How to do mail merge on top of a PDF?

Question

I often get a PDF from our designer (built in Adobe InDesign) which is supposed to be sent out to thousands of people. I've got the list with all the people, and it's easy doing a mail merge in OpenOffice.org. However, OpenOffice.org doesn't support the advanced PDF. I just want to output some text onto each page and print it out. Here's how I do it now: print out 6.000 copies of the PDF, then put all of them into the printer again and just print out name, address and other information on top of it. But that's expensive. Sadly, I can't make the PDF to an image and use that in OpenOffice.org because it grinds the computer to a halt. It also takes extremely long time to send this job to the printer. So, is there an easy way to do this mail merge (preferably in Python) without paying for third party closed solutions?

Answer 1

In my experience, best way to do this is to send an Excel (or similar) file to your designer, with headings for name, address, etc. and the sheet filled in with the data. There is a feature in InDesign called Data Merge. One page is created, with placeholders for the name, address, and any other Excel info you need put on the envelope or letter. With a click of a button, all the data is "merged" onto separate pages in InDesign. So if you have 1000 addresses, InDesign creates a 1000 page document, each page with a different name, etc. where you wanted it to go. Then the designer makes a 1000 page PDF and sends it to you. You don't have to do anything! I hope this helps.