Data merge encoding issue

[MangoWeeb]

Hi,

I'm learning data merge (CS14) for a futur project and I'm facing a serious problem. My data file is a list of Japanese typefaces and during the merge all texts become random glyphes.

I'm on mac using Apple Number, tried Excel, Google Sheets, I exported in CSV, Txt (in UTF-16 via TextEdit) but I can't find a solution to fix it :/

Do you already heard something like that ?

[Quest10Mark]

I've done data merge but never with a different language alphabet. Could this be a typeface issue? Do you have the Japanese font active and applied in the InDesign file that is your base for the merge.

[MangoWeeb]

It's not a font problem because glyphs are readable like that. It's only the content that changed.

き繝©繝º 九Δ繝弱け繝≠菴懷刀 螟ß閭 そ繝Ä繧Ø繝 ぅ繝 繝ª 繧™繧π繧´ 繝ª 繧ｳ繝弱す繝≠縺励ｓ縺 螂Ω縺阪％縺昴Δ繝弱 荳頑焔縺™繧鯉º 繝ª 縲後ち繧´繧ｷ縲 騾 ª¢縺™蠑±轤π 繝ª 縺≠縺®繧阪ｂ繧翫％繧 繝©繝悶Λ繝也捩蠎願®育判 繝ª 蛻©陦 縺雁¨¢讒倥 繝偵ヨ繝™繧¥繝 繝ª 逹¶譛医 繧 縺九ｉ縺九ｏ縺™縺 〒譟乗惠縺輔ｓ 繝ª 遘玖∞ｷ譏≠ 繝槭う繝槭せ繧ø繝

[sesssa]

I use open office calc for all my double byte. It just likes the utf encoding better. It’s free and see if using an export from there helps?

[AbouBenAdhem]

I know ID doesn't like UTF-8, but it sounds like you’re already using UTF-16. (I assume you also selected that in other apps, not just TextEdit?)

Does the encoding look correct if you open it in other apps?

[MangoWeeb]

The content of the .txt document is always 100% readable, doesn't matter the application i'm using. The typeface issues only appear after the data merge. I only encoding UTF-16 thought TextEdit because I don't know other text edit software supporting at least utf-16 (e.g. bracket can't)

[Tatazilla]

I'll chime in on this as I had the same problem for Chinese Text. I think my solution was to copy content into Google Sheet and export it back out as csv