Database to InDesign
Avoid data re-entry and manual intervention/formatting.
Files or database exports in CSV, Excel, SQL, or XML format can be natively used or automatically filtered for use in InDesign.
We have done a project like this where the course titles and descriptions were provided in Word (.doc / .docx) files and the tabular data as Excel (.xls / .xlsx) files. One Excel file listed the course names with the course codes, so we were able to write a small Perl script to merge the tabular data with the titles/descriptions by course code.
The script returned an InDesign-suitable input file with styles assigned ready for immediate layout/pagination. Files are placed (Ctrl-D) the file[s] in an InDesign text box—the titles display as styled titles, the descriptions display as styled descriptions, and the tables appear as styled tables with no manual intervention. No data elements needed to be selected and styled by hand.
It is also possible to connect InDesign with a database so that a query could be run immediately before printing, so that the data is current.
InDesign templates can be built to correspond to data stored in SQL Server databases. This approach is excellent for catalogs, directories or other lists of organized data that needs to be formatted consistently and automatically. When you are ready to commit to print, a fresh query can be run to ensure latest possible data before printing.