newb - need help automating catalogue production

[Deeper]

hi, sorry I'm new, been searching for 4 hours.



i need to produce a catalogue for an auction. the software i use can export four fields of information (lot number, description, estimated price, and a picture of the object) for each of up to 500 lots. i can export this information in various formats EG: Excell 97-2003 or Rich Text Format or several others.
when i open those exported files the fields are arranged in a simple row from left to right for each auction lot and a new row for each lot. Thats not how i want the catalogue laid out.
Is it possible for me to define a specific layout for the information and have Office open the exported file and automatically display it according to my definition. (I'm not sure if I'm asking the right question)

I'm not sure which would be the best piece of software to do this?

i will want it to look like this


photo_00001.jpg

your advice would be much appreciated i've spent a about 4 hour reading and searching for the best way to do this and some of the terminology is quite opaque to me. it seems like something that should be easy but as i look into it it is seeming more involved than i had imagined. how should i go about my task? speaking roughly or in detail.
thanks for any help

[macropod]

Your page layout is suggestive of a snaking two-column page setup with a two-column table that has fixed column widths equal to about half the page column width. Depending on what you're using for a data source (Excel would do fine) and how the images can be both identified and located from it, it's quite possible the catalogue could be constructed using a Word mailmerge. Without more specific knowledge of what you're working with, though, it's impossible to say for sure.

[Deeper]

Thanks for your reply Macropod. I will try to investigate the mailmerge possibilities