Link text fields in Designer 10 with cells in Excel or Word (table)?

**mikeymopar** · 30 July 2015, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

I'd question the value of an updateable parking space diagram. Who would use it?

I'd be more inclined to find on a list that my space was No. 84, rather than search a diagram to try and find where my name was. Finding space 84 is easier than finding a name.

So, perhaps a diagram with the numeric spaces and a table with the allocation?

just thinking of my experience with boat marinas and the multitude of docks and slips. the check in office would print up layouts every day due to the amount of transient slips. this way a visitor would also have a "map" to help locating the different slips he needed to find. you know old people need visuals

**pauland** · 30 July 2015, 02:57 PM

I understand the need for visuals (not sure that the ageist comment need apply), it was whether names had to go on spaces.

**Egg Bramhill** · 30 July 2015, 03:58 PM

I always took it that the OP meant the same as mikey stated, it was for use by the car park owner, not the car park user.

I've had to update the page as Google Sheets have a bug. Previews fine in IE.

**mikeymopar** · 30 July 2015, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

I understand the need for visuals (not sure that the ageist comment need apply), it was whether names had to go on spaces.

neither i nor egg questioned the op as to why. i wouldn't even question it if he wanted the names written backwards. (maybe his wife spends a lot of time in front of a mirror and this way she can read it correctly

) he just asked if it was possible. and he got two ways that it could be accomplished (and as per the norm, egg's is technically better

)

i digress, neither here nor there. hopefully he thinks one will meet his needs.

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

I always took it that the OP meant the same as mikey stated, it was for use by the car park owner, not the car park user.

I've had to update the page as Google Sheets have a bug. Previews fine in IE.

nice egg. i gotta try to remember to do things that way more often

**pauland** · 30 July 2015, 06:33 PM

There's a small misunderstanding - I originally was thinking about a website page.

When someone mentions "Link", in my world it usually means that a change in one place means that the change is automatically reflected in the other, so my mindset was that an update to the excel document would automatically update a web page.

Anyway, as has been said, a solution is there.

On this business of not asking questions, but just doing what is asked.

In my life, I've been asked questions when I've asked how to do something, and I've often been very grateful that those questions were asked because often they stopped me doing something stupid, or led to a better solution than I had in mind.

I don't understand why anyone would find questions intrusive or offensive - it's not as if we are in the army here.

Anyway, this particular drum has been beaten enough times.

Mark, is the solution good to go?

**mikeymopar** · 30 July 2015, 06:57 PM

ahhh, ok. i see where you were coming from Paul. cool. i read into it he just wanted to link a name to a spot and print it out. nothing to do with a webpage. you're thinking modern tech and my mindset is still the slow ways of northern michigan (which also slightly explains my jibe towards the elderly - which i am practically part of. it was, and still is, a big tech and culture shock moving to here from chicago)

that's why i've started following this forum more. not just for graphics but for the real world tech knowledge and ideas you and others throw out there. y'all are a well-rounded group of members here

hopefully we (or should i say "I") haven't befuddled Mark

**Mark56** · 31 July 2015, 09:57 PM

Sorry Guys, I did not get to this until now.

Mike, the posting on 29 July 2015, 09:02 PM, is almost exactly what the request is. But if Understand you correctly you made a PDF of this and then imported only the specified fields into the Xara file as a separate layer, is that correct? I have not imported anything like that into Xara before, I would need to find some documentation to try it.

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- Last week

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- This week

The spaces are not really named they are numbered but the numbers change week to week and sometimes on rare occasions, change over night. Have tried to attach an example of one week to the next so you can see what I have tried to do manually in Xara along but this would just be way to time consuming to do it like this. Hope this helps.

Mark

**Egg Bramhill** · 31 July 2015, 11:02 PM

Hi Mark, I'm intrigued, are all the bays the same size or do they also change size week on week?

**mikeymopar** · 01 August 2015, 05:16 AM

Originally Posted by Mark56

Mike, the posting on 29 July 2015, 09:02 PM, is almost exactly what the request is. But if Understand you correctly you made a PDF of this and then imported only the specified fields into the Xara file as a separate layer, is that correct? I have not imported anything like that into Xara before, I would need to find some documentation to try it.

hey Mark -
i fall short in the video department (and sorry, the video quality and size had to be reduced to fit the <5MB forum restriction...c'mon egg, let me have it

) but this is all i've really done - quick and easy and absolutely nothing fancy but it's all a couple of my intercom customers require. they want images changed seasonally when they give me an updated list of names to program into the units which is why i've used xara coupled with the excel file they give me.

the trick is getting the cells the right size to use as your template (or changing your image a little to fit the data). save the selected area as a pdf. then drag it into your xara workspace. i didn't do it but it's probably a good idea to group the imported pdf before clicking off it since it imports sometimes as oddly grouped cells.

**Mark56** · 01 August 2015, 11:04 AM

Egg,

I was kind of intrigued when the boss approached me with this as well. He has been trying to do something in Excel but has not been able to get anything he likes.
Yes the spots are all consistent for now and do not see any changes in the actual number of spaces for the foreseeable future.

Mike,

I think you did an excellent job with the video example. I think I can try and see where this might work. I have the spaces all put in the base layers of the current drawing example. Will make a copy and try putting the Excel file together to see what I can come up with.

When you say 'getting the cells the right size' are you referring to the Excel cells or the ones drawn in Xara? The point values on the hard coded Xara file is about a Arial 5 pt.

Thank you all for trying to help me in this new endeavor. Not sure if I'll get a chance to work on this over the weekend but will try and get something done. Will report back when I get some progress.

Mark