This document describes the use of DesignMerge Articles. In DesignMerge terminology, an Article refers to an external, text-based file that can be merged as a variable element. Examples include text files, Microsoft Word documents, HTML files, etc. Any text-based file that is supported by InDesign can be merged as an Article. 

WHAT IS A VARIABLE ARTICLE LINK?

One type of Variable Link that you can place in a document is a Variable Article Link. A Variable Article Link behaves very much in the same fashion as a Variable Picture Link, with the primary difference being that the external files are text-based, not graphic-based. Use a Variable Article Link when you would like DesignMerge to place a text-based file in a frame. This feature is helpful when you would like to merge text data that includes line breaks or multiple paragraphs, or to merge text data that has been styled in a specific manner. A DesignMerge Article Variable Link can be assigned to a text frame or to a selection of text.

Text Frame Article Link

A DesignMerge merge session will remove all content that was previously in the linked text frame, and then place in the text frame all of the content that is in the specified text file. If the text file does not contain any styling information (if the text file is plain text), then the styles and formats that are assigned to the text frame before merging will be applied to all of the text that the Article Link places in the frame. If the text file contains styling and formatting information, then that styling will be applied according to the Filter setting that has been selected for the Article Link (described in more detail below). 

Text Article Link

A DesignMerge merge session will replace that selection of text with all of the content that is in the specified text file. If the text file does not contain any styling information (if the text file is plain text), then the styles and formats that are assigned to the selection of text before merging will be applied to all of the text that the Article Link places in the frame. If the text file contains styling and formatting information, then that styling will be applied according to the Filter setting that has been selected for the Article Link (described in more detail below).

How to Reference Article Links in Your Data

To indicate which text file to merge, provide a filename or a full path. This information can be provided by a field in the data file, or by a Link Rule that sets the data based on your preferred criteria, or by setting up the Article Variable Link to add a Prefix and/or Suffix to data from the Variable Link's assigned Field. 

Filename references are supported by both Macintosh and Windows versions of DesignMerge. DesignMerge will search for the named file according to your DesignMerge Search Preferences, as described in detail in the How to reference external files and file paths in your data fields Knowledgebase Article. 

Full path references must be completely formatted in either Windows or Unix/POSIX format. A description of each path style, along with restrictions, is described in detail in the How to reference external files and file paths in your data fields Knowledgebase Article.

(Note modify the searching article to ensure it covers all file types Picture, Article, and GroupPicture).
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Supported Article File Formats

The external text files for Article Variable Links can be any type of text file format that InDesign supports placing in a text frame (such as raw text files, MPS Tags documents, Word documents, HTML files, etc.), with one exception: If the files have been created by using InDesign to save a selection of text as an InDesign Tagged Text file, then the Encoding must be ASCII or ANSI (Unicode or other encodings are not supported). If your tagged text must reference Unicode characters, please be sure to reference those characters using the specific InDesign Tag (for example, use <0x20AC> to reference the € Euro character).

To review how to export text to an Adobe InDesign Tagged Text File, please see the Export Text information on the following Adobe Help Page: 

 https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/exporting.html

HOW TO CREATE A VARIABLE ARTICLE LINK

By default, each Variable Link is originally set up as a Text type of Variable Link. If you would prefer for a Variable Link to treat data as the name of a text file to place in the document, then the Variable Link’s Type must be set to Article. To change the Variable Link’s settings, open the Variable Links dialog window. In the list of Variable Link Names on the left side of the dialog window, select the Variable Link whose settings you wish to change. Then, on the right side of the dialog window, choose Article for the Type setting. An example, using DesignMerge Basic Training Tutorial Files from DesignMerge Basic Training Videos is displayed below:

You will notice that once you have selected Article, you can choose a Filter for the text files that the Article Variable Link will place in the document. The same filters are available as those that are available for a standard Text Variable Link:

I would like to have a bit more detail either here, or in a separate section. For example, I think we need a step-by-step for exporting InDesign tagged text, and placing MPS Tags in raw text. We can do that here or in a separate detail section, for example:

• Choose None to import raw text files directly, picking up the styling assigned to the current frame or selection.
• Choose InDesign Tags if InDesign Tags are embedded within the raw text. 
• Choose MPS Tags if MPS Tags are embedded, optionally along with InDesign Tags, within the raw text to control text styling and other attributes.
• Choose RTF Tags if the text file contains RTF Tags.
• Choose InDesign Place if you prefer to allow InDesign to determine whether to apply an Import Filter and which one to apply. 

Including Embedded Links in a Text File for a Variable Article Link

DesignMerge software supports a unique feature called Embedded Links. An Embedded Link is a way to import data taken from a different Variable Link, and to place that data anywhere in the middle of the data you are already merging. The Embedded Link is automatically substituted with the data taken from the referenced link during the merge session. 

When considering including Embedded Links in text files for Article Links, please note the following:

• When an Article Variable Link is assigned to a frame, all filters support embedded links except for InDesign Place.
• When an Article Variable Link is assigned to text, all filters support embedded links.

For more information about Embedded Links, please see the following Meadows Knowledgebase Article: 

Working with Embedded Links