integrates into a CSV

For slack integration an API should suffice

Email stacks, use API, zapier should have integrations here too

Alternatively, if you can get an ODBC connection, and just mimic that to airtable, you could integrate a lot of things that way as well

Also there’s a lot more resources on adobes webpage on here, on these 2 areas where you can see all the potential plugins with indesign

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/plug-ins.html

and

I have read this blog, Acrobat Failed to Connect to a DDE Server, they have given solution in a very easy way. You will find solutions of all your queries. Actually, I have also found the solution for my issue.

So… Is there a recommended way to sync Airtable information into auto generated InDesign pages?

I too would love to hear of a recommended way to import or sync Airtable data into InDesign. The Page Creator block was too clunky to make Pro worth it for my design team.

Maybe Airtable can provide a database connection for EasyCatalog/InDesign?

I will tell you more about how to fix technical glitches in your system.
Epson printer is the branded printer, many people use this. If you are facing this Epson printer error code 0xe3 issue means its probably interrupting your printer job.

Bumping this… Has anyone found a relatively easy way to pump Airtable data into InDesign layouts?

We could nearly fully automate many laborious documents (catalogs, for instance) if we could leverage Airtable as a CMS for layout content. And ideally, it would live-update, or present a “broken link” within InDesign when the content needs to be refreshed. We would like to use AT as a single source of truth for product info, and not trap versions of half-truth in documents!

Thanks,

A.

I’d really like to see if this is possible, too. The page designer is OK within airtable, but doesn’t provide the professional design capability that InDesign does. I’ve searched on Google but can’t seem to find any method someone has come up with.

I’m pretty new to Airtable but I must ask why no one has simply used the InDesign API with the Airtable API. Is there something I’m missing that prevents this integration?

We’ll be rolling this out via EasyCatalog for our next catalog. It’s not a direct connection as we’ll be dumping out a CSV file for EasyCatalog to read. To be honest, that part is not much different than how we did this some years ago with Excel and EasyCatalog into InDesign, but now the content we’re using is being validated in Airtable by a larger team. Much better to have that happen there than in a proof.

Did you ever look more in depth into Adobe API <> Airtable Scripting, or are you aware of any threads that discuss it? Seems to me it should be possible…

I have not - no serious demand for my day job or Airtable users.

Thanks for the quick reply. I understand. I bet requests will pour in soon. As someone who’s worked extensively in the creative industries, Airtable is getting adopted more and more.

That would be great. Knowing that with confidence, you should get in front of that demand curve and have an integration tool ready.

great minds think alike!

I’ve done quite a bit of work with InDesign automation outside of plug-ins, building custom scripts. I’ve used CSV file workflows typically when client workflows require it, but most recently adapted scripts to access Airtable data directly and on demand when the scripts are fun using curl.

So could you generate indd files with info on airtable? Right now we have a template view, download a csv and do a datamerge via mydatamerge, but if you have a way to pull directly from airtable or even sync, I’m very interested.

Hi Brent,

I certainly can and do for a number of clients now actually. The most difficult part is dealing with the JSON and component images, but I’ve solved for both of those use cases.

Let me know if you want to catch up

I use 65 bits EasyCatalog and it is really fantastic, for a lot of work I do I simply cant go back after getting used to it and their pagination module. it covers a really big missing gap in indesign's function with working with information that changes dynamically and can be accessible to others to edit let alone just being a much better upgrade to data merge which indesign really hasn't addressed at all in over a decade if not longer. However that is not without its own extra steps, and as you are pointing out, it is not simply a direct link.

Cost may be a deterent. it's very powerful and flexible so the cost of it isnt without merit and the value is more than their for professional needs but it does make it an out of reach option for personal use.

It also comes with its own extra connection needs. its very well thought out and has a wide array of typical import and connection but I dont think any of the modules can tie directly into airtable at this time. you have Csv ( not dynamic), xml (not dynamic), google sheets (dynamic), ODBC (dynamic) and all work really really well but all need to be exported to or connected to something other than airtable. what your needs are should weighed. as well as how many tables need exporting and importing. for Me I deal with a mass amount of information that changes all the time and need sto turn around really quick anti has been fantastic but Im just now switching my team into airtable so cant say for sure. I have noticed simply trying to copy and paste from airtable into google sheets is not as consistent as it should be, and I have come to rely on this type of direct and dynamic linked information ability to google sheets. csv is great to start with or your info won't change much but if it changes often this exporting and reimporting and reconnecting inside indesign becomes more problems than it solves.

That is also just on the data front and images are just as important for indesign connection. there are many DAM's now that have drag and drop capability with Indesign and will keep the link so updating an image can be as simple as refreshing the link in indesign and just feels much better than relying on image urls in data sets. I Haven't figured out how to do this as simply in airtable and am even finding it's Dropbox integration pretty lacking having essentially no dropbox business connection.

I dont disagree with you but one of the reasons I am actually moving my team into airtable and not just sticking to spreadhseets is it has this feature that many comparable programs do not. Most just focus on the data structures without giving attention to the importance of the visual relay of information including images and layouts. Page designer is in it's infancy and is pretty cool for certain things and they do seem to be developing so hopefully it will evolve fairly soon.

Indesign is completely different beast programmed specifically for layout and publishing so to expect the same level of professional design capability in a self building no code page designer isnt really the right match up.

if anything the expectation should be reversed and put on Adobe. It's professional software but they have ignored a big gap that is pretty important for most any client I have worked with at some level not just making a book. Their Data merge ability is archaic and they just dont seem to feel they need to change much in indesign at all, it has progressed id say the least in features of all of adobes apps and since they moved their digital publishing into yet another subscription tier they seem pretty content with themselves. 

The only reason I still use indesign and not Affinity publisher is 65 bits EasyCatalog plugin. this is simply the only tool ive found that addresses the need for data connection for todays needs. I use it to connect direct to a google sheet something google doenst even offer to indesign without a level of scripting that I don't want to get into and certainly not maintain on multiple projects. you would think by now indesign has this ability natively but it doesn't and neither does Publisher.

More plugins seem to be coming out but I stopped holding my breath for Adobe to address it. Airtable I didnt join for a long time because it had no page designer function and didn't even really have good that good of database ability until this year ( I still dont love you have to synch your table into the base to get the info _ 2way synch should be all tiers considering this... but that's another post). Im hoping they continue to put in effort into all these features and abilities and page designer does get better, multiple pages, connect to more than one table etc... . I think even just a few more simple capabilities, without even trying to be as capable as an indesign, it could be really powerful but for now I use EasyCatalog for the big projects and clunking along in page designer for some things it can currently handle at least better than any other airtable like software