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Task Guide: Producing a Data-Merged Heirloom Seed & Nursery Catalog

These instructions describe the checked DesignCraft foundation as of 14 October 2026. XiLayout Alpha is free; public installer availability and XiKey integration are not yet verified.

Scenario

An heirloom seed cooperative is publishing its seasonal grower catalog. You need to lay out cultivar germination tables, wrap descriptive text around botanical line illustrations, populate 60 seed packet cards automatically from a CSV spreadsheet using Data Merge, verify the document in Preflight, and export both a PDF for print review (with crop and bleed marks) and a reflowable EPUB 3 edition.

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Place Illustrations with Contour Text Wrap and Format Tables

  1. Press F to select the Rectangle Frame Tool, draw an image frame between two text columns, and press Ctrl+D to place a vector botanical illustration.
  2. Open the Text Wrap panel and choose Wrap Around Object Shape with a 2.5 mm offset so the surrounding story columns curve cleanly around the illustration silhouette.
  3. For the sowing calendar, insert a Table (Table ▸ Insert Table…), define a header row that repeats across frame breaks, and apply a Table Style with alternating 8% tint row fills.

2. Populate Seed Cards Automatically with CSV Data Merge

  1. Design a single prototype seed card containing a photo frame and text placeholders (<<Cultivar_Name>>, <<Days_to_Maturity>>, <<Sowing_Depth>>, <<Packet_SKU>>).
  2. Open the Data Merge panel, load your seed-inventory.csv data source, and run Create Merged Document in Multiple Records per Page mode to generate the entire 60-cultivar grid across spreads automatically.

3. Preflight, Package, and Export Print PDF + EPUB 3

  1. Open the Preflight panel to check overset text and missing links in the Links panel, and review CMYK/spot colour usage.
  2. Choose File ▸ Export…:
    • Export a PDF for print review with Crop Marks, Bleed Marks, Registration Marks, Color Bars, and 3 mm document bleed enabled.
    • Export an EPUB 3 digital edition for tablet and e-reader distribution, and run File ▸ Package… (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P) to archive the document, linked graphics, fonts, and an .idml interchange copy in one folder.

Review styles, overset, links, font embedding and output. Preflight assists inspection but does not certify print readiness or accessibility. Manual threading remains unavailable.

Sources