Maintaining Cell Style with data update

Having a difficult time trying to maintaining the styles and characteristics (built in ID) of a table from Excel when we update the link to refresh the data.聽 I have read old threads and went through the proper process of creating; Character, then Paragraph, then Cell Styles, then a Table style but no luck with the Table style. (Like the example in the video; which I agree don't believe it fully works)聽 But even just using Cell Styles, the data, when updated, is reverted back to it's original plain input and you manually have to apply the Cell Styles.

How can I prevent having to manually do that process/ get the Table Style to work?聽 Is there a setting or check box that need to be checked when importing the data or relinking/updating the file?聽 Please help....using CS3.

thanks,

Ed

Maintaining Cell Style with data update

What options are you using when Placing the file? From Help http://help.adobe.com/en_US/InDesign/6.0/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-6f 41a.html:

Formatted Table

InDesign tries to preserve the same formatting used in Excel, although the formatting of text within each cell may not be preserved. If the spreadsheet is linked rather than embedded, updating the link will override any formatting applied to the table in InDesign.

Unformatted Table

The table is imported without any formatting from the spreadsheet. When this option is selected, you can apply a table style to the imported table. If you format text using paragraph and characters styles, the formatting is preserved even if you update the link to the spreadsheet.

Unformatted Tabbed Text

The table is imported as tab-delimited text, which you can then convert to a table in InDesign or InCopy.

Formatted Only Once

InDesign preserves the same formatting used in Excel during the initial import. If the spreadsheet is linked rather than embedded, formatting changes made to the spreadsheet are ignored in the linked table when you update the link. This option isn鈥檛 available in InCopy.

I never use linked Excel files, but it looks to me like you should be using the second option: Unformatted Table.

Ken

Maintaining Cell Style with data update

Ken, I've tried all these options and none of them have been helping. The main option I've been using is Unformatted, but the table style seems to get confused and applies the inappropriate cell style, even though it's properly linked. It's as if it's reading an override or hidden information which I can not change. I've recreated the Character, Paragraph, Cell, then Table styles multiple times and it's not grabbing the appropriate/designated file. Could I have tried it too many times and need to rebuild it from scratch?

Is the problem the update, or is the problem that the proper styles are not being applied in the first place (i.e., does it remain consistently wrong after updating when you import Unformatted?).

There's an exhaustive discussion about the behavior of paragraph styles in relation to cell styles in relation to table styles at http://forums.adobe.com/message/2032774#2032774. The upshot (if you want to save yourself 45 minutes of really dry stuff about styles) is that in order to get your table style to apply a cell style which applies a paragraph style, your default paragraph style must either be Basic Paragraph or the style you want in your tables.

So try setting your default style to Basic Paragraph (with nothing selected and the cursor not in any text, choose the Basic Paragraph style).

Ken

Is this happening when you try to paste new data into the cells from a different table?

Usually when I'm doing this I convert the table data I want to bring into into text, with tabs and paragraph returns.

You can then paste the new tabbed data into the table using Paste Without Formatting, to retain the text, table and cell style.

Well I import the data, selecting what should be the correct Table style but is imported with the incorrect settings. I take the info. Reformat using proper character, paragraph, and cell styles. I even try to create a new Table style from that and save as new and apply that new style to the table. Then when the data is updated and relinked it reverts the current table style back to a mix of styles. Not sure if I'm being clear enough please let me know if I can be more specific. Thanks again for your inquiry and assistance.

No, I'm placing the data in and including it as a link so that when the data is updated I simply relink and it holds its position. The problem from there is when relinked it is not holding the Table style and we have to reapply the Character, Paragraph and Cell style to match the look.

Snedew, I never use this workflow, but I'd kind of like to play with it and see if I can get it working. If you want to, send your Excel file and the formatted table in Indesign (so I can see what you want it to look like) to kbenson at pegtype dot com. I'm out for rest of today, but I'll look at it tomorrow.

Ken

Let me see if I can create a sample of it, the info is confidential.

Ken, Thanks for your help. Your solution to remove the character styles has worked. The system was getting confused with too much info. I've removed all the table character styles confirmed the paragraph and cell style and then created the new Table Style. Placed in the data unformatted with the applied table style, Alt applied Cell style's header and footer, resized tables to required size and now all updating of links works properly. The info is updated and the table styles don't change.

Thanks again!