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

[Egg Bramhill]

That's exactly how I've been doing it Paul, but using a Google Drive spreadsheet which loads into a placeholder. You can then use the "re-generate bitmap image" to show how the table looks and draw your map above the placeholder. The great thing about Google Sheets is you can "publish to the web" then each and every amendment is updated within a few minutes and reflected in the .xar file or Xara created site without any need for changes in Xara whatsoever.

download & preview the xar file in post #13

[pauland]

That's clever Egg. Maybe the OP wants a print document though - the OP doesn't say. You can always print the web page!

[Egg Bramhill]

Here's one more in line with Marks requirements. Preview to see.

[Egg Bramhill]

Yes, the print from a browser works fine Paul. Unfortunately it's not so great for use on a website as both FF & Chrome alter the alignment, but it's fine in IE. Mark only wanted to be able to print, so as long as he previews it in IE and prints from there that should suffice.

[mikeymopar]

Mike,

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...

yeah Mark, the actual cell sizes in excel. borrowing Egg's example the cells ended up being 20hx6w. something you just gotta paly with to get it aligned right. and like Paul stated if you only need the coloring straight-up excel is the way to go obviously but if you need the image then it's pretty simple and basic importing the fields into Xara

That's exactly how I've been doing it Paul, but using a Google Drive spreadsheet which loads into a placeholder. You can then use the "re-generate bitmap image" to show how the table looks and draw your map above the placeholder. The great thing about Google Sheets is you can "publish to the web" then each and every amendment is updated within a few minutes and reflected in the .xar file or Xara created site without any need for changes in Xara whatsoever.

download & preview the xar file in post #13

embarrassed to admit it Egg and Paul but i'm really slacking in this area. With no reliable internet until a year+ ago and now having fast but spotty internet, i try to avoid anything on-line completely
i'm gonna have to spend a little time in my office and try this way out Egg. I might have other applications where this is useful. If either you or Paul have any other pointers I'm sure Mark and I would appreciate it
thx guys

[Mark56]

Egg, Yes they were not all the same size, my fault for trying to get the numbers in the whole row not actually counting the correct number of spaces in each row. I have corrected that now that I'm using Mikey's method of importing the PDF fields.
I have not used any of the Google tools like the Spreadsheet, so that would be another learning curve as well. We do need to print these end documents out, a couple a hundred a week.
So you are linking the Google spreadsheet to the .xar file in some way???

Pauland, the spaces should be the same size except for one or two rows that are for larger vehicles like big RV's or box trucks.
I tried to use Excel but I am not that familiar with drawing in Excel. Drawing the drive lanes and buildings I have to put in became a little difficult. That may be an option that we want to explore. It it just I am much more comfortable drawing in Xara and started there first.
I have loaded the PDF into a layer in Xara and it seems to be working rather well. But I have not gotten all of the drawing refitted into my 8.5" X 14" page size just yet.

Mikey, the current maps do not have the sections colored sections. I just think it is easier to identify the sections by putting the boundaries in different colors. Not even sure if we want to commit to printing that much in color right now?

Thank you all for the suggestions. I feel that I have a better way of doing it for now and will talk with the boss when I can, but will look at the other methods suggested as well. We want this to be as easy and update-able as possible each week.

Mark

P.S. here is what I have so far...

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi again Mark,

So you are linking the Google spreadsheet to the .xar file in some way???

Very definitely.

Google Drive, including Google Sheets is great. You can create a spreadsheet directly in Google Drive or you can upload an Excel sheet to Google Drive.

Once created you can File / Export to Web.

Google gives you a link to the sheet which you can then use on your site.

Here's a link to the Google sheet showing the North section of your parking lot:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...=0&single=true

Now open Xara and on layer MouseOff create a rectangle with the iframe link. Don't tick the regenerate bitmap copy at present, click Apply.

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mvfL3m72wQmTj5xaTBGsnsLMhGi-0o0rLPlSBRV6xq0/pubhtml" height=1300 width=860 scrolling=0>
<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p>
</iframe>

NOTE I've removed the "?gid=0&single=true" end section of the url.

The Height & Width values need to be altered until they fit the content, but only once they no longer need amending.

Once you've previewed the content and are happy the required fields are being displayed, on the preview, reselect the placeholder, select "regenerate bitmap copy" and you'll get a true copy of the parking lot.

Now create a new layer for the overlay map. Create an overlay map with holes to show the under-laid iframe.

Preview & Print.

To test it, download the attached xar and preview.

If you want to edit the underlying spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Amend the details in N3 section and wait a few moments and re publish the xar file. It will reflect your changes. The other cells have code to avoid me having to type in multiple values in this example.

[Egg Bramhill]

Video:

[mikeymopar]

Video:

Egg comes thru again. thx for making it so effortless to learn this stuff

[Egg Bramhill]

Cheers Mikey. As I say, it only has a limited use as it's messed up by other browsers but I think it meets the OP's requirements.