This release works around an InDesign 2026 21.5.x bug and addresses an import presets issue.

• Works around a problem introduced with Adobe’s InDesign 2026 21.5 and 21.5.1 releases that causes link updates and exports of stories containing tables to fail with a TypeError message.

• Fixes a problem with import presets saved by recent versions of the plug-in (starting with DocsFlow 3.17.1) that loads and displays style names containing non-ASCII characters (like those with diacritical marks/accents/umlauts) incorrectly. This change lets DocsFlow load both classic preset files (saved in the OS’s native encoding by releases prior to 3.17.1) and new import preset files (saved in the cross-platform UTF-8 encoding) properly.

This release works around an InDesign 2026 21.5.x bug and addresses an import presets issue.

• Works around a problem introduced with Adobe’s InDesign 2026 21.5 and 21.5.1 releases that causes link updates and exports of stories containing tables to fail with a TypeError message.

• Fixes a problem with import presets saved by recent versions of the plug-in (starting with WordsFlow 3.16.1) that loads and displays style names containing non-ASCII characters (like those with diacritical marks/accents/umlauts) incorrectly. This change lets WordsFlow load both classic preset files (saved in the OS’s native encoding by releases prior to 3.16.1) and new preset files (saved in the cross-platform UTF-8 encoding) properly.

This release mainly fixes a problem that causes InDesign to shut down unexpectedly after an import.

• Fixes a problem introduced in the InData 3.6.3 release that causes the application to behave oddly or shut down after an import that uses a styled put.

• Adds parent and firstparent symbols as InDesign-esque synonyms for the traditional master and firstmaster symbols, respectively.

• Adds support for custom object names, as set in the Layers panel, when specifying the prototype and target stories of a scripted import.

• Allows scripted imports and header updates to specify their story parameters as references to text frames (for which InData obtains and uses the (entire) story associated with the text frame object).

This release fixes a minor problem with “put nonstyled.”

• Fixes a long-standing problem that ignores a put’s nonstyled request if it happens to follow a styled or nonstyled put or a plain put with defaultisstyled set to true.

This release mainly fixes the loss of text anchors referenced by hyperlinks and bookmarks.

• Fixes a problem introduced in the 3.12.3 release that causes text anchors referenced only by hyperlinks and bookmarks in another document to disappear during a link update.

• Preserves a paragraph’s numbering format along with its bullet character when mapping a paragraph style or importing an unmapped paragraph.

This release works around an ongoing Google Sheets service interruption.

• Resorts to an alternative (slower) download method for Google Sheets when Drive’s primary interface fails to respond. (This is in response to an ongoing Google Sheets-only service interruption that was first noticed on or around 2026 Jul 23 and is reported in Google’s IssueTracker here.) Any delay associated with this fallback method will go away when Google corrects the problem and DocsFlow automatically returns to using their primary interface.

• Preserves a paragraph’s numbering format along with its bullet character when mapping a paragraph style or importing an unmapped paragraph.

This release adds update notifications and fixes automatic creation of paragraph styles.

• Adds an application startup alert and a Download Newer Version menu item when a new version of Xtags becomes available. The alert is only shown once for any given release, while the menu item, located in the Help > Xtags menu, remains available until the plug-in is actually updated.

• Actively fetches Xtags’s version status in the About dialog.

• Fixes an import problem introduced in the 2.18 release that flags the application of a paragraph style that isn’t defined in the document with a “Can’t add style” error and prevents the style from being created.

This release fixes indirect key-type links in tables with merged cells.

• Fixes a problem that reports “Link’s indirect key is missing” for an indirect key-type data link in a table cell if the direct key-type link that supplies the key is in a merged cell in the same row (for key from text < and key from text >) or column (for key from text ^).

  For example, prior to this fix, InCatalog reported “Link’s indirect key is missing” for cell C’s key from text < data link because InDesign reports merged cell A as “to the left” of only cell B (and not cell C).

  

  Now, InCatalog detects that merged cell A is indeed to the left of both cell B and cell C and utilizes cell A’s data link as the source of cell B’s and cell C’s indirect key from text < data links. (Likewise for key from text > and key from text ^ links.)

This release adds direct data connections to Excel Workbooks.

• Adds bidirectional data connections to Microsoft Excel Open XML (.xlsx) files with new Open Excel File, Create Excel File, and Close Excel File menus. Fields are transferred as plain text (any applied Rich Text formatting is ignored) so that formatting specified by the data descriptor (DD) or data link (like tagged text and price styling) work as usual.

  If you’ve been using a data snapshot file, you’ll likely be able to use your current DD without any changes. Instead of first saving a delimited data snapshot from Excel and opening that with InCatalog, simply open the Excel Workbook directly and perform any updates as usual.

  If your Workbook contains multiple worksheets, InCatalog will ask you which one to use while it’s being opened. To avoid having to choose each time, you can pre-select the target worksheet in your DD (see Simple Connections, below).

  To use an Excel Workbook for interactive update (or just keep one open for multiple updates in either direction), you can choose InCatalog > Open Excel Workbook… to open an existing file or Create Excel Workbook… to create a new one (for extraction only). When you’re finished, use InCatalog > Close Excel Workbook.

  Select Updateable from document in the Open Excel Workbook dialog if you want the Excel file to be updateable from the InDesign document. (This will lock the file to prevent competing edits while you’re working with it.)

  To select an Excel file as a data source or destination, use the InCatalog > Select Data Source > Excel Workbook or the InCatalog > Select Data Destination > Excel Workbook menu.

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  InCatalog supports two types of Workbook connections: “simple,” for straightforward, data snapshot-like connections with a single worksheet, and “advanced,” for flexible, ODBC-like connections with named columns and multiple simultaneous tables/worksheets.

  Simple Connections

  A simple connection uses a snapshot-like DD, expects the data to be in a single worksheet, and requires the data to be in the same column order as the DD’s list of fields (meaning, column headers aren’t necessary). If the opened Workbook contains multiple worksheets, InCatalog asks you to select the sheet it should work with. Alternatively, the DD’s key field can pre-select the worksheet by employing the [D”worksheet”] qualifier, so you won’t be asked every time the Workbook is opened.

  When exporting data from your document with InCatalog, it will always be in the field order given in the DD. If InCatalog creates a Workbook, it uses the key field’s [D”worksheet”] qualifier to name the default worksheet (which is otherwise named the usual “Sheet1”).

  Here’s an example of a DD for a simple connection that pre-selects a “Summer Products” worksheet and expects the key field “SKU” to be in the sheet’s first column, field “retail price” in the sheet’s second column, and so on.

  SKU[K D"Summer Products"]    retail price[P]    sale price[P]    description[T]

  Advanced Connections

  For more demanding situations, like when accessing multiple tables/worksheets by employing [D”worksheet”] qualifiers or using [F”column”] or [Y”key field worksheet”] qualifiers to select specific, named columns, InCatalog will match by column header instead of using DD field order.

  To trigger an advanced connection, add a [F”column”] qualifier to any (non-key) field in your DD. At that point, column headers are required in each worksheet the DD accesses.

  

  Also add a [F”column”] qualifier to any field whose DD name doesn’t match the worksheet’s column name.

  To associate a DD field with a specific worksheet in the Workbook, add a [D”worksheet”] qualifier to its entry. A field that does not name its worksheet will be looked for in the key field’s worksheet (as given by its [D] qualifier or as chosen by the user when the Workbook was opened).

  An Excel Workbook created by InCatalog from your document will contain the worksheets named by [D”worksheet] qualifiers and the column headers named by the DD’s field names or, if provided, their [F”column”] qualifiers.

  Here’s an example of a DD for an advanced connection that accesses a workbook’s “Product List” and “Summer Pricing” worksheets ([D] qualifiers) and specifies a couple column names that differ from their fields’ names in the DD ([F] qualifiers). (Note that both worksheets must contain a key column named “SKU”.)

  SKU[K D"Product List"]    retail[P F"Retail Price" D"Summer Pricing"]   sale[P F"Sale Price" D"Summer Pricing"]    description[T D"Product List"]

• Adds scripting support for Excel Workbook connections.

  Update Methods

  All update methods return either the number of linked elements that were updated or a string containing the error log.

  Methods on: Application, Document

  // Update the contents of the document's link elements
  // from one or more Excel Workbook worksheets.
  updateDocumentUsingWorkbook(workbookFile[, worksheet,
      ddSet, dd, ddContents, ddMap,
      firstPage, lastPage, firstSpread, lastSpread, selectedGroup, selectedFrame,
      picturesIgnored, hiddenLayersIgnored, masterPagesIgnored,
      keyUpdating, documentDisplaySuppressed, fuzzyPictureLookup])
  
  // Update/create the contents of one or more Excel Workbook
  // worksheets from the document's linked elements' contents.
  updateDataUsingWorkbook(workbookFile[, worksheet,
      ddSet, dd, ddContents, ddMap,
      firstPage, lastPage, firstSpread, lastSpread, selectedGroup, selectedFrame,
      picturesIgnored, hiddenLayersIgnored, masterPagesIgnored,
      picturePathLevels, recordCreation, posixPaths])

  Methods on: Spread, Layer, Page, Group, PageItem, Table, Cell, TextFrame, TextColumn, Story, Text, Paragraph, Line, Word, Character, TextStyleRange, InsertionPoint

  // Update the contents of the document's link elements
  // from one or more Excel Workbook worksheets.
  updateDocumentUsingWorkbook(workbookFile[, worksheet,
      ddSet, dd, ddContents, ddMap,
      firstPage, lastPage, firstSpread, lastSpread, selectedGroup, selectedFrame,
      picturesIgnored, hiddenLayersIgnored, masterPagesIgnored,
      keyUpdating, documentDisplaySuppressed, fuzzyPictureLookup])
  
  // Update/create the contents of one or more Excel Workbook
  // worksheets from the document's linked elements' contents.
  updateDataUsingWorkbook(workbookFile[, worksheet,
      ddSet, dd, ddContents, ddMap,
      firstPage, lastPage, firstSpread, lastSpread, selectedGroup, selectedFrame,
      picturesIgnored, hiddenLayersIgnored, masterPagesIgnored,
      picturePathLevels, recordCreation, posixPaths])

  Update Method Parameters

  Name	Type	Description
  workbookFile	File | string	Required. The Excel Workbook file (.xlsx) to be imported, updated, or, if it doesn’t exist, created and filled.
  worksheet	string | number	Optional. Specifies the target worksheet within the Workbook as either a name or a 1-based position within the Workbook. Used only if the Workbook contains more than one worksheet and either the DD is simple (doesn’t use [F], [D] or [Y] qualifiers) or the DD doesn’t itself specify a worksheet with a [D] qualifier in its key field (default is position 1).

  (The complete InCatalog Automation Reference currently lives in the news notes for the 2.34 release.)

• Fixes a problem introduced in the InCatalog 2.34 release in which a scripted update could fail and not report the error.

This release mainly fixes a problem with inserted InCatalog links.

• Fixes a problem introduced in the 3.5.1 release that can leave unwanted characters in key values of inserted InCatalog links.

• Changes the menu to Import from Excel Workbook… to make it more recognizable than its former Import from Spreadsheet File.