Best Practice when using external data

[Clive.Aspen]

Hi,

Anyone using external data ? Linked spreadsheet with all product details on.

What is the correct way to add products.

Should I create the products first in actinic and then link the data to them..
Or just add the data to the spreadsheet and then open actinic and move them from the unallocated products to a section..

Maybe it makes no difference?

[Jan]

I would recommend using access to store the data rather than excel, it will make opening / using actinic quicker once the data is linked.

The quickest way to set it up would be to make a simple flat file import (with the section details to get the products in the right place and import that to create them and then to link the external data after that.

If you have a lot of products it might take a while to drag them into their right place but then again if you have a complex section structure it might also be difficult to put the section details into a file.

I would have thought that the slowest but perhaps the easiest way of doing it would be to enter the product manually into actinic.

I'm assuming here that you will be entering a lot of products, if it's only going to be a few at a time then I would say to just do it whichever way you find easiest.

Regards,

[Clive.Aspen]

Thanks Jan, that all makes sense.