Indesign newlines with datamerge

Question

I have an InDesign document with a data source (csv). Part of the template looks like this:

<<first-title>><<first-text>><<second-title>><<second-text>><<third-title>><<third-text>>

The reason it is all on one line is because a variable can be empty and I don't want it to create empty lines.

The texts (<<first-text>>, <<second-text>> and <<third-text>>) should contain newlines, but that is not possible with csv data merge. I did find a solution with a character style and a paragraph style to mimic a newline (https://indesignsecrets.com/controlling-line-breaks-with-data-merge.php) but that just introduces some whitespace for me, no newlines.

So I thought, I'll just make a script to replace some string (I chose _LB_) with a linebreak (\n). That works when I put that string (_LB_) in the text and then run the script, it is replaced with a newline. But that does'nt work with data merge, since you cannot (or I can't find how) run a script automatically for each data entry?

Is there another, better solution for this you may know of?

Answer 1

You can just add new lines for each entry, then run a basic Grep query to remove empty paragraphs: https://indesignsecrets.com/topic/quick-way-to-remove-blank-lines

Answer 2

Is there a reason "Remove blank lines for empty fields" in placement options doesn't work for you? Just put the return in your layout and it will remove the return if fields are empty.

Be aware that any static characters within the line will preserve the line break, so be sure any needed spaces are in the data. Also be aware that because it removes the return, all lines should have the same formatting. Otherwise, a suppressed line will pick up the formatting from above.